Nationalisms

[Narayan S. Raja]

This is positively my last message on this topic.


On Fri, 11 Aug 2000, Stephen Hodge wrote:

> There was also a correspondingly high mortality rate among British
> colonial administrators and others at least up until the end of the
> C19th.

I'd bet that no British administrator
ever starved to death in a famine.

Also, you say "correspondingly high mortality rate"
at least till the end of the 19th century.  But 1950
is 50 years after the end of the 19th century!


> >    So, the amazingly high death rate in India, and its
> >    rapid fall after 1950, can't simply be "new medication
> >    developed after the war", can it?
>
> Yes, but obviously the world of technology and medicine in 1950 was
> very different to 1900.

Indians weren't dying for lack of CAT scans!
Simple things like "boil your drinking water"
and "midwives, cut your nails and wash your
hands" would have done wonders.  No high tech
required.  But it would have required
a serious effort to educate the natives.

But the literacy rate in India in 1950 was 18%
(eighteen percent).  (Source:
  http://www.finmin.nic.in/eco/indi.htm )

At present, the literacy rate is about 63%.


Once again, I'm more annoyed with the Indians
than with the British.  The Indians should have
been more energetic in seeking literacy.  Still,
the British government comes across, AT BEST,
as hopelessly incompetent.


Best wishes,


Raja.