Indians blowing it (like everyone else)

Indians are probably my favorite non-European nationality. But if the Indians go on swooning for the grotesque Michelle Obama, they will lower themselves in my estimation as much as their outsourced customer service people have done.

However, since much of the world has fallen for the absurdity of the “glamorous” Michelle, I guess it’s not fair of me to pick out the Indians on that point.

Also, as VFR reader “Indian living in the West” tells us, Indians are suckers for anything coming from the West.

- end of initial entry -

James R. writes:

“Indians are suckers for anything coming from the West.”

Well, ILW didn’t quite say that, he said that of their English-speaking Leftist elites. Concluding that the impression they portray reflects the attitudes, positions, and views of most Indians would be like concluding the impression the America’s professional Left, academics, government and NGO hacks, and official press gives of us is reflective of most of America rather than hostile to it.

I doubt we can conclude much at all about India and Indians from the portrayal we get from such sources. I suspect it’s at least as misleading as the impression the same people give of most Americans.

Roland D. writes:

You wouldn’t be such a fan of India and Indians if you’d (a) worked closely alongside them for a while and/or (b) visited India. [LA replies: I have visited India, once, for three weeks, though I did not see that much of the country while I was there.]

Far from being the “world’s largest democracy,” India is actually the world’s second-largest kleptocracy, slightly behind China and slightly ahead of Russia. Indian society embodies the Hobbesian war of all against all which is the animating factor of all Asian societies; in this case, the stultifying Hinduism-based caste society is the ideological/philosophical/”moral” legitimizer, rather than the Confucian hyper-nepotism which underlies all other Asian societies.

The chief societal characteristics of India are greed, corruption, sloth, indolence, and incompetence, in roughly equal proportions.

India and Indian society have no redeeming characteristics whatsoever. The entire country is a filthy hellhole utterly lacking in anything resembling actual national achievements or merits, and is a place to be avoided if at all possible (I speak from extended personal experience on the ground in multiple cities and provinces of the benighted subcontinent).

Pace your correspondent Ivan M., India is neither free nor united, and is a whole lot closer to present-day Iraq than he seems to understand; for example, how many Indian PMs have been murdered since independence? What about the whole Kashmir nonsense? What about the Golden House massacre? What about the Bombay terror attacks and the incompetent Indian response to same? And so on, and so forth, ad nauseam, ad infinitum.

Here’s a story which perfectly captures both the spirit and the reality of India yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

LA replies:

VFR invites frank exchanges of opinion. Why don’t you tell us what you really think?

Seriously, how do you expect to be taken seriously when you go so far over the top and deny any positive value to India whatsoever, saying things like this: “The entire country is a filthy hellhole utterly lacking in anything resembling actual national achievements or merits”?

Roland D. replies:

Very well, I challenge you to identify one meaningful redeeming quality (i.e., not “the food is great” or somesuch; Indian food is great, though neither quality Indian food nor potable water is available to the overwhelming majority of their populace), just one, of Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Somalia, North Korea, or Burma.

If you took present-day Iraq, made it 100 times larger; put it near the equator; taught a minority of Iraqis varying amounts of English; and made Iraqis 10 times more incompetent and disorganized, 10 times more corrupt, 10 times filthier, and 10 times lazier, you’d end up with India.

India is useful as a source of English-speaking indentured servants to transnational, amoral, post-patriotic Western companies, and as a somewhat implausible strategic counterweight to China—that’s it.

LA replies:

Anyone who denies all positive value to a vast country and culture as you have done is making a bigoted statement. I’m not going to get into an exchange with you wherein I have the burden to identify positive qualities of India. Your statement is self-evidently a bigoted statement against India. No further discussion of the point is needed.

Vishal M. writes:

A small Indian achievement: The northern State of Uttar Pradesh (current population about 200 million) is the most populous land (outside Americas) that did not witness a mass-killing in the 20th Century. No war even, no city-wide pogrom even, its cities were not bombed.

It is a small achievement, certainly, but the 200 million people living there are thankful for small things.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at November 09, 2010 07:26 AM | Send