What's breathtaking is the indifference of the corrupt ruling elites to the lives of the peasants. India is one of those countries that could use a good old-fashioned Bastille-type revolution, complete with the guillotining of the entire upper class. They have been robbing the country blind via regulatory corruption, and plain old theft, while telling the poor they're so much better off than they were under British rule.
Well said.
A while back there was an article about 30,000 people applying for 3 jobs. The jobs were for rat catchers which came with a stick and a flashlight. A high percentage of the applicants held 4 year degrees.
They also dump their dead in the rivers. So you have corpses floating and decomposing in the same places these people go to bathe, brush teeth, drink, and of course go bathroom.
That worked so well for Haiti, didn't it?
It may be the case that the upper castes are also where the higher-IQ individuals come from. You know, the ones who are necessary for the operation of modern civilization?
I do agree that it would be better for India if much of government/socialism was stripped away, that the government employees were forced to seek private sector employment, and if restrictions preventing lower castes from starting their own small businesses were removed.
“India is one of those countries that could use a good old-fashioned Bastille-type revolution, complete with the guillotining of the entire upper class.”
The problem is religious and cultural, not political. It doesn’t matter who is in charge. They’re all Hindus and therefore don’t give a damn about human beings beneath them. The grinding poverty is what the “peasants” deserve according to Hindu culture.
This is why so many Hindus fear the Dalits becoming Catholics:
http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Item/451/kill_christians_and_destroy_their_institutions.aspx
http://www.catholic.org/news/international/asia/story.php?id=27995
The Catholic Dalits know Christianity changes EVERYTHING: http://campaigns.ahrchk.net/jjpallath/mainfile.php/hnews/56/
As long as the Dalits are Hindus they will have little voice - Hinduism says their lot is their lot because of a former life. As Christians, however, especially Catholic Christians, they know their rights, know they are created in God’s image, and demand change. Hence, the persecution of Dalit Christians by Hindu elites.
You forgot the Caste system, which sentences people to their lot in life at birth.
Imagine the FLIES landing on your food & face.
Obviously, Indians have become somewhat immune to fecal related diseases. Good for them. I’d probably get sick within a week of being there. The smell alone would sicken me.
Train rides must be vomit inducing.
Some cultures are definitely better than others, both for the people & the land they inhabit.
I have a friend who is Indian. I met him at work. When I was looking for alternatives to America, I asked him about India.
He adamantly insisted that would be a horrible idea. He told me that as corrupt as America has become, it is 1% of what India is. He told me you need to pay every official you meet, to do their job, to not enforce AGAINST you, and so on.
“...while telling the poor they’re so much better off than they were under British rule.”
B b b but Mahatma Gandhi rescued them from all that British oppression!
There is nothing so-called elites or upper castes can do to force behavior changes of certain section of people. If lower castes, as a matter of politics, refuse to become educated, abuse public toilets so nobody else can use them, politicize any kind of sanitary work, not much can be done to change their attitudes or sanitary conditions. Sanitary public work is so much politicized that not many people are willing to work as sanitation workers, and those who do, refuse to do any cleaning work. India tried building lots of public toilets but within months, they were so filthy that nobody would be willing to use them or clean them
India experimented with socialism giving political focus exclusively on welfare of lower castes, but it only ended up enlarging and empowering the impoverishment. Do you think American style welfare state is capable of moving hundreds of millions of people out of need and dependence on government welfare programs - will not India be trading one serious problem with many more serious ones? Does India has that kind of wealth-creating economic engine to institute European style welfare state? If simply throwing money could have solved this problem, It would have been solved many decades ago.
The sanitation issue is more political than cultural. Guess what, British ruled India for 150yrs and they could not solved it either. In fact, the political issues involved in sanitation stalemate are a British legacy. Politicization of Sanitation originated during British Raj, and past rulers intesified it.
The new non-socialist administration has started in earnest to clean up rivers and modernize infrastructure. Socialists had 60years to clean it up, new administration has asked for only 10years.