With the Sensex down 66 per cent in dollar terms since January 8, many western investors are already aware they may have mistaken the 2004-2007 credit-fuelled surge in asset prices for a structural transformation of the economy. Sustainable growth that includes the country's marginalised dalit and Muslim underclasses has proved all too elusive. Perhaps if foreign investors had made an effort to see more of India than just the poolside bar of the Taj, perhaps by spending time in the Muslim ghettoes of Juhapura and Mumbra, or Naxalite-infested states such as Chhattisgarh and Orissa, Wednesday's events might have come as less of a shock.
按美元計算，孟買Sensex股指自1月8日以來已下跌了66%，許多西方投資者已經意識到，他們也許錯把2004-2007年期間信貸推動的資產價格飆升，當作了經濟的結構性轉型。事實證明，印度難以實現讓受到排擠的「賤民」和穆斯林等社會底層羣體也能受益的可持續成長。也許，如果外國投資者不只是坐在泰姬瑪哈游泳池邊的酒吧，而是曾勞動大駕到印度各地好好看一看，或許花些時間去Juhapura和Mumbra的穆斯林貧民區，或者是充斥農民起義者的Chhattisgarh和Orissa邦，那麼週三的事件可能就不會那麼令人震驚了。