PERSPECTIVESthe west forges ahead. In the western part of India metropolisation, i.e. the
growth of big cities at the expense of smaller towns, even causes problems.
Such problems have to be tackled. At the same time, however, the
backward and densely populated rural districts to the north of Varanasi
and Patna—where forty million people live, most of them poor and
exploited—also claim immediate attention. Such tasks require a great deal
of stamina and resilience from the political system. The record which has
been examined here has demonstrated this resilience; it has also provided
evidence of many problems which have remained unsolved. These are the
challenges of the future.