On Wed, Feb 22, 2012 at 2:55 PM, ashok _ <listmans...@gmail.com> wrote: > I dont know if i want to even call it "western" since indian society > is actually very materialistic
Not materialism as much as a fondness for the past versus the future. Rural India is somewhere between a weak feudality and a vigorous democracy. Embracing the future means asking the past to leave - this is how the west knows to play the cards of progress. India isn't quite prepared for this - and the conflict becomes acute in communities that are slow in catching the rays of sunshine of the new dawn of progress. There are differences of history, culture, attitude and civilization that make the culture of the self, created at the expense of a sense of community hard to sustain. I recommend: Carlos Fuentes: Latin America: At war with the past http://www.amazon.com/Latin-America-Past-Massey-Lectures/dp/0887846653