The new tale of two Indias

There are two distinct political narratives in the country today--one giving voice to an "aspiring India" and the other to a "hopeless India". Both factions have their work cut out

In the early 1990s, to explain India to foreign investors, ad guru Alyque Padamsee created an evocative presentation called “Two Indias”, where he described a “strong India” that was urban, educated and well-off, and a “weak Bharat” that was rural and abjectly poor, both in income and education.

Thirty years later, as witnessed in the recent election, the narrative of two Indias, one strong and one weak, continues to prevail. The Modi India narrative is about the spring of hope, economically and aspirationally upwardly mobile, with continuous improvement in living conditions, and the Rahul India narrative is about