Zornix
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#IndiaFail
It would be premature to call India a failed state, just yet. However, I argue in this article, that the Republic of India, has been a dismal failure.
After the British left the Indian subcontinent in 1947, the leaders of India, many of whom had fought in the struggle for freedom, had envisioned an India based on a modern constitution, secular principles, equal rights, solid democratic institutions, and progressive, rational and scientific values. India had a lot of challenges to face, but the hope was that the multicultural, diverse, populous, economically poor nation would come together, and propel itself, if not through its own creativity, then by imitating, adopting and tweaking some of the value systems of the post-WW2 West.
55 years have passed since India gained its independence (too long to keep pinning the blame on a colonialist past or the Mughal empire etc). Following is a frank progress report based on objective facts. I have done my best to check my references and provide some of them, but certain errors are bound to happen. If I discover any errors, I will fix them:
- Population
2. Pollution
India is at the very bottom when it comes to pollution rankings, whether it is air, land or water pollution. I present some random facts — the references I list below, provide plenty of depth & nuance. Out of the 30 most polluted cities in the world, 21 are in India. Ironically, Yamuna & Ganga which are considered holy, are one of the most polluted rivers in the world. One can find everything in these rivers: industrial waste, biological waste, litter, semi-cremated human dead-bodies, rotting animal dead-bodies, feces etc. It is customary for Hindu Indians to routinely take a dip in these waters. 86 percent of Indian bodies of water are deemed critically polluted. India can brag about mountains of trash. Pretty much every street in India is litter-infested, caused both by habits of its citizens and lack of trash bins. New Delhi, the capital of India, routinely goes into lock-down mode for excessive air pollution. The smog is sometimes so thick, it causes vehicular accidents.
3. Dirty, Chaotic and LOUD
India is an overwhelmingly dirty country. I list this separately from my point about pollution because here I am not trying to make a point about health or environment. My point is about beauty (or lack thereof); about mere sights and sounds (and smells). Anybody who has traveled to India after being suckered by the travel ads that claim that India is “beautiful” & “colourful” is quickly & rudely shocked to see how dirty India is. The air often smells (something ones notices as soon they step out of their airplane in India). The sights are utterly unappealing. There is overcrowding, trash & litter virtually everywhere. Walls are covered with spit & urine stains. People honk constantly while driving for no apparent reason. Walk down any street in India that has traffic and all you will hear is “beep, meep, beep, meep” of the vehicles. Traffic is insane. There are no stop signs; no yield signs. Folks overtake from either lanes. There is zero lane discipline — folks will drive over the painted lines —six vehicles side-by-side within just two lanes. No one uses their turn signal or cares to look over their shoulder into their blind spot. Cars, motorcycles, scooters, buses, trucks, vans, auto-rickshaws, stray dogs and retired cattle crisscross the streets. One would be hard pressed to find beauty, silence and solitude in India. A feeling one gets while in India is that of being violently assailed through the senses.
4. Environment
India has Environmental Performance Index of 177th amongst 180 countries. India was a country of beautiful nature in the past, but now it has a mere 24% of forest cover. India is responsible for 7% of the global CO2 emissions. At the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow (COP26), India bragged that it will be net neutral in 2070, instead of the year the countries were asked to be net neutral i.e. 2030. Conversation about environment is virtually non-existent whether in the political circles, academia, news, media or day-to-day lives of ordinary citizens.
5. Sanitation and Drinking Water
India is at the bottom of the ranking when it comes to sanitation and clean drinking water. 732 million (twice the population of USA) Indians do not have basic sanitation, according to a study by WaterAid in 2017. India has EPI santitation ranking of 145th out of 189 countries, as per Yale. India ranks 120th among 122 countries for quality of drinking water, as per WaterAid. 15% of Indian population defecates in the open, as per WorldBank.
6. Corruption
Quite simply put, most Indians do not perceive their country as a nation of rules, let alone laws. India’s corruption runs deep. It also runs broad, encompassing pretty much every sector: DMVs, police stations, courts, government offices, corporations, education systems, medical establishments, and of course, politics. India has a corruption perception index of 85th out of 180. 51% of respondents of a survey by Transparency International India said they had paid a bribe at least once in their lifetime. Sometimes the bribes are a blessing given some of India’s archaic or draconian laws such as suicide attempts being a crime, sedition etc, and massively backlogged court systems. One should weep for their country, if bribes are often the more prudent way around the insane laws, law enforcement, and justice system.
7. Crooked Incompetent Politicians
Let us say politicians the world over are special people — ratas con dos patas. But Indian politicians are special even amongst politicians. If you are uneducated and criminal in India, you have a bright future in Indian politics. The estimates range from 30% to 50% of Indian MPs (members of parliament) and MLAs (members of legislative assembly) have criminal cases against them. Roughly 40% of Indian ministers have only high school education. Politicians in India often use tribalism and religion & caste issues to sow division and incite violence among the general population to stay in power. Most of them are either fanatics, jingoists, nepotists or populists. Some of them are communists (yes, that ideology that has proven itself to fail time and time again). All of them are corrupt and/or incompetent.
8. Overly Religious and Superstitious
In other words, irrational. India has thousands of superstitions and a multitude of religions. Scientific bent of mind and rationality are commodities that are hard to come by under the smog of religious beliefs, mystical thinking, extreme conservatism, and ancient superstitions.
9. Mistreatment of Women
Dowry, Sati (fortunately Sati has been in major decline), poor access to education & opportunity, forced arranged marriages, child marriages, sexual harassment, sexual assault, domestic violence, honour killings, poor access to women’s healthcare and birth control, just to name a few challenges an Indian woman faces even in 2022. An average Indian’s woman in India has a life that is way harder than an average Indian man. According to World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report of 2021, India has Global Gender Gap Index of 140th out of 156 countries. India is the world’s most dangerous country for women due to the high risk of sexual violence and being forced into slave labor, according to a poll of global experts conducted by Thomson Reuters Foundation.
10. Mistreatment of Minorities
India’s caste system is famous enough that I do not need to expand on it. India’s treatment of minority groups like Muslims, Adivasis (forest tribes), Dalits (lower caste) etc increasingly makes headlines all over the world. Given the current ruling party is a ultra-right Hindu jingoist, nationalist party, this mistreatment often has major political backing & funding and hence is projected to increase.
11. Free Speech and Journalism
Indian politicians are famously sensitive to criticism. India is ranked 140th out of 180 countries for freedom of press. Then again, freedom of press only matters if the press demonstrates journalistic integrity and accurate reporting. However, most of Indian news media is Fox News on steroids — sensationalist sycophants looking to get brownie points with a jingoist, populist, extreme right-wing, fascist political party in power, whilst making ads revenue. Have you heard of Arnab Goswami? He copied Bill O’ Riley and the format of 24-hr news with ads. Soon, other Indian TV news channels copied Arnab Goswami. And now, when you read an Indian newspaper or watch news on an Indian TV channel, it is a deafening & blinding cacophony of lies.
12. Literacy and Education
25% of the Indian population is I-cannot-write-my-own-name-so-I-have-to-thumb-print-this-document illiterate. Only 8% of the Indian population have college degrees. There is major brain drain from India to other countries. The educational material is often outdated. School and college facilities are underdeveloped or dilapidated. Most Indian students are taught rote memorization instead of being taught critical thinking and creativity.
13. Unemployment
India is undergoing a major unemployment crisis with close to 8% unemployment rate. It has roughly 50% labour force participation rate.
14. Poverty
India has not counted its poor since 2011. What one does not measure, one cannot be held accountable for, seems to be the motto of the Indian Govt. Estimates range widely. For example, United Nations estimated the number of poor in the country to be 364 million in 2019, or 28 per cent of the population. Despite the variance in estimates, every reliable source agrees that India has one of the highest rates of poverty in the world. India is ranked 101st out of 116 countries on Global Hunger Index.
15. Democracy with a small d
Every time I hear, “India is the world’s largest democracy”, I roll my eyes.
US-based non-profit Freedom House downgraded India from a free democracy to a “partially free democracy”. Sweden-based V-Dem Institute says India had become an “electoral autocracy”. Democracy is not just occurrence of fair elections. It is a result of manifestation of many values such as freedom of speech, civil discourse, freedom of press, equality of rights, equality of opportunity, protection of minorities, rule of law, civic sense, sense of community, absence of corruption, globalism, secularism, effective public/Govt institutions & bureaucracies, meritocracy, separation of justice system, law enforcement, military and government etc. A depraved, uneducated, easily-riled, easily-beguiled, tribalistic populace, cyclically electing corrupt & incompetent politicians into power, is not democracy with a capital D.
16. Red Tape
Any experience with any Indian organization, usually the ones run by the public/government sector whether it is the DMV, electricity department, phone department, passport/visa consulates, tax department, schools, post offices etc is often a soul crushing kafkaesque affair. There are often piles of forms to fill out, long lines to stand in, absurd rules, delays, bribes and incompetent civil servants involved. Even buying a bus ticket is a chore in India. All countries have bureaucracy, but the Indian bureaucracy puts even the communists to shame.
17. Finally, a meta-problem — Sensitivity to Criticism and Twisted Sense of Patriotism
I could list many other problems, especially in the realm of culture and value system, but this list will suffice in the interest of brevity. My genuine desire is that India can overcome its challenges. However, I am highly pessimistic, given that whenever any rational well-meaning person tries to critique India with the intent of improving it, he or she is immediately ganged up on and countered with ad hominem attacks, tu quoque attacks, propaganda, alternate facts, logical fallacies or tagged as “anti-national”. Another common ploy is to pin the blame on the British colonialist past or on the “invasion of the Mughal emperors” or an opposing political party. Never mind that India has been independent since 1947 from the British Empire, and the last Mughal emperor was exiled by the British in 1857. The first step towards any improvement, whether it is with individuals or nations, is demonstrating a mature response to critique, and humble acceptance of faults; something I find significant number of citizens of India less and less incapable of.
Source: ************
Hopefully, the author wont get arrested or "disappeared" by the Indian authorities or lynched by a mob for exposing the true face of India which their establishment has tried hard to brush under the carpet and hide from its public and the world.
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