India- underachievement & mediocrity - What are the root factors that hold back India and tarnish its image? - Why does India fail to impress and get recognition & respect? ** FOREIGNERS - what they said 1972- James Cameron, British journalist and foreign correspondent was well known in the 60s and 70s. He had written in the New Statesman on the occasion of India's 25th Independence Anniversary. His article was reproduced in the Times of India (29 Aug 1972). Here are extracts: "There is little to celebrate. India to be sure survives as the world's greatest democracy in so far as the word has any meaning at all... the Planning Commission agrees that 220 million people still live below the barest subsistence minimum. 70% of Indians are still illiterate. The college system is in such a calamitous mess that there are even illiterate graduates... I wonder why I return to this stupid, dirty, corrupt, ineffectual, deceased, caste-ridden, futile, despairing place for which there is no answer except revolution... I shall keep nagging at a nation that should have given the world so much but has given so little." 1992- Mark Tully (from his book No Full Stops in India, 1992): “I've learnt to live with India's poverty... No modern state has so many poor people. India barely rates as a trading nation... India's elite have never recovered from their colonial hangover and so they have not developed the attitudes and institutions to bring about change. Democracy has failed - the ballot box is only the first stage. India (is) a land dominated by foreign thinking… the elites all too often ape the ways of their foreign rulersit can threaten only its smaller neighbours…it  does not count in the capitals of the West.” 1998- Chris Blackhurst (Deputy Editor, Independent): “India no longer has the sort of charismatic leaders who would appeal to our readers. The Gandhis have gone and unless a leader of that stature emerges, it is hard to justify more space. I confess I could name more members of the Indian cricket team than any member of the new India Cabinet.” [quoted in India Today (06 Apr 1998) in a guest column by Mihir Bose] 2001- Peter Popham (Independent, 4 April 01): “India is the world champion for scenes of chaos and mayhem.” 2004- William Dalrymple, author of the White Mughals, (Outlook 08 Mar 2004):   "In his India: A Wounded Civilisation (1975), Naipaul surveys the shattered ruins of Vijayanagara and goes on to lament the fall of this "great centre of Hindu civilisation, then one of the greatest (cities) in the world". It was pillaged in 1565 'by an alliance of Muslim principalities'. According to Naipaul, It fell because the Hindu world it embodied had become stagnant  and backward-looking: it had failed to develop, and in particular the military means to challenge the Muslim sultanates that surrounded it.  For him, the Fall of Vijayanagara was a paradigmatic wound on the psyche of India, part of a long series of failures that he believes still bruises the country's self-confidence. The wound was created by a fatal combination of Islamic aggression and Hindu weakness— the tendency to 'retreat', to withdraw in the face of defeat." 2009- The Chinese view: (Time mag 31 Aug 09) (The Chinese regard Indians) at best with indifference, at worst with contempt. Ask most Chinese and they will tell you that India is a backward, chaotic place, bereft of decent infrastructure and burdened by hideous poverty. It has no sense of grand historic purpose.. Zhanhue's blog (on a nationalist website) vented Chinese disdain when it said  China could break up India with minimal fuss into 20 or 30 pieces. ----------------------- ==> Already we have clues on India's failures - 'illiterate graduates', 'dominated by foreign thinking', lack of charismatic leaders, 'chaos and mayhem', 'stagnant and backward looking...'. ----------------------- ** LOCALS - what they say   PM J Nehru delivered a memorable address Tryst with Destiny on Independence Day, 14 Aug 1947. The British may have departed, he said, but there was a huge task ahead: “the ending of poverty and ignorance, disease and inequality...” So what happened to this pledge? 60 years have passed and several 5-year Plans published but the country remains mired in poverty and inequality, basic needs unmet, enslaved by caste and saddled with sub-standard institutions. Indian Express, (editorial, 05Jul1981): what holds us back and keeps us mediocre? You see it everywhere: the decline in standards, fall in the quality of life, public utilities that don’t work; growing corruption infecting every facet of public life, a calcified bureaucracy, neither responsive nor accountable; no incentive to quality and excellence. Our annual growth rate is under 2% (below the population growth rate). Compare with Malaysia’s growth rate of 6%. India may be a democracy bit this is irrelevant to the lives of most people who have failed to benefit.  What is the matter with us? Herman Kahn, chair of the Hudson Institute, a leading think-tank, praises the success of the Chinese and Confucian-led culture in Asia. He singles out Japan, Taiwan and Korea. “these societies raise sober, responsible, skilled people; oriented towards family and savings.” He then contrasts this with the cultural areas like India, Bangladesh and Indonesia. Thailand may be an-India like culture but they have availed of the Chinese to progress. Is it then, as Kahn hints, something about our ethos which is holding us back and keeping us mediocre? We posed this question to 5 well known personalities – Alyque Padamsee (ad chief), Anil Malhotra (OGNC), Saryu Doshi (editor of Marg mag), AFS Talyarkhan (sports expert), Charles Correa (architect/town planner). Here’s a summary of their views: - the politicians are dragging down the country and standards - lack of motivation from an inadequate reward system: if you feel you will not be appreciated, you stay mediocre. - the caste system drags down the lower castes; nepotism rewards relatives and friends rather than excellence - lack of accountability from those in charge in both business and state sectors. Abu Abraham (columnist and cartoonist) Sun Observer, 27Dec1987 Indian intellectual life is today in a state of paralysis. Only a few intellectuals persevere with their assigned historical role. There is little interaction, give and take. “If you are not with me, you are against me.” Every intellectual wants his own view to prevail…As a result, it is difficult to have a serious intellectual discussion or exchange of views today. Murad Ali Baig, PR general manager with ESCORTS Ltd India Today, 31 Oct 1988 India has failed to come to terms with an increasingly competitive world. Little Taiwan and Hong Kong outstrip our exports. Three responses are typical of our submission to difficult outcomes – parwa nahin (doesn’t matter), bichara (poor chap) and ji hazoor (yes, sir). Defective materials, sub-standard workmanship or compromised work-schedules are excused and we muddle through with words like chalega (will do), thik hai (it’s okay) or dekhenge (we will see). Construction is never perfectly aligned, deadlines are not met. Our products lack that ‘touch of class’, so vital for global markets. A zero-error system is unthinkable in the Indian ethos today. Rude or incompetent employees are rarely reprimanded, leave alone punished. Bosses are puffed with their self-importance, strutting about with an arrogant air of authority. The government clerk or paper pusher knows well that he cannot be sacked. The politicians feel free to make a mockery of all rules and procedures. As problems multiply, so do government departments.   Jagmohan, Administrator of Delhi & Kashmir From his autobio My Frozen Turbulence in Kashmir (1991) [Frontline, 31 Jan 1992] This country requires fundamental reforms in the realm of ideas. There is something basically wrong in present-day India that leads her astray in almost every sphere of life. What is it? During my somewhat tumultuous career in public service, I was able to have a closer look at the state of our institutions. All along, I felt that some vital foundational planks were missing in our edifice. It was bound to totter and it often did. Without an adequate spiritual and social base, all out institutions, judiciary and legislature and Constitution were bound to become frigid and fragile. Unless our social thoughts are reconstructed, our religious practices reformed, , the country’s future will remain dark and our society would become more corrupt and exploitative…We need a deep-rooted renaissance to give new direction to our policy and birth to a new moral order and ethics  An essential perquisite to this renaissance would be a reformed, renewed, rejuvenated Hinduism – one that has shed its flabbiness, cleared its clogged arteries and recouped its vigour and vitality. This new Hinduism would create a new Hindu – with a social conscience, just, compassionate to all, catholic, one who believes in the fundamental unity of man. Who would motivate all state institutions and make them honest, vibrant and service-led. VS Naipaul For his earlier views see other file William Dalrymple, author of the White Mughals,  (Outlook 08 Mar 04) comments on Naipaul’s views on history. In his India: A Wounded Civilisation (1975), Naipaul surveys the shattered ruins of Vijayanagara and goes on to lament the fall of this "great centre of Hindu civilisation, then one of the greatest (cities) in the world". It was pillaged in 1565 "by an alliance of Muslim principalities—and the work of destruction took five months; some say a year". According to Naipaul, It fell because the Hindu world it embodied had become stagnant  and backward-looking: it had failed to develop, and in particular the military means to challenge the aggressive Muslim sultanates that surrounded it. Instead, Vijayanagara was "committed from the start to the preservation of a Hinduism that had already been violated, and culturally and artistically it (only) preserved and repeated; it hardly innovated. ... The Hinduism Vijayanagar proclaimed had already reached a dead end". For Naipaul, the Fall of Vijayanagara is a paradigmatic wound on the psyche of India, part of a long series of failures that he believes still bruises the country's self-confidence (or from which, according to some of his more recent statements, the country is only just now beginning to recover). The wound was created by a fatal combination of Islamic aggression and Hindu weakness—the tendency to 'retreat', to withdraw in the face of defeat. More in Dalrymple (2004) NAIPAUL in 90s (1000 Mutinies now): more in other file] [An extract on Indian servility: p393] With the British army marching to Lucknow to put down the mutineers was a host of Indian camp-followers. The Muslims among them were domestic servants. Among the Hindus were merchants and their families; drovers looking after the sheep, goats and turkeys for the British army; and there were “whole regiments of sinewy, lanky coolies” carrying chairs and tables, “hampers of beer and wine in boxes slung from bamboo poles”. Russell noted “the delight” with which these Indian camp-followers, making life comfortable for the army, “were pouring towards Lucknow, to aid the Feringhee (foreigner) to overcome their own brethren”. [p395] The Muslims would some idea of unity about their faith. The Hindus would have no such loyalty except to their clan; no higher idea of human fellowship or responsibility of man to his fellow. And because of that missing large idea, the country works blindly on… 2005- VS Naipaul (to NY Times 09Aug05)  “It is rather a calamity of India today that there are no thinkers. A big powerful country but no thinkers.” Arundhati Roy (1999) – “India is paid scant attention” Her book, The Cost of Living (Modern Library, 1999), was about India’s earnest desire to be recognized as a big player … Here are excerpts: ”On the world arena, India is paid scant attention and remains one of the most misunderstood and uncelebrated countries on earth. The Indian power elites have long been frustrated & their egos bruised by their failure to meet with the American and European elites on equal terms and to earn the respect they crave… "As a result, national resources are wasted on the trappings of power – mimicking countries with very different conditions. Hence the drive for grandiose projects such as the Narmada dam and for nuclear weapons. Such projects may assuage the wounded self-esteem of the elites and create an illusion of enhanced status.” Rohini Hensman, Sri Lankan political critic, (Countercurrents.org, 20Nov07)   ”India will continue to be what it has always been, a big little country bobbing along like cork in water - all buoyancy and drift, but no substance (and direction)”.   Professor (Lord) Bhikku Parekh [from his address Exploring India’s identity to the India International Centre in 2006. That speech and extensions appeared in Confluence, Sept06] "The technocrats and business elites want India to become a strong economic and military power. They want India to integrate into the global economy, open up our markets, deregulate the economy, go for economic growth and consumerism like the West. They seek international recognition by conforming to others’ norms. They don't mind becoming America’s ‘poodle’ if it it can help us to become great. "This new vision does appeal to a people who feel undervalued and subjugated for centuries: 1) This vision has not emerged from a vigorous and wide-ranging public debate. suggesting an intellectual vacuum. 2) It is born out of frustration from a lack of recognition and respect and fear that China is surging ahead. 3) Our middle classes are politically apathetic and intellectually superficial – averse to ideas or rational discourse. Neither do they exhibit concern and compassion for the less fortunate. 4) Have we thought of the socio-economic consequences of such a model? Doesn't India risk becoming another America with its gross inequalities and social breakdowns?