Excellent Article on present India and why it is the way it is

[Desi Cartman]

Despite problems, you can't write off rising India

IN MY six years as a reporter there, it was hard not to be infected by the hubris of India - a nation that feels part of history, an essential actor on the global stage. Yet even as I admired a country that had thrived as a democracy despite unbounded poverty, mass illiteracy and entrenched social divides, experiencing India as a reporter was a string of enervating and dispiriting episodes. Whether I was visiting a police station where half-naked men were hung from the ceiling during interrogation, or talking to parents of a baby bulldozed to death in a slum clearance, the romance of India's idealism was undone by its awful daily reality. The venality, mediocrity and indiscipline of its ruling class would be comical but for the fact that politicians appeared incapable of doing anything for the 836 million people who live on about 50 cents a day. The selling of public office for private gain was so bad that the only way to make poverty history in India would be to make every person a politician. Last year the wealth of local representatives in the northern state of Haryana rose at a rate of £10,000 ($A17,000) a month. Their constituents were lucky if their income increased by a few dollars. The burden of democracy in India, to borrow from Yeats, the Irish poet influenced by mystical Hindu thought, was that ''the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity''. Yet the country continues to confound those who write it off. I saw India redeemed repeatedly by three quirks of history: a written liberal constitution, religions rendered ethical, and a talent for sabotage. Take the last first. India won independence not through war or revolution but through non-co-operation, protest and the quiet subversion of the economy. Civil society in India has acquired an unrivalled mastery of such skills, and campaigners have been quicker than politicians to realise that democracy will not prevail unless its proponents show success at governing. Consequently, it was activists who shamed the government last year into enacting a law to make children's education compulsory. India's constitution has become a moral compass for justice in a society where violence had been the best measure of one's power and standing. When homosexual sex was legalised by the high court last year, the judges said the old law criminalising the gay community was in violation of the constitution. By appealing to the highest sense of being Indian, the bench ended years of homophobia. To claim faith has enabled Indians to come together might seem far-fetched. British India was rent asunder by religion, and one of my first reporting tasks was to visit Muslim victims of state-sponsored pogroms. Yet such violence appeared more political than theological. Indeed, during my time in India it was Europe that appeared unable to embrace religious diversity. While I awoke each day to the sound of the muezzin, the Swiss voted to outlaw the construction of minarets. France's president Nicolas Sarkozy wants to ban the burka; Britain's justice minister Jack Straw asks women to remove veils in meetings; and the Turks wait, still, to join the European Union. India's philosophy emphasised not what you believed but how you behaved. Lead a compassionate, religious life and the state would leave you alone. This thinking meant Indian streets are shared by people who look, dress and pray differently - making them a celebration of the nation's diversity. Diverse, yes: but it's an open question whether the society is a fair one. India is perhaps the most unequal country on the planet, with a tiny elite engorged on the best education, biggest landholdings and largest incomes. Those born on the bottom rungs suffer a legacy of caste bigotry, rural servitude and class discrimination. Politics in India is increasingly becoming a debate about the haves and have-nots, and this is given violent expression by a rise in bloody Maoist guerilla terror. Delhi's stance in global talks is being reduced to the impact on poverty. Whether the matter is climate change, trade talks or nuclear weapons, India has forced wealthier nations to acknowledge that international relations are about power and morals. It negotiates with a hand yet to be dealt: in a few decades it will be the world's third-largest economy. Coming back to London has meant returning to a country that lives in the shadow of its former colony. Unlike Indians, the British are not on the cusp of a stirring transformation. Overspent and overstretched, they perch instead on the crest of a falling wave. Randeep Ramesh has been South Asia correspondent for The Guardian for the past six years.

[Rajiv]

Article is all good and fine but I get pretty miffed about any 'aera gera nathu gera" simply putting the whole of India in a nutshell. It's always these Indians, those Indians - perhaps a good point to use the 1 Billion ratio now, its a freaking huge country and you can't mix the good or bad of few to the rest of the country This goes for any foreign correspondence and Indian drama news. Simply tired of reading rising India, poor India, weak Inidan, new India etc etc

[Desi Cartman]

^ but its a combo of all those Indias ... Its weird but so true .. we have booming economy but so many poor, we have riots but people to people contact is something which no other country has ..

[ViruRulez]

Article is all good and fine but I get pretty miffed about any 'aera gera nathu gera" simply putting the whole of India in a nutshell. It's always these Indians, those Indians - perhaps a good point to use the 1 Billion ratio now, its a freaking huge country and you can't mix the good or bad of few to the rest of the country This goes for any foreign correspondence and Indian drama news. Simply tired of reading rising India, poor India, weak Inidan, new India etc etc

:dito: And I for one especially hate him mentioning the word "hubris" ... he seems one of those Indians who like to be called British rather than Indians and have forgotten their country of origin .. anyways if he says India is arrogant or hubris then I would still prefer to be hubris while seeing our country rising at a rapid pace than being a person who has forgotten his country of origin and is proud of a country which was once the "only big power in the world and the sun which never sets" and has some to a position which other countries dont even give a *** including its former colonies Anyways he is not actually an Indian to be frank and that is the reason he is making mass generalizing a whole country and its people .. I agree with most of his points though I dont agree with his mass generalizations for sure

[IKnowU]

With a different culture and lifestyle for each state in one of the worlds largest populations with a booming economy, one has to wonder how it functions as the worlds largest democracy. :two_thumbs_up:

[Lurker]

Indeed, during my time in India it was Europe that appeared unable to embrace religious diversity. While I awoke each day to the sound of the muezzin, the Swiss voted to outlaw the construction of minarets. France's president Nicolas Sarkozy wants to ban the burka; Britain's justice minister Jack Straw asks women to remove veils in meetings; and the Turks wait, still, to join the European Union.

This is indeed very true. I happened to be watching the Hindi classic Julie the other day which dealt with Anglo Indian family. It was terrific to see a family enjoying wine with children at the dinner table. Nadira was wearing a dress that had a low cut riding all the way to her hips showing her legs, and I happened to utter - Nadira was a class act, she was so way ahead of her times, and a woman in the room mused - Yes she was, plus she was Jewish so no biggie. The point I am making is religions have lived in India in all their nascent traditions, without any problems. In most socities that is conservative as ours watching a minority religion sipping wine and showing legs wont be tolerated at all. And this movie was made about 30 years ago. Of couse I dont need a movie to remind me of Indian cultural diversity and tolerance, but just saying.

[Ram]

India maybe a superpower in the making for some Western journalists looking for exotic headlines, but the blunt reality is, very little has changed for some 800 million odd Indians who still have to work today to put food on their family's plate tomorrow. We're becoming more backwards, even as we zoom forwards.

[Gunner_Mania]

:dito: For all the improvement in one Indian's standard of living, 100s of other Indians standard of living is falling down and nobody seems to be doing anything about it. The economic divide in India between the haves and have nots is growing by the day.

[suma25]

unless you develop the rural infrastrcuture and improve agri facilities modernise agriculture nothing is going to change.India is a work in progress at the moment rather than developing superpower.