SV: Nationalisms

[Lars Martin Fosse]

Narayan S. Raja [SMTP:raja at IFA.HAWAII.EDU] skrev 9. august 2000 00:41:
>
> > Lars Martin Fosse wrote:
>
> > >And that the Indians have had half a century to set things right?
>
> Lars, things have in fact already improved
> tremendously in the last 50 years, and are
> continuing to improve.

> > >The Indian politicians have to carry that responsibility themselves.
>
> Of course.
>
>
> > This bunch themselves - most of them thugs - are a product of Brit
> > cunning and Indian naivete.

In all haste, I am rather bogged down right now: To be on the safe side, I
would like to say that I did not make the remark above.

> One never hears this kind of undignified, humiliating,
> childish whining about Brits when Indians are among
> themselves.   Sanctimonious comments from foreigners
> seem to set it off.  Don't take it seriously.  BTW,
> "naive" Indians are hard to find.
>
>
> > What meaning has democracy in a country
> > where half the population is illiterate?

Not my comment either.

> Democracy becomes even more essential in such
> a case, since it gives even illiterate people
> an equal say.  BTW, the literacy rate as of 2000
> is believe to be about 63%, and is increasing by
> 1 to 1.5 percentage points per year.  It looks like
> the literacy rate will be over 90% in 20 more years.

Given the runaway demography, a literacy rate of 63% or even 40-50 % is
actually quite an achievement in my opinion. More people know how to read
and write in India today than there were people in all of South Asia at
Partition. Since the population increase is so dramatic, any reference to
the British becomes rather nonsensical. Other things being equal, I believe
that India would have done much better for herself if she had managed to
stabilize her population at, say, 300-350 millions. Yet, India's
politicians have a lot to answer for, although their job has been and
remains extremely difficult.

Best regards,

Lars Martin

Dr. art. Lars Martin Fosse
Haugerudvn. 76, Leil. 114,
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Norway
Phone: +47 22 32 12 19
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Email: lmfosse at online.no