2009 - A Decade review

The end of 2009 as an year is special in the sense that it not only marks the end of the current year, but also marks the end of a decade. It is still being debated what this decade must be called (example 90's or 80's etc). Here is my review of the decade.

The decade began with a lot of talk about how the Y2K problem will impact the world at large. It was not so much a problem for India considering that there was not that much computerization as in the western world. But certainly India was part of the solution to the Y2k problem. India was just beginning to reap benefits of the liberalization which was initiated by the Narsimharao Govt in the 90's and the educated middle class youth was part of the solution for fixing the Y2K problem. Companies like Infosys, TCS, PCS and Wipro were the early birds in the sense of giving the software industry a boom in the coming years. A whole lot of Indian youth got a chance to travel to USA and other western countries and help solve the problem. This was the first rendezvous for the ordinary middle class Indian youth with the capitalist west. Indians did a great job and once the Y2K bug was resolved, these new software companies kept leveraging the English speaking Indian youth by going up the value chain of the computer and Internet revolution.

If India was at the helm of the positive Internet phenomenon, there was another phenomenon which was growing and prospering in the neighbourhood in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The 9/11 attacks on the USA brought the western world (led by USA) at cross roads with terrorist organizations(led by Osama bin Laden and infrastructure provided by Jehadis in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and other parts of middle east). The attack on the nerve center of the America polarized the world as never before. Clash of civilization, as it was termed became part of the geo political jargon. This new jargon has dominated the world for the entire decade and does not show any sign of calming down.

India was also not isolated from this growing phenomenon. The attacks on the Indian parliament in 2001 and the attack on Akshar dham temple in Gujrat impacted Indians as never before. This was on the heels of the hijack of a Indian plane by Taliban and Pakistani Jehadis in late Dec 1999. All these events polarized the Indian society as never before. The result was a shameful display of Hindu backlash in western state of Gujrat. The Muslims were slaughtered and the social secular fabric of the state where Gandhi was born was torn for ever. This was not like any other Hindu Muslim riot. In view of the polarized atmosphere in the world at large, this gave more ammunition to the Jehadis to use the local wrong doings and resulted in a series of deadly bomb attacks through out India. All this was happening in India in conjunction with the rise of a India as a economic super power led by a well educated, English speaking young work force.

Throughout the middle years of the decade, western world continued at a bitter and deadly battle with the Muslim world. Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine and Pakistan continued to be a battlefield. This meant the American hegemony was crumbling and a new world order led by China and India became more prominent. As Fareed Zakaria wrote in his book "The Post American World", American power under George Bush continued to go down. The land of opportunity that America once was, mainly due to the freedom it gave to its citizens and visitors, continued to dwindle as American became more insular and less open as a society. The economic, moral and millatry power of USA continued to deteriorate as never before. All this culminated into the worst economic slowdown in the world after the great depression in early 40's. This gave further ammunition to the notion of a post american world and the rise of India and China as the economic super powers. Both these countries were relatively still growing when the rest of the world (led by America) continued to shrink.

All this paints a very grim picture of this decade. And grim it is for sure. But there is also a ray of hope as this decade ends. US is led today by Barack Obama who ran a inspirational campaign and defeated the republicans. The economic crisis is also showing signs of a retreat and hopefully the new year and the decade will be much better than the decade gone by.


Here is wishing that 2010 and the new decade will be a great decade for the world, which will be peaceful and prosperous for all. Hopefully the clash of civilizations will turn into a conversation among civilizations. Wishing best to all for the new decade !!.