Resurgent India Bonds One of the methods utilized for tiding over the forex crisis of the early nineties was the issue of the "Resurgent India Bonds" - to tap the money being provided by a huge Indian diaspora which wanted to help. Ten years on, the same term seems apt. Lemme explain how.

India, in my view, has never been one country. It was always an agglomeration of countries which did not have much in common except geographical proximity. Neighboring states did have some amount of shared history but neighboring regions hardly had any. The languages were different from state to state, infact the states have been formed on linguistic lines; the heroes were different; the economies were different - only two things were common 1) British Rule (which eventually decided the country's boundaries) and 2) Gods (who in their multiplicity, at least managed to command inter-state followings).

This difference has historically always manifested itself in a large number of ways and most north Indians professed that a foreign country was easier to settle in than South India. For the south Indians, it was even tougher to settle in north India. This is also the fundamental reason why regional parties are usually the power brokers in national politics.

This lasted for most of independent India's history, but it is suddenly changing now, especially in the metropolitan areas. Why is this happening? The answer lies in the words - "Resurgent India Bonds" :). Economic growth has led to a mobile society, where social mobility has been accompanies by, crucially, geographical mobility. As software boomed, suddenly talented north Indian engineers realized they need to adjust and live in Bangalore to benefit from the boom. They went there, they formed their groups, they found (to their surprise) that South Indians do party and have some very good watering holes and they amalgamated. They retained their individual culture but they learnt a bit from the south Indians, while the south Indians learnt a bit from them and thus for the first time, a truly Indian "India" was discovered. Just as this happened between north and south India, it happened between west and south / south and east / west and north etc etc. The dispersal of opportunities throughout India led to the dispersal of mostly local populations to different parts of India. This led to more tolerance for that taboo, the "inter-caste" marriage - which is leading to cultural amalgamation in even more complex ways.

Economic growth is the mantra... as a newly "resurgent India" forms stronger "bonds".  ¶ 4:20 PM