Among many factors said about India, a few remains undisputed. A few striking features are its diversity and uniqueness. More than one billion population with such a kind of smooth flow (yes, it is!despite some glitches of course) is unparalleled in the world. With the level of diversity, no country would ever have existed or would exist. Author Gregory Roberts says through one of his characters in his novel Shantaram “India is about six times the size of France. But it has almost twenty times the population. Twenty times! Believe me, if there were a billion Frenchmen living in such a crowded space, there would be rivers of blood. Rivers of blood! And, as everyone knows, we French are the most civilized people in Europe. Indeed, in the whole world” There is something which ties all Indians together despite its unending differences and diversities.
Among civilizations, India is the oldest (undisputedly over 5000 years old) civilization of the world. There have been many great civilizations in the past but all have vanished with time. Indian civilization is the only living civilization among them. There should be something immense and profound in it if it has stood the test of time and innumerable onslaughts & invasions.
There can be no doubt that India is a complex nation. No wonder it is called a sub-continent. Two striking diversities are its religion and language. All the major religions of the world have their presence in India. Four of the world’s great religions were born in India. India always has sheltered the persecuted ones (the Zoroastrians, the Tibetans). Besides the religions, there are innumerable cults, sub-cults each practicing their own practices and interpretation of religion.
Among languages, no country in the world houses as many languages as India does. There are easily over hundred languages in India (if dialects are included the number easily surpasses one thousand). In food habits, clothing there exist a radical diversity among many parts of the country. Many say for every hundred kilometer that one travels in India, the food habits, the language significantly change.
As India has a multi-party system, there are innumerable political parties. All the parties profess their own ideologies. There is no single ideology in the country: there are parties which are left-leaning, right-leaning, language based, religion based (of course the main ideologies of all the parties are money and power, all others are secondary details!).
India of course is tormented by vast arrays of problems. Some problems like rampant corruption, red-tapism can be detrimental for economic growth of any country. Despite the host of problems, India’s economic progress has been impressive over the years. Many economists could not come to terms with it and have comfortably labeled India as ‘Magic Economy’!
A country which is not diverse, which has one common language and many other commonalities, it is easy for them to march in the direction of progress than a country which is as diverse as India. It’s like the wheels of a vehicle: if there are ten wheels and all are oriented towards a single direction it is easy to reach the destination than the situation where all the wheals are disoriented. In India, the later situation prevails. Among many other reasons, the main reason for ascendance of Soviet Union was its people’s devotion to a single ideology. It ascended to greater heights and reminded sole challenger to the U.S for a long time. (Of course the direction where people are oriented is also of immense importance. Even in Iran, the population is uniform, but to no use.)
So, these factors make India incomparable with any other country because it is too unique. Many yardsticks, parameters which measure certain attributes of India don’t do justice and seldom give complete picture of the nation.
Among civilizations, India is the oldest (undisputedly over 5000 years old) civilization of the world. There have been many great civilizations in the past but all have vanished with time. Indian civilization is the only living civilization among them. There should be something immense and profound in it if it has stood the test of time and innumerable onslaughts & invasions.
There can be no doubt that India is a complex nation. No wonder it is called a sub-continent. Two striking diversities are its religion and language. All the major religions of the world have their presence in India. Four of the world’s great religions were born in India. India always has sheltered the persecuted ones (the Zoroastrians, the Tibetans). Besides the religions, there are innumerable cults, sub-cults each practicing their own practices and interpretation of religion.
Among languages, no country in the world houses as many languages as India does. There are easily over hundred languages in India (if dialects are included the number easily surpasses one thousand). In food habits, clothing there exist a radical diversity among many parts of the country. Many say for every hundred kilometer that one travels in India, the food habits, the language significantly change.
As India has a multi-party system, there are innumerable political parties. All the parties profess their own ideologies. There is no single ideology in the country: there are parties which are left-leaning, right-leaning, language based, religion based (of course the main ideologies of all the parties are money and power, all others are secondary details!).
India of course is tormented by vast arrays of problems. Some problems like rampant corruption, red-tapism can be detrimental for economic growth of any country. Despite the host of problems, India’s economic progress has been impressive over the years. Many economists could not come to terms with it and have comfortably labeled India as ‘Magic Economy’!
A country which is not diverse, which has one common language and many other commonalities, it is easy for them to march in the direction of progress than a country which is as diverse as India. It’s like the wheels of a vehicle: if there are ten wheels and all are oriented towards a single direction it is easy to reach the destination than the situation where all the wheals are disoriented. In India, the later situation prevails. Among many other reasons, the main reason for ascendance of Soviet Union was its people’s devotion to a single ideology. It ascended to greater heights and reminded sole challenger to the U.S for a long time. (Of course the direction where people are oriented is also of immense importance. Even in Iran, the population is uniform, but to no use.)
So, these factors make India incomparable with any other country because it is too unique. Many yardsticks, parameters which measure certain attributes of India don’t do justice and seldom give complete picture of the nation.
No comments:
Post a Comment