I have worked and travelled much more extensively than your 20-day tour. My life there as a foreign expert was pampered by the local standard, but I did my share of mixing with the locals, upper and lower classes, ate their food, and took the moaning bus with full loads plus half a dozen dangling like bananas on the door outside. I even picked up a few words in Hindi. Of course there were more couragous young people from Europe who wore sandals barefooted and slept on strawl matts in the same dorm with Indian students. That I considered beyond my comfort level (not because it's below my status).
I agree with you that the stratifcation of the Indian society is so severe and so entrenched that everybody takes it for granted. The rich routinely take a few coins from their ribs and bestow them to the poor and the latter bow gratefully. This is the kind of condition widely found in under developed societies; for example, in Afghanistan or rural areas of Turkey. However, in no where else than India can one find such a large number of people be exploited and oppressed by the few.
Given that, you will probably not be surprised to find the South Asian subcontinent is one of the few places that still needs a land reform and where Maoist guerrilas are still very active. Once in a while they come out of their hiding places and kill the landlords. I have seen many times the familiar hammer and sickle symbol with slogans in red painted on dirt village walls, not far from major cities.
You are also very right at saying that the British acted as exploiters. They were content with the use of upper class Indians to control their lower subjects and had no interest for social reforms. The same for the French colonists in Indochina and even worse, where the task was eventually completed under Ho Chi-ming's disciples. In India--this is a different story. This society's so much influenced by a religion that I describe as passive, not pro-active as to make things happen. So far I don't see a source that could provide the sufficient level of energy to change the society fundamentally.
That is the fundamental difference between China and India. After 1949 China has been transformed irreversibly. We have all been brought up with the indoctrine of equality. But for those from the Indian upper class, when they come to the West, they were very uncomfortable. Not as much because they lose their high status, but more because they take it in pain that those whom they considered matter-of-coursely to be lower in status should have basically the same life style and be happy and do not have to bow to them for alms.
A lot of people have the impressions that Indians are good at mathematics. There is a hidden reason for that. The very high caste Indians consider any physical labor too low for them. I know an instance of an Indian student who stacked garbage bags in his closet week after week (the garbage dump was just across the hall way, no more than 30 yards away). Apparently doing the garbage was more embarassing for him. Indian will not be a world factory because it does not have the mentality to produce anything good in earnst. They make things because they have no choice; otherwise they would rather let other people do these more "worldly" activities.
Having said these, I don't have bias against Indians as their color, language or culture are concerned. Most people I came to know or worked with are intelligent and honest people (the mean fellows probably had made to the US). They have a lot in common with Chinese as both cultures are very old.
One of the first scenes I experienced was the one that I remembered best. It was the first day I got there after an overnight transfer in the dim, dirty New Dehli airport. I woke up around daybreak, to be awakened by a pleasant young voice outside. I looked down the window. It was a young girl of about age 4. She was sitting on a small wooden chair (like a ma-zha) with a small table (more like a bench) in front of her. She was reading a text book.
Later I found out that she was the daughter of the cook. Being born to an unpriviledged family means that one has to work hard from day one.
The high class Indians, after studies of abstract sciences such as mathematics, do not have to to any work. They could live on the income from the land passed down from ancestors, just as the European aristocrates did centuries ago.
And we know what happened to those.
I agree with you that the stratifcation of the Indian society is so severe and so entrenched that everybody takes it for granted. The rich routinely take a few coins from their ribs and bestow them to the poor and the latter bow gratefully. This is the kind of condition widely found in under developed societies; for example, in Afghanistan or rural areas of Turkey. However, in no where else than India can one find such a large number of people be exploited and oppressed by the few.
Given that, you will probably not be surprised to find the South Asian subcontinent is one of the few places that still needs a land reform and where Maoist guerrilas are still very active. Once in a while they come out of their hiding places and kill the landlords. I have seen many times the familiar hammer and sickle symbol with slogans in red painted on dirt village walls, not far from major cities.
You are also very right at saying that the British acted as exploiters. They were content with the use of upper class Indians to control their lower subjects and had no interest for social reforms. The same for the French colonists in Indochina and even worse, where the task was eventually completed under Ho Chi-ming's disciples. In India--this is a different story. This society's so much influenced by a religion that I describe as passive, not pro-active as to make things happen. So far I don't see a source that could provide the sufficient level of energy to change the society fundamentally.
That is the fundamental difference between China and India. After 1949 China has been transformed irreversibly. We have all been brought up with the indoctrine of equality. But for those from the Indian upper class, when they come to the West, they were very uncomfortable. Not as much because they lose their high status, but more because they take it in pain that those whom they considered matter-of-coursely to be lower in status should have basically the same life style and be happy and do not have to bow to them for alms.
A lot of people have the impressions that Indians are good at mathematics. There is a hidden reason for that. The very high caste Indians consider any physical labor too low for them. I know an instance of an Indian student who stacked garbage bags in his closet week after week (the garbage dump was just across the hall way, no more than 30 yards away). Apparently doing the garbage was more embarassing for him. Indian will not be a world factory because it does not have the mentality to produce anything good in earnst. They make things because they have no choice; otherwise they would rather let other people do these more "worldly" activities.
Having said these, I don't have bias against Indians as their color, language or culture are concerned. Most people I came to know or worked with are intelligent and honest people (the mean fellows probably had made to the US). They have a lot in common with Chinese as both cultures are very old.
One of the first scenes I experienced was the one that I remembered best. It was the first day I got there after an overnight transfer in the dim, dirty New Dehli airport. I woke up around daybreak, to be awakened by a pleasant young voice outside. I looked down the window. It was a young girl of about age 4. She was sitting on a small wooden chair (like a ma-zha) with a small table (more like a bench) in front of her. She was reading a text book.
Later I found out that she was the daughter of the cook. Being born to an unpriviledged family means that one has to work hard from day one.
The high class Indians, after studies of abstract sciences such as mathematics, do not have to to any work. They could live on the income from the land passed down from ancestors, just as the European aristocrates did centuries ago.
And we know what happened to those.
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