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Capitalism: A Ghost Story Chapter Summary

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In the book Capitalism: A Ghost Story, Roy (2004) exposes the darker side of India that is signified by capitalism. The country is home to big corporations such as Reliance Industries Limited, Jindal, Tata, Mittal, Infosys, Essar and Vedanta among others. However, several people continue to suffer in the hands of these companies. They have accumulated a lot of resources that only seem to benefit them. Without any doubt, the economy of India is growing very fast owing to the privatization of all the resources. The people who have the resources are the ones who continue having more. For instance, even though the country has natural resources like minerals, it is only those large companies that can benefit. This situation can be attributed to the high corruption levels in the country. The policies made have enabled large corporations to continue accumulating large pieces of land. When certain debates regarding land redistribution are brought up, people are viewed as lunatics for demanding equal rights. According to Roy, corruption has enabled for wealthy corporations to thrive thus limiting the ability of human rights activists to represent the people. In line with this, she gives an example of 2G Spectrum whereby the minister of communications lowered the price of licenses and auctioned them illegally. This robbery involved prominent individuals in the society (Roy, 2004, Chapter 1). However, this is just one among the many illegal and corrupt cases that go unnoticed by the

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