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India’s elites have a ferocious sense of entitlement

newint.org

21–30 of 251 posts

Re: India’s elites have a ferocious sense of entitlement

#24
My experience in Delhi is that there is too much people in a very small place.

You see chaos everywhere, in the roads, children playing around electricity cables(non insulated, working cables), so much people living in trash...

If I were to live there for extended periods of time, I will get crazy. It is like living in a beehive.

Re: India’s elites have a ferocious sense of entitlement

#25
I have seen this kind of behavior going on in India for so many years. There are countless cases of where rich people would push poor people on bikes off the road and into ditches with their cars.

I'm convinced that this stems from the religious caste system which has now become the monetary class system in these new times.

I always wondered why don't the poor just revolt, they're treated so badly, almost like slaves and everyday they lose more and more. They have their kids run over and police will do nothing about it because the rich will pay them off to make the case go away. It truly is sad.

The worst part is poor people will do the same to other poor people given the opportunity. We (Indians) have learned nothing from Gandhi on how to treat our fellow men.

Re: India’s elites have a ferocious sense of entitlement

#26

This is not elite entitlement. This is right wing entitlement. The recent death of Maggie reminded me of what she really changed - she made it ok to be selfish and disdainful of "undeserving" poor. India was a hybridised socialist country for a very long time - coming out of that will look at lot like Britain the in the eighties I suspect - and if you want to put bets on the next two term incumbent - they will look a…

Margret Thatcher is responsible for the entrenched class system... in India?

Re: India’s elites have a ferocious sense of entitlement

#27
post #22

Call me crazy but "taking"? The man scratching the mans car with his cart was Taking. The people in the street who wouldn't get out the way were taking.

Do you mean how the man in the SUV threw over someone else's cart full of produce (likely his only source of income/livelihood), and then throwing a large heavy metallic object at him in a effort to physically harm him is NOT "Taking" (with a Capital T)?

Re: India’s elites have a ferocious sense of entitlement

#28
post #16

There is an implied causality in this article. Being rich -> Lose empathy. I'd be curious to know if there indeed is causality in either direction (Less empathetic people get richer) or is it just correlation masquerading as causality.

I was waiting to find a comment like this! I tend to agree. I suspect being born with less empathy and concern allows you to acquire more wealth and my real life experiences have supported it. At least in the US (India seems to have deeper structural challenges) Be interesting to dig deeper.

Re: India’s elites have a ferocious sense of entitlement

#29
Unfortunately, this is quite an accurate article. I've only been to Delhi once, but in my parents' home city of Hyderabad, this behavior is commonplace. That being said, this article is being written from a feminist and classist perspective, so one should be careful when making generalizations about India. It's important to keep in mind everyone has an agenda, and this author has clearly delivered one.

Re: India’s elites have a ferocious sense of entitlement

#30
post #6

Ooh, no comments, I'll bite. The last time I said something negative about Indian society I had my personal details thrown all over HN. Wonder what's going to happen this time. So here's the thing. This article is pretty spot on. We, the privileged of India, do indeed feel entitled. There's absolutely no doubt about that. My theory is that the population pressure in India is so very high that you're always fighting f…

Guess it depends on your culture/background, but your description of upper class people who believe they are middle class sound like people I would call middle class - I'm English. So while you may be completely right in the context of India, your examples don't necessarily explain it well to an international audience.
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