INDIA and World
Many of the online news articles on India seem to be catered towards pleasing online readers, NRIs by projecting a nice view of India. While this is perfectly alright but I feel our optimism should be scaled down. Sometimes I pity how media in US and Singapore keep their citizens so ignorant of reality. The articles on India say, how India might become superpower by 2015, how Mumbai springs back to life next day after serial bomb blasts, how Laxmi Mittal is soaring as Czar of Steel, etc.
I have almost completed reading a book, The Argumentative Indian by Amartya Sen. Having read several essays in the book which encompass ancient, medieval and modern India and almost every aspect of India, I am left to take a pessimistic note that India has a long way to go. Numerous facts about India in every chapter of the book appalled me to far extent. I cannot emphasize less how every Indian and non-Indian should read the book. Moreover, Dr. Sen has a distinctive style of writing. Hopefully the following facts will motivate some of you to read it.
If you think everything you read in history book was correct, it is time to rethink (it reminds me of my first blog). History is written by victors. BJP-led NCERT admitted that there were factual errors in the history textbooks -- for example, Madagascar was claimed to be an island in Arabian Sea (whereas it should have been in Indian Ocean). Similarly, Lanchasire was claimed to be a fast-growing Industrial town. Many books didn't mention about Nathuram Godse who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi since he was an RSS member.
I have almost completed reading a book, The Argumentative Indian by Amartya Sen. Having read several essays in the book which encompass ancient, medieval and modern India and almost every aspect of India, I am left to take a pessimistic note that India has a long way to go. Numerous facts about India in every chapter of the book appalled me to far extent. I cannot emphasize less how every Indian and non-Indian should read the book. Moreover, Dr. Sen has a distinctive style of writing. Hopefully the following facts will motivate some of you to read it.
If you think everything you read in history book was correct, it is time to rethink (it reminds me of my first blog). History is written by victors. BJP-led NCERT admitted that there were factual errors in the history textbooks -- for example, Madagascar was claimed to be an island in Arabian Sea (whereas it should have been in Indian Ocean). Similarly, Lanchasire was claimed to be a fast-growing Industrial town. Many books didn't mention about Nathuram Godse who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi since he was an RSS member.
India and China had a lot of exchange in trade and knowledge as far back as 8th century. Given the closed community nature of China, I used to wonder if there was ever an Indian (except Buddha) who could influence Chinese largely. Infact, many Indian scientists, mathematicians and astronomers held high positions in China's scientific establishment. An Indian scientist named Gautama Siddhartha even became the president of the official board of Astronomy in China in 8th century.
There is an essay named Tagore and India which has been my favorite so far. Dr Sen brilliantly brings out differences in the visions of Tagore and Gandhiji. I felt Dr. Sen was advocating more of Tagore. Tagore believed in Industrialization and he was not so keen on advocacy of Gandhiji's charkha..."Charkha does not require anyone to think; one simply turns the wheel of the antiquated invention endlessly, using minimum of judgment and stamina". Unlike Gandhiji Tagore was not strict about celibacy and he was claimed to have multiple relationships. Tagore believed in scientific explanations in every aspect of life -- In Jan 1934 Bihar was struck by a devastating earthquake. Gandhiji who was actively fighting against the untouchability during that time said, "A man like me cannot but believe that earthquake is a divine chastisement sent by God for our sins". Tagore objected saying, "It is all the more unfortunate because this kind of unscientific view of [natural] phenomenon is too readily accepted by large section of our countrymen".
We envision that India is on the path to become Superpower, but even today India is worse than many sub-Saharan countries on many different measures. For example, in India there is severe bias against women as we may judge from female-male ratio of 0.93 whereas sub-Saharan countries have the ratio as high as 1.02. Moreover, the percentage of undernourished children in Africa is 20-40%, whereas in India is as high as 40-60%. India is also claimed to be the largest producer of wheat (or grains). Why is this discrepancy ?
I want to end this post with another interesting observation. We often conclude that gender inequality prevails mostly in the developing countries, say in South-East Asia. But India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh all have or had women political leaders. Bangladesh even had women leaders both in the ruling and opposition parties. On the other hand the developed western countries such as US, Germany, France and Italy never had any women Prime Minister or President nor do these countries poised to have one in near future. Through several other examples, Dr. Sen convincingly clarifies different concepts and conventional wisdom.
What I have written is only the tip of an iceberg, there are several other facts about India which will make you think what real India is.
We envision that India is on the path to become Superpower, but even today India is worse than many sub-Saharan countries on many different measures. For example, in India there is severe bias against women as we may judge from female-male ratio of 0.93 whereas sub-Saharan countries have the ratio as high as 1.02. Moreover, the percentage of undernourished children in Africa is 20-40%, whereas in India is as high as 40-60%. India is also claimed to be the largest producer of wheat (or grains). Why is this discrepancy ?
I want to end this post with another interesting observation. We often conclude that gender inequality prevails mostly in the developing countries, say in South-East Asia. But India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh all have or had women political leaders. Bangladesh even had women leaders both in the ruling and opposition parties. On the other hand the developed western countries such as US, Germany, France and Italy never had any women Prime Minister or President nor do these countries poised to have one in near future. Through several other examples, Dr. Sen convincingly clarifies different concepts and conventional wisdom.
What I have written is only the tip of an iceberg, there are several other facts about India which will make you think what real India is.
3 comments:
Though I am still to read the book but from the excerpts that you have mentioned, I am not too sure if the book is not just another argument from just another NRI. Having said that, it is interesting to compare it with the book I am currently reading "A brief history of nearly everything" by Bill Bryson. The book essentially traces the evolution of science and why and how things were invented. Interestingly and surprisingly India (both ancient and modern) is not credited with one single scientific invention of importance. If "scientific" people like Tagore existed, what were they doing other than composing songs and writing books. No wonder Siddhartha Gautam had to flee to China to pursue astronomy. As Indians, I think we are either good at retrospecting or finding faults.
Looks nice! Awesome content. Good job guys.
»
I like it! Good job. Go on.
»
Post a Comment