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against Muslim women was particularly grotesque, with rioters cutting off breasts and, in some cases, ripping fetuses out of pregnant women's bellies before killing the women. The violence was at least partly state-sponsored; police officers and the National Volunteer Corps led the raids. It was also carefully organized. Rioters identified Muslim homes using computer printouts listing Muslim families and addresses, and they coordinated their attacks through the use of cell phones. Afterward, the BJP government denied that the attacks had occurred, and designated many of the dead as “missing” despite the uncovering of mass graves. The violence had repercussions across the region, resulting in the displacement of more than 100,000 Muslims into refugee camps.44

Although the BJP was defeated in the 2004 national elections, Hindu nationalism remains a potent force in Indian politics. Tensions between Hindus and Muslims, along with the specter of religious violence, continue to simmer. In 2004, India was the site of 44 percent of the deadlist terrorist attacks around the world. In a 2006 survey, 17 percent of Indian university students cited Hitler as a model for the leader of India.45 Thus, despite the inclusive ideals championed by Gandhi and Nehru, whether India is in fact today—or will remain in the future—one of the world's most tolerant societies is an open question.

Moreover, even if India avoids further sectarian strife and remains a stable, multiethnic democracy, it is still hardly a magnet for the world's most enterprising success-seekers. On the contrary, for many Indians who compare their situation with those of their more prosperous counterparts overseas, the old adage continues to ring true: Indians can succeed everywhere in the world except India itself. Despite India's recent economic strength, Indians continue to emigrate at high rates. In 2004, nearly 70,000 Indians emigrated to the United States, composing the second-largest group of new legal immigrants to the United States. Many of these Indians never return permanently to their home country, and they invest in India at a far lower rate than, for instance, their Chinese diaspora counterparts. For the Indians who “cast their vote with their feet” by expatriating, India has far to go before it can match the opportunities that countries such as the United States or the United Kingdom offer for the ambitious and talented.

There is certainly reason to be optimistic in India. India has a large base of educated graduates ready to take on the next wave of economic growth. Whereas the EU's population is aging, half of India's population is under twenty-five years old. In contrast to China, the growth of which has been powered largely by manufacturing, India's most booming sectors are software, information technology, media, advertising, and Bollywood—areas that all rely heavily on creativity and individual talent.46 As a result, there are possibilities of upward mobility in contemporary India that were unimaginable a couple of decades ago: Today, members of the so-called untouchable caste are managers in prominent technology firms. And for the first time in history, small numbers of noncolonizing middle-class Westerners are moving to India for better jobs than their own countries can offer. Even so, India would have to overcome many intractable problems—pervasive rural poverty, disease-filled urban slums, entrenched corruption, and egregious maternal mortality rates, just to name a few—before significant streams of the world's best and brightest would even think of moving to India.

In sum, India has made tremendous strides. Some of its achievements since independence, such as its progress in dismantling a centuries-old caste system and its success in maintaining a diverse democracy that is the world's largest, are historically unprecedented. These achievements probably explain why India has become a kind of darling to so many commentators on globalization. Perhaps, as some experts have suggested, India's “bottom up” model of development will prove superior in the