India is just trying to reclaim its former position of global economic primacy

India on 60th year of independence booming. But still number of people living below poverty line, a great number of people are illiterate while IT industry is givi ng a new identity of the country.
India needs to control population growth rate and effectively establish rule of law. India is still fart away from being a welfare state.

Re India : The New Statesman has just put out a special issue on India's economic miracle which is quite interesting and I think you should like - see : http://neweconomist.blogs.com/new_economist/2007/08/new-statesman.html

or, if yo are lazy, you can get the acrobated files here :
http://henritournyolduclos.free.fr/Files/India-NewStatesman-August2007.pdf

There may be another way to explain this: Before industrialization and large scale automation happened, there wasn't much difference in how much a human being could produce. Therefore, it was impossible to have countries with small populations generating outsized amount of world GDP. That changed with the industrial revolution, and naturally the first and most eager adopters of new technology were regions of the world with lower populations. Hence the spurt in Europe's growth. So in the end it was "Europe outpacing Asia" more than "Asia falling behind"

really, curious? And how would you explain the equivalent of today's 11 trillion dollars stolen from India by the British by some estimates? I suppose that is part of your industrialization as well?

It is troo that Brition, as an imperial power did her share of looting and was instrumental in India' decline as an economic power. But Indologists must remember that all imperial powers that came to India did their share of looting, destroying India's heritage etc. But unlike all of India's previous Imperial powers that came from abroad, The UK gave as much as she took. It was during the British raj that Indian students learned of their heritage. Great sites like Ajanta, Ellora, Khajuraho were discovered and repaired by Englishmen. One can easily claim that with the introduction of an English Empire propelled India into her own version of an "industrilezed age" as well as the "rebirth" of Indi'a culture. Great luminaries such as Rabrinath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi are part of it. India's Hindu/Buddhist culture no longer were confined to India (Hinduism) nor Buddhism to only Asia. These two religions and their philosopies were translated and are world literature. The discovery of Buddhism as an Indian religion only highlights the point. The English language, Democracy, the Judicial system are now propelling India as a global power. Most aspects of Indian arts and culture took flight to every continent. I would conclude that India is going through her own "renaissance" of all aspects of her traditional religions and the culture which goes with them on a global level. Part and parcel of India's last foreign Imperial power

I would like to tell your readers a very interesting concept of indian philosophy. In india we consider Time as Cyclic and not a linear thing. It means that we indians know time goes through same cycles again and again and it doesnt start at certain point and stop at certain point. Whatever is happening today might have happened or might be happening at some other place or planet. To understand what I am trying to say you have to go through Vedanta.

I disagree with Mr. Chrysantha Wijeyasingha in some of his/her analysis. Britishers looted us and whatver miseary my ancestors faced were because of britishers only. They have robbed us of our wealth and tried hard to destroy our religion through christain missionaries. Ajanta or Khajuraho were there before britishers invaded my land and their recognition doesnt have to do with britishers. Such pieces of Art would have survived till now also.

The jobs that are coming to India is just what we have been robbed of by Britishers long back. Its a simple case of poetic justice. They looted us but they taught us english and with this knowledge of english we are making software for the world. If initial Indian Governments would have changed the model for governing india than india would have outpaced China in terms of growth. But sadly our Initial prime minister Mr Nehru was too much imressed by Socialism as means for economic development and he created policies where everything was governed through licence quota.. But india is awakenig in 17 years after economic reforms we are 3rd largest economy on PPP basis. Imagine if ecomic reforms started way back in 70s than .. just imagine..

Mr. Chrysantha Wijeyasingha: Why do you write as though the British empire was a charity organization. Shame on you for that. Further, These railroads and postal services were ultimately paid for by the Indians. We got nothing from the British. Even to this date, what pains their arse are immigrants from our western neighbor.
Amartya Sen has for instance commented that the idea of democracy is not exclusively anglo- nor thoroughly western. Panchayats functioned from the vedic era, during pre-islamic,post islamic as well as in modern era. Why offer gora sahib a massage when he aint asking for one?

Mr Fox comments:
changing GDP shares probably had at least as much do with a little economic novelty called the Industrial Revolution as with British economic mismanagement in India. But his point still mostly stands

I must point out that Industrial revolution was ultimately a result of colonization. You couldn't use all the snow that falls to make cotton. Granted they had coal and iron. The steam engine is ultimately a shallow invention. Even the chimps could have come up with that one, given what the europeans had.

I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Wijeyasingha, whose assessment of Britain's role in the growth of modern India is very evenhanded. Though the colonizers can be lambasted as simple vampires, colonization was an inevitability. Indians should be glad that the British, rather than the French, Portuguese, Spanish, or even Russians, were the dominating force on the subcontinent. As an American, I appreciate all that Common Law, an independent judiciary, and a free market economic system have done for my nation. Those systems are taken for granted today in a world globalized successively by two centuries of Anglo-American preeminence, but provide what is needed more than anything for a modern nation-state to succeed: a balanced and flexible framework for society to function within. Compare your fortunes to those of non-British former colonies, such as South America, whose economic fortunes can only be described fairly as a cruel roller coaster, or to formerly French Africa. The contrast is startling. Then look at those areas that the British held as jewels, such as America and Canada, Australia, South Africa, and India. Those countries represent a list of regional and global economic powerhouses whose fortunes are considerably better than those of their neighbors. Thanks to the historic diplomatic climate, India, much like the majority of the world, was going to be colonized by somebody. Be happy your colonizer gave you democracy and railroads rather than siestas or a poor work ethic.

The Indian civilization was among the most advanced prior to entry of the western kingdoms.No historic entry prior to the entry of the british or for that matter any other western civilization had made a mention of poverty in india.What attracted the mughals who came in crops to invade india was the wealth in India and subsequently entered the British.What followed was brainwashing of an entire civilization.An entire nation after two centuries believed that they were inferior in all aspects to the British.Resistance started with the intellectuals not agreeing to these ideas.Following this, the British started a campaign of 'Divide and Rule'-having the 'lower castes' lash out against the 'upper castes' and the hindus against the muslims.Ofcourse any nation's course can change over two to three centuries of brainwashing and looting and that is what happened.At the end of it all,when India attained independence, she had forgotten her former self and was a poor nation that had now picked up political ideas of partisanship and nepotism from the British rule.If you would like to really know what Indian civilization was prior to the Mughals head to Hampi (a world heritage site) in SOuther India and be amazed by the architecture of the Vijaynagar Empire which rivals Rome in its prime.And yes, here too new building are being constantly dug up.But, all this is history and only the future will tell us India's fate.As in most situations, the wheel will make a full turn and maybe India will realise her former state.

To Robert Kirchoff: things like common law and democratic norms can be arise anywhere if a society can maintain a certain level of intellectual and civil discourse, both of which existed in India long before. How dare you accuse people of color having a poor work ethic?

Mr Kirchoff: you are simply a free loader. long live Marx...

ITS GOOD THAT WESTERN WORLD IS REALISING THE TRUTH AND POTENTIAL OF THE COUNTRY WHO ARE ALWAYS FRIENDLY WITH PEACE LOVING PEOPLE. RULING WHICH IS A DESTINY AND PART AND PARCEL OF WORLD POLITICS DOES'T MAKE ALL BRITISH AS A VILLIAN AND WE INDIAN VERY WELL REALISE IT. THOUGH BRITISH RULER WERE SUCCIDED TO CHANGE THE GDP AND MADE A POOR BRITAIN A RICH COUNTRY BY EXPLOITING INDIA THEY HAVE MISSED THE CHANCE OF BEING A PART(A ONE COUNTRY WITH EQUALITY AND WITH CONSENSUS) WHICH WOULD HAVE SPREAD LOVE, HAPPINESS AND ENSURED FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENT TO THEIR PARENT COUNTRY.
INDIA AND INDIANS ARE READY TO FORGET AND FORGIVE TO START A NEW FUTURE WITH A FRIENDLY BRITAIN AND REST OF THE WORLD.
II VASUDEVAM KUTUMBAKUM II(ENTIRE WORLD IS MY FAMILY:HINDU PHILOSOPHY)

The Son Of Heaven...

...a good post over at . . ....