Tsunami forces high-flying India to look in the mirrorTsunami forces high-flying India to look in the mirror

BANGALORE, India — Even for a country accustomed to human tragedy, the tsunami that hit the south Indian coast on Dec. 26 was an incomprehensibly hellish blow. The deaths of over 10,000 Indians, mostly children, illustrated how most here, their lives untouched by the high-tech boom, are literally caught between the devil of their poverty and the deep blue sea.

Most of India's victims were fishermen who revered the sea as their mother. The financial losses, in comparison, were negligible, and few firms were forced to shut down or suffered losses — human or material. The Indian government has already said the catastrophe will not make a dent on this year's gross domestic product.

As overseas aid flowed into the region this week, India also saw a gratifying display of generosity from its own people. It was the only good thing to emerge here from the horror of that terrible Sunday.

Some here blamed the government for failing to enforce coastal zoning regulations that ban housing within 150 meters of the coast line. If enforced, the number of Indian deaths surely would have been less. But such infractions are common in the world's largest democracy.

The holiday mood here quickly dissolved as television images brought home the impact of the tragedy, and the reality that most of the victims were children. Aid donations from Indian companies and individuals have been as heavy here as the rest of the world.

As always, the poor suffered the most. Despite official protestations, the well-known truth here is that the poor have no status in Indian society. In a district of Orissa in eastern India, for instance, people have for years died from starvation. The government is in denial.

As the high-tech sector soars, the poor die by the hundreds each day from starvation, exposure to cold, ravaging summer heat, from disease, from indifference. No death statistics are kept.

For millions of India's poor, the tsunami and its aftermath are the latest indignity in the daily struggle for survival. That the disaster's financial costs are nearly negligible to a country emerging as a high-tech giant makes this reality all the more macabre.