PROGRESS FOR SOME

Much is made in the press of how India is rapidly joining the most advanced capitalist countries in the world as a creator of more and more millionaires, indeed of billionaires, but there is another side to this development. Underneath a photograph of her family we can read this chilling caption. "Dhanuk's family are Mahadalits - members of India's lowest and most marginalised social caste. She says she sometimes has to ask her employers for the leftovers from their meals - a source of deep embarrassment to her." (Guardian, 19 July) RD