All you said is absolutely true, however, talking about it will not make any difference....neither me writing this to you...because what this country needs is to wake up....from its sleep....full of lethargy, get rid of its buck passing attitude, and try to regain its lost sense of civilisation....And this has to start from our own houses....tell me how many of us do not pay the hawaldar on the road to avoid our cars from being taken away to tollwala...how many of us do not litter outside....how many of us have actually taken the initiative to solve a problem rather than relying on somebody else to take a stand....very few i guess...but then again in a country like ours, it becomes quite impossible....but there has to be a start...i pray there is one soon...Besides comparing the country to France at this stage where all the public policies of the French are going haywire with the CPE and others.I would think we are at a much better position. And politicians!!!....they are everywhere from Ms. Sonia Gandhi to Mr. Berlusconi.that again is for us to changethrough our voteswhich many do not even avail of.Our origins lie in the assertion of our rights starting from the freedom strugglebut this does not mean strikes and bandhswe need new peoplewho have our voicewho think of a new and a better India.
How about the sheer rudeness and arrogance of indian national abroad and home. Those I have have met who generally are the nouveau riche or rising Indian middle class tourists and migrant white collar workers ('IT' usually) are so incredibly ignorant, arrogant and rude it is impossible to imgaine that they and my parents who migrated abroad some 50 years ago share the same heritage. I was in a high class department store in Kuala Lumpur one day and this Indian woman strode in with her 2 kids and demanded to see several shoes giving the poor saleswoman the run-around. Not satisfied wih the brand name products she threw the shoes on the floor walked off, leaving no doubt of her her sneering contempt for the poor salesperson. I watched all this aghast, but unsurprised.
And what about that almost unique and strange Indian preoccupation with skin colour. Race and racism is about skin colour and to privilge fairness of skin in the way that 'Indian' nationals seems symptomatic aof some deep underlying and profoundly unexamined malaise. Its really really sick - its as if they are aspiring to be 'white' or aryan like the Nazis. Really shameful considering Indias colonial history.
Realy this information is a great eye opner to we all Indians.I strongly agree with all points ,we Indians are only to blame for this and we only should be responsible to make a change.
all the 10 points covered leave you with no good points. Bottom line is you hate India. My dear friend its because of population and education that we are still behind.Also diverse culture .It will take time to improve . Be patient.
With great interset I read your article and appreciated too. But still, you missed a major problem or defect of Indian life. Indians and particularly their politicians are completely immersed in castism. Race based Indian culture is the worst enemy of INDIA. Religion, cast and color divisions among the Indians are not only harm unity of India but it harm our progress too. Based on my personal experience visiting Gujarat several times in 5 years, I can say that Muslims and Christians have no future or have very limited liberty and rights. Second point you forgotten is the poverty and illiteracy. India may be on the top in the world for few hundred thousands IT graduates, but millions Indians still unable to have education. Millions live without clean water, electricity and healthcare. It is shame we think of becoming world power keeping 60% of India under the stone age.
None of the 10 points mentioned by Claude Arpi makes any sense. Before drawing conclusions we got to make sure we are comparing apples to apples. India and US are on a totally different platform. Its just going to be 60 years since India got independence and look at the development that has happened in the last 60 years. For ex-
The railway system is among the best in the world even after handling the volume of passenger traffic and is used as an ex from european countries.
Nothing stopped Bombay from functioinig even after the floods of July 2005. Whole of South Eastern US was panick struck and the so called most developed country was cluless to tackle the situation.
Even after the bomb blasts of 1992 near BSE the very next day the sensex was up a couple of points unlike the US where people pressed the panic button & stopped flying.
I bet when Claude goes around taking his dog around in France he carries a potty bag to clean up the mess his dog does, but in India he would not even think of doing it.
The question is what is it Claude doing to improve the Indian image. To crtize is a no brainer it takes a true leader to fix things, which Claude for sure is not.
I was of the same opinion you had about foreigners in India but after coming to Canada last year and roaming around half the globe my opinions have changed. Humiliation (you say that) white and other foreigners face in India is NOT even 0.001% of what Indians face in US/Canada and other parts of the world including EUROPE. They have to pay higher entry fee (Typical Europian Institutes charge 10 times and North American 5 time more than theor citizens), they are discriminated, passed derogatory remarks in jobs, public places and in courts. People make faces when they board flight or public transport. So everything is NOT well here as well. These people see India as a country where they can get away with ANYTHING, including but not limited to littering streets, taking drungs and even pedophilia. So Mr Columist please come out and see. World is not the same as you see and I think it is justified to charge more from them compared to Indians. May good sense prevail on people. Sanjeev
