On 4/17/07, Anthony D'Costa <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Fifty years ago India's population was 350 million or so. Today it is roughly three times. Percentages don't make much sense in the case of large countries such as India. Now China is the other case but then we do know some things do get shoved down people's throats. Yes, it's a shame, the unequal distribution but the achievements of the Indian government, for all its shortcomings, should not be underestimated. All you have to do is compare the numbers with pre-independent India.
It is a weighty question of trade-offs. The Chinese Revolution swept away many of the class/caste obstacles that still remain in India, but the Chinese people paid for that by suffering from the pain of large-scale social and political upheavals. If you compare those in the middle in India and China today, there is no doubt that the Indians enjoy more political democracy. Those at the bottom in India, though, appear to me to be politically as well as socially excluded, without enjoying the demise of the ancient regime that the revolution brought to the Chinese. But by no means do I believe that the Indian poor today necessarily long for a social revolution of the sort that took place in China -- I doubt that many in China itself would want to do it all over again, at least for now. Protests in both nations do seem to be increasing, however. -- Yoshie
