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India is the largest democracy in the world. South India is wealthy as are some of the northern states. Uttar Pradesh is sadly backward
Indian-Americans are the leading earners in the US, full stop.
that's nice and all but you didn't address anything or provide reasons why india is so behind. you're just blindly touting how great india is, which is highly debatable.
My guesses are sectarian violence, fairly conservative in terms of making it difficult for women in the workforce, having to direct a lot of resources into defense due to conflict and risk of conflict with neighboring countries and massive population growth that the country has had difficulty dealing with in terms of having the resources to deal with such.
I reckon if there was no violent partition and a much more greater early emphasis on family planning, then things might have worked out better.
I think it is largely because of the massive population growth after India's independence in 1947. It was common for married couples to have 8-12 children, and those children when they were between 18-24 yrs of age encouraged for arranged marriage and then new couples had children of their own after just a year of marriage. The population increased more than two fold from 1950 to 2000.
India is a lot smaller land-wise than China or US as well.
While the middle class grew from these cycles and many became successful in India, or successful migrants into the US or elsewhere, and in the educated class, it was more typical to have 1-3 children, that cycle also happened with a large impoverished class that kept on growing as well.
There was also migration of people moved into the cities and Indian cities became swelled. India's climate is much hotter than US and China. Couple heat with pollution, traffic, high competition for high paying jobs, it has led to decreases in quality of life, even though technology and other improvements have happened to improve quality of life in other ways.
I think it is largely because of the massive population growth after India's independence in 1947. It was common for married couples to have 8-12 children, and those children when they were between 18-24 yrs of age encouraged for arranged marriage and then new couples had children of their own after just a year of marriage. The population increased more than two fold from 1950 to 2000.
India is a lot smaller land-wise than China or US as well.
While the middle class grew from these cycles and many became successful in India, or successful migrants into the US or elsewhere, and in the educated class, it was more typical to have 1-3 children, that cycle also happened with a large impoverished class that kept on growing as well.
There was also migration of people moved into the cities and Indian cities became swelled. India's climate is much hotter than US and China. Couple heat with pollution, traffic, high competition for high paying jobs, it has led to decreases in quality of life, even though technology and other improvements have happened to improve quality of life in other ways.
i can get behind some of these reasons, but land mass wise, Japan is much smaller, with much of the land unusable. the population during their peak in the late 80's wasn't small either at over 100M.
what about the caste system? is that still a factor today?
i can get behind some of these reasons, but land mass wise, Japan is much smaller, with much of the land unusable. the population during their peak in the late 80's wasn't small either at over 100M.
what about the caste system? is that still a factor today?
Actually wa stalking a friend this week who lives and works in Mumbai. He was talking about the caste system and how it allows the enormous differences in wealth to exist in relative harmony.
Actually wa stalking a friend this week who lives and works in Mumbai. He was talking about the caste system and how it allows the enormous differences in wealth to exist in relative harmony.
caste system is factor in marriages
in the end, the only religion is money.
Even Britain still has a caste system. It has a monarch in the 21st century and a house of lords.
Born and brought up in India and I will share with you what I feel ‘could’ be the reason why India is behind.
Let’s go back a few decades to understand what’s going on.
India was a British colony for so long. During Independence movement (which lasted several decades up until 1947), lot of people were killed. So in early 1900’s many people had several children for various reasons like, 1) high infant death rate 2) adding to the freedom fighters etc. That trend continued until several decades. It was common to have 3-5 people back then. Also, remember that a BIG part of the country is rural which rely on farming/Agriculture as livelihood. Unless you have ‘numbers’ you can’t make money. But with numbers, you can’t save. So it’s a big cycle. Till date.
Also, female foeticide was very prevalent in India because girls need to be paid “dowry” and cannot fully work in the farms like boys do. There is also this notion that there is no need for education because, what are you going to do with it if you are still working at the farm? That notion still continues in several villages, even today. So, you will see a lot of uneducated people in rural India. But are they rich? No, they could never possess the necessary skills to get to a stage where they can actually call themselves comfortable. Till today. This is the story of India from a rural stand point and India has a BIG rural world in itself.
also, a lot of them marry within the family to keep money in the family.
Coming to the cities and current status.
I believe there is a big positive change in the way cities are functioning for the last 3 odd decades. Politics is really dirty and a lot of politicians work for themselves than the states they rule. But, overall you see a positive change in the cities in terms of quality of living, wages, jobs, education, medicine etc
India is playing big time in the global market when it comes to offering high quality work at a relatively lower cost, world class healthcare, space programs etc
Note that these jobs are for people who have education, skill, English speaking capability. In the grand scheme of things, the ration is still very skewed when it comes between rural and urban India.
GDP is less because what you make/lose in rural India is not that much. So, overall you don’t see that kind of stats that you see in China.
Another interesting thing is, some people are extremely rich in India. And they co-exist in the same streets.
Let’s talk about crime rate now:
As I mentioned, India has so many rural uneducated pockets. Some of them, in search of ‘better’ livelihood, come to the cities. Note that rural India is very conservative. When they see women dress in pants or wear makeup, many automatically think she is available. They look at women as objects to be enjoyed and then discard. A BIG portion of money goes into crime-stopping (for all the good reasons).
Lets talk infrastructure. Because there is so much population, its simply not possible to keep up with the upkeep of everything that you need to, in a timely manner. For the most of people, not having running water is a way of life. Most people are just trying to ‘survive’ vs actually being able to fully live.
people who are extremely smart end up leaving the country for greener pastures (might I add, like me )
Hope now it gives you a sense of why India is still so behind. Let me assure you though, things are rapidly changing. Population will start to decrease as more and more people are now opting to have 1 or no kids at all vs having 5-8.
edit: Also a BIG portion of money goes into taking measures to ensure the borders are safe, considering, India has bad relationship with its adjoining neighbours. You dont hear a lot of extreme terrorist activities there because ton load of money goes into weeding out extremism.
i'm in agreement that homogeneity plays a role in how harmonious a society is.
communism gets a bad wrap from the west, but it works well in china. stuff just gets done, without all the bureacracy and environmental studies and lobbyists fighting you every step of the way.
Communism? A failed and obsolete political system from the past century that caused millions of deaths. It never worked well.
Classic communism, or any relation to it, really ended in the late 1970's in China when huge economic and social changes were embraced. Sure there is a communist party, and some of the features of communism still exist - a central planned economy, one party system, authoritative government. But it's operated like a capitalist corporation, a huge one, competing on a global scale instead of local. There is also aspects of capitalism internally, China has learned that competition works. And there is bureaucracy and regulations, trust me I deal with it enough in my business in China (mostly it seems directed at international companies operating in China), and there is also corruption.
I describe China now as not communism, but mercantilism, at least as an economical policy - focusing on the ability to generate wealth and profits via unfair trade, protectionalism, and stealing technology.
However let's not forget that China is in an economic decline at the moment, what the future brings is anyones guess.
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