How India Became America
nytimes.com
How India Became America
1–10 of 97 posts
Re: How India Became America
#2I could write a bit more, but the summary of what I would say, having lived in India for about 10 years, mostly during my turbulent teens, is:
1. Poverty is not a virtue. 2. There was evil in the old days too
Re: How India Became America
#3Before the elites in India consider themselves comparable to America, I would hope they address the swingeing poverty and piss poor literacy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_India
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_literacy_r...
Re: How India Became America
#4I could write a bit more, but the summary of what I would say, having lived in India for about 10 years, mostly during my turbulent teens, is: 1. Poverty is not a virtue. 2. There was evil in the old days too
I don't have any specific experience with India but I am also always a little skeptical with attitudes like that in the second half of the article. It seems to just be another instance of 'the good old days' syndrome. Especially the anecdote about violence - surely there were never murders in India before McDonald's moved in.
Re: How India Became America
#5Shopping malls and American brands != America. The same article could have been written about any developing country.
Re: How India Became America
#6As an Indian who has spent all but two years of his life in India, when I read stories like this I think of two possibilities:
1. Propaganda by affluent and successful Indians claiming the country is as successful as they are.
2. Westerners overstating Indian progress to feel more comfortable that there is a friendly and reliable challenger to China from the developing world.
I don't know, I may be wrong on both counts but the reality is that we are a dirt poor country with not just deep institutional problems, but also moral and psychological ones.
Re: How India Became America
#7Before the elites in India consider themselves comparable to America, I would hope they address the swingeing poverty and piss poor literacy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_India http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_literacy_r...
Or the raging nationalism, the nukes, the endemic corruption, the human rights situation and last but not least three times the number of people (1 billion) living on one third of the area of the USA.
Not to mention that this isn't exactly a good time for economic up and comers, what with China, the Oil price and that global warming thing.
Re: How India Became America
#8I'd have to say the more appropriate title is India is on the trajectory to become America.
But there are several caveats.
America doesn't have huge pockets of the population isolated in illiteracy, poor sanitation, lack electricity/clean water and such like.
Societal transitions-wise, it faces many of the challenges that America did in the 50's and 60's with a few more complexities. The opportunity exists for a great story provided there is no major war or natural calamity that depletes or hijacks its course over the next couple of decades.
One thing you can be thankful for is that the democratic system, and people power, continues to thrive as proven in this weeks elections in the state of UP. Powerful governments, bullying party organizations and divisive agendas were voted out and people with the message of development and unity were voted in (of course, whether the people campaigning this way follow through is another question)
Notice I didn't mention corruption. A relevant challenge, it is another discussion for another day. Though India's corruption challenges exist starting right at the grass roots level, even America hasn't found a way to effectively take it out everywhere.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uttar_Pradesh_legislative_assem...
Re: How India Became America
#9Before the elites in India consider themselves comparable to America, I would hope they address the swingeing poverty and piss poor literacy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_India http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_literacy_r...
I think this is one way in which India is decidedly unAmerican (sorry for borrowing an O'Reillyism). Whereas you or I would gape in horror at the kind of poverty that permeates modern India, most "elite" Indians are quite desensitized to the situation. After all, you don't have much of a choice when you see that sort of thing on a daily basis.
Also, people in India are more likely to take a relative view of things, given that they see things from an historical perspective as well. As it states here[0], the literacy rate last year was 75%, which is an enormous improvement over the 12% at the end of British rule.
Re: How India Became America
#10That's a really interesting piece.
The "good old days" bit at the end was a bit obtuse. Clearly life expectancy and quality of life has gone up. People are less likely to die a horrible death. Even if there are more violent crimes driven by new money and disparity between classes, if it isn't just increased connectivity and a huge amount more news making more people hear about violent crime more often, then people are still better off.
But it seems like everywhere people are driven by their crappy human risk assessment system. The west has been inundated with the stats about crime rates going down but the "fear of crime" going up (seems like the fear is more correlated to the news cycle than the crime rate but that's besides the point).
So the irrational "good old days"/out of proportion fear of rare events thing seems be another common American and western trait. I guess he's inadvertently supporting his premise with this misunderstanding as well.