An IHT article brings up a topic that nobody, not even scholars really can find answers to despite India's economic growth; for they themselves have vested interests: if these poor Indians are liberated from this abysmal treatment, then the nouveau riche/scholars will have no one to do their daily chores. It is only then India will have finally arrived in the 21st century, when people realize modernity and technology have no room for lazy-rich Indians.
I believe this will prove the Achilles heel in the Indian story. When Indians don't treat other Indians with dignity and respect, how can a nation move forward. Balancing a budget is easy, take monetary and fiscal tightening/expansion and it should do the trick, but balancing an entire culture to realize that prevailing practice of the middle class relying on an underclass is WRONG - then ONLY can this nation move forward!
"a tendency to treat the hired help like chattel, to taunt and humiliate and condescend to them, to behave as though some humans were born to serve and others to be served." (IHT)