Simorgh

India has successfully followed this path to remain non-aligned , China has followed it to remain authoritarian ( based on its needs ), someday hopefully Pakistan's democratic leaders will do the same .....

Its purely upto a countries leaders or governing body to strike this balance .



It was good to hear your views on the subject and definitely looking forward to hearing your thoughts again 
regards ,
Urbanized Greyhound

One last point , In the modern world an isolationist and segregated model like Iran 's model of rule and development can never succeed ....in a rapidly globalizing scenario where China and Russia , almost all countries are getting economically integrated into a single bloc , it would be foolhardy to risk taking a different part . Co-operation is the key , and if some nation thinks co-operating ( in any sphere , nuclear , terrorism based , economy etc ) is an " insult " to its honor and " self-respect " , it will only be to its detriment.

The thing is the Political setup need not mimic the western model of democracy , it can be authoritarian eg China ----AND This is were guts /balls /character strength and all these fancy words come into play , not in blindly opposing the U.S and its policy, and completely economically cutting oneself off !!!!

For those who matter , people involved in the Indian economic growth , its all about the next milestone , the next target and rapid improvement . We do set benchmarks with our surrounding economies eg China etc - that is merely in a spirit of competition , to enable us to do even more , progress further .


We are no stranger to exploitation , as regards the bold bit in the beginning of your post . India has been used as a captive labor market for centuries , which is why we are rapidly developing industries and transforming our economy from one which depends of Agriculture primarily to one in which the GDP percentage of Services and industry is rapidly growing . Again the problem is our democratic setup marked by sluggish rules and slow, inefficient and corrupt bureaucracy ....but we accept it as a necessary evil .

And you cannot compare the speed with China , China has a different civil society - a much controlled atmosphere where a single party can easily formulate industry friendly rules and keep a check on protests .

In India and South Asia in general , democracy and the law which guarantees certain privileges to all , acts as constrains and sometimes hinders developmental rate . This is the price we need to pay for our democracy and by all accounts we dont mind paying it .

India being a superpower is a term used primarily by media outlets for public consumption and as a feel good factor .

Now as for this ....

Both nations have a whole lot of potential though... but that potential is not tapped. I'll give you something else to ponder on too. India will never become a super-power, in time, if it continues being a good boy, it'll be something like an upgraded Saudi-Arabia. And that is only because you do have indigenous development going on, even though it's minuscule in capita sense.... as opposed to the whole Arabian Peninsula where indigenous development is non-existent.

If it wants to be a super-power, it needs to at least take China's approach, aggressive development in tech, economy, military and other advancements



Aggressive development of Tech and indigenous R&D takes decades to build up . Given our economic shackles before the 1990's and the fact that we went bankrupt during the period , I should think we have invested all we could into our industrial development.

Now there are many countries in our part of the world who would rather choose to live in their pride rather than their reason eg. Iran , North Korea who scoff at Saudi Arabia and South Korea like nations who are relatively prosperous , for having "sold" their honor to the West .

However its debatable whether living in a constant state of mayhem mostly self created, with less resources and isolationist ( like Iran in the middle east ) or ( North Korea in the South -East ) is preferably a good thing or if co-operating and thereby becoming prosperous and having a high standard of living is better .

And different people have different perspectives on this .

Now partition --- There has been a host of threads on this subject and its a complex and reflective subject which can hardly be summerized in a single paragraph but suffice to say - It was quite inevitable and the British may have played a part in it but subcontinental politics and the situation of those times played a significant role too and what is more important --

Today young Indians and Pakistanis are quite accepting of the Partition and would not want to reverse what happened in 1947 , plus the bitterness caused by Partition ( mostly in the minds of the generation of 47 ) has long since dulled and faded - the issues outstanding are quite different now.

Taking the aforementioned examples see its because of our ( South Asian ) proficiency in English language skills and our ability understand and adjust with British and American culture that we are sooo successful as immigrants- which indirectly helps our respective countries through remittances overseas, and FDI from expatriates , that we are able to set up our BPO and KPO industries generating so much employment. etc etc

The colonial structure of our army - may be distasteful to many but like it or not Indian and Pakistani armed forces are two of the developing world 's most professional set of armed forces, and it is principally due to military doctrines , setup quite similar to the west . Without meaning to offend , let me point out here that Iranian armed forces after the revolution having burned their U.S bridges completely - Today are no way comparable to our armies . So even this so called 'colonial legacy " has been good for us in a way .

Ya , we were indoctrinated by the British for 250 + years and thereby have adopted many customs , traditions from them , the prime examples of which are English Language , Legal system ,political structure , Colonial Military structure , adopting an english education system .

However its debatable whether adopting good things from a foreign culture should be appreciated because it benefits a nation , economically , politically and in social development

or

rejecting these things because of "pride" in one's own culture , ego ....honour as you may think of it , is the right thing to do because it make one's status high in the eyes of ourselves and the world .

Your people spend billions on buying foreign weapons, from people who don't even want you to advance in the first place. Your people have become the cheap labor to which unwanted labor are outsourced to, and you love it to.

I can go on for very long with this. But suffice it to say that the capitalists have for a very long time been busy splitting this world in consumers/labor and producer/develop nations, do you want to take a wild guess at which one India/Pakistan is and which on US/EU is?

.


Thanks for taking the time to reply , I seem to understand why you think that way ....

Firstly most of your points are spot on ...AS SEEN BY AN OUTSIDER ...

Now here is a bit of the inside story you would probably have missed .

No hard feelings what-so-ever. It's an honest opinion and I don't mean to offend either Pakistani or Indian sense of honor. Here is my reasoning, though you'd wish you hadn't asked, for why Pakistanis and Indians have much less to be proud of than you might think:

Pakistanis and Indians have been indoctrinated by the English during the colonial times, they still have that colonial slave way of thinking. You guys have English as your official language. Speak to a random Pakistani/India and he'll at the very least mix languages while talking, if he doesn't fully talk to you in English to begin with. Your militaries even parade in colonial clothing. Your people look up to the English. The English come and separate 'Pakistan' from India, and you people still fight each other like dogs till this day.

hello,
in reference to your post in " the U.S starting Baluch insurrection " thread ...

It was closed before I had the opportunity to reply ....

I had some points of my own to raise so i m posting here , if its all right ....