6 ms·

Take a guess. China, India had similar GDP per-capita figures in late 70s (Korea was poorer at one point). India never suffered from war and dictatorial madness

Take a guess. China, India had similar GDP per-capita figures in late 70s (Korea was poorer at one point). India never suffered from war and dictatorial madness like Korea and China, yet today India has < 1/5 GDP of China, and about ~< 2x the GDP of S.Korea (with 10-20x the population). All this for what ? Some anti-colonial revolution ? Nope. India has almost completely ignored everything Indian, if not actively tried to destroy its traditions/languages/cultures and has ran after who ever would care to smooch over its "elite". India is as much a British colony today (if not more) than it ever was.

throwaway2048 10y ago
Add into this that the country has a huge amount of english speakers, and is also a democracy.
- sdfaasdf 10y ago
  ... and this is supposed to be good, why ? Because the WASPs brainwash us into thinking so ? Because it pays good money ? The systems we live under are barely different from feudal systems from Europe. Now we just get blamed for all the shit, because you know.. "democracy". Give someone a toothpick to fight against those wielding guns, and call it even - that is democracy.
  - ptaipale 10y ago
    It definitely helps Indian trade with North America and Europe, and also other regions, that much of the population speaks English. Particularly in areas like software contracting.
chimeracoder 10y ago
> India never suffered from war After Independence and Partition? India never had to deal with war??
- gime_tree_fiddy 10y ago
  Nothing too devastating. Wars were along the borders, once with China and few times with Pakistan.
gime_tree_fiddy 10y ago
Just to be clear, are you blaming protectionism ?
- alskdjalsd 10y ago
  Where do you think those schemes came from ? Fabian socialism came from England, then those morons were bought over by the Soviets. Now Americans have the only show in town... (which is I agree the best of the three).
oarla 10y ago
Not sure if it is fair to compare India and China/Korea. I don't know much about the history of China and Korea, but I doubt if both those countries faced full scale colonialism like India did. Recovering from the devastation caused by 200+ years of colonial rule takes a while. S.Korea particularity benefitted from the Korean war. USA stepped in and boosted it's economy.
- JumpCrisscross 10y ago
  > I don't know much about the history of China and Korea...I doubt if both those countries faced full scale colonialism like India China had a much harder time through the colonial era than India. Remember, China spent decades being traded between warring imperial powers (France vs. Britain, Britain vs. Japan, Japan vs. the Soviets, et cetera). In that process, its institutions were wrecked and cultural memory wreaked havoc with. When all was said and done, they had no equivalent to India's nation-spanning railroad system; systems of law, governance and courts; or (relatively) unified linguistic bloc.
  - alskdjalsd 10y ago
    Amusingly, the opium that was peddled into China was grown in India; in fact many of India's current elite trace their wealth to this era (not surprisingly). Indians are generally too stupid and banal in conversation IMO; they keep whining about the minor '62 war with Mao (and Tibet, OMG Tibet), but are completely clueless about the role their own country played in the destruction of Asia. Perhaps it's not surprising that Obama chose the old Jewel for his pivot.
    - nojvek 10y ago
      > Indians are generally too stupid and banal in conversation IMO Way to generalize 2b people. Wow!
      - rajathagasthya 10y ago
        1.2B people :) 2B population would be unimaginable!
sremani 10y ago
There are lot of things contributing to this mismanagement Unlike China and Korea, India is not ethnically and culturally cohesive (I know China is a bit more diverse but not to levels of India). The Economic Reforms started in 1991 soon lost stream by mid-2000s and there we no policy cohesion for reforms Colonial two step, every Indian will not miss a chance to say how many official languages are there in India, but Indian economy discriminates against non-english languages, esp. in a set up where majority of public education is non-english. The effort of language development outside of Hindi is a state's mission, which itself has two or more official languages outside of English. So, only 20-30% of people who are educated in English medium has the ability to fully participate in the economy etc. The point is India will straddle along, the West and South will lead the economic growth, where as North and East will drag along, and there is nothing changing in the near future. Think China and India like the Hare and the Tortoise, China did the miraculous fast run esp. from late 90s to 2012 (when the miracle actually ran out of steam), and India will staddle and move along at 4-7% with ebbs and flows and will catch-up say, in 2050 (its my pure guess).
- JumpCrisscross 10y ago
  > the West and South will lead the economic growth, where as North and East will drag along What drives this divergence?

throwaway2048 10y ago

Add into this that the country has a huge amount of english speakers, and is also a democracy.

sdfaasdf 10y ago
... and this is supposed to be good, why ? Because the WASPs brainwash us into thinking so ? Because it pays good money ? The systems we live under are barely different from feudal systems from Europe. Now we just get blamed for all the shit, because you know.. "democracy". Give someone a toothpick to fight against those wielding guns, and call it even - that is democracy.
- ptaipale 10y ago
  It definitely helps Indian trade with North America and Europe, and also other regions, that much of the population speaks English. Particularly in areas like software contracting.

chimeracoder 10y ago

> India never suffered from war After Independence and Partition? India never had to deal with war??

gime_tree_fiddy 10y ago
Nothing too devastating. Wars were along the borders, once with China and few times with Pakistan.

gime_tree_fiddy 10y ago

Just to be clear, are you blaming protectionism ?

alskdjalsd 10y ago
Where do you think those schemes came from ? Fabian socialism came from England, then those morons were bought over by the Soviets. Now Americans have the only show in town... (which is I agree the best of the three).

oarla 10y ago

Not sure if it is fair to compare India and China/Korea. I don't know much about the history of China and Korea, but I doubt if both those countries faced full scale colonialism like India did. Recovering from the devastation caused by 200+ years of colonial rule takes a while. S.Korea particularity benefitted from the Korean war. USA stepped in and boosted it's economy.

JumpCrisscross 10y ago
> I don't know much about the history of China and Korea...I doubt if both those countries faced full scale colonialism like India China had a much harder time through the colonial era than India. Remember, China spent decades being traded between warring imperial powers (France vs. Britain, Britain vs. Japan, Japan vs. the Soviets, et cetera). In that process, its institutions were wrecked and cultural memory wreaked havoc with. When all was said and done, they had no equivalent to India's nation-spanning railroad system; systems of law, governance and courts; or (relatively) unified linguistic bloc.
- alskdjalsd 10y ago
  Amusingly, the opium that was peddled into China was grown in India; in fact many of India's current elite trace their wealth to this era (not surprisingly). Indians are generally too stupid and banal in conversation IMO; they keep whining about the minor '62 war with Mao (and Tibet, OMG Tibet), but are completely clueless about the role their own country played in the destruction of Asia. Perhaps it's not surprising that Obama chose the old Jewel for his pivot.
  - nojvek 10y ago
    > Indians are generally too stupid and banal in conversation IMO Way to generalize 2b people. Wow!
    - rajathagasthya 10y ago
      1.2B people :) 2B population would be unimaginable!

sremani 10y ago

There are lot of things contributing to this mismanagement Unlike China and Korea, India is not ethnically and culturally cohesive (I know China is a bit more diverse but not to levels of India). The Economic Reforms started in 1991 soon lost stream by mid-2000s and there we no policy cohesion for reforms Colonial two step, every Indian will not miss a chance to say how many official languages are there in India, but Indian economy discriminates against non-english languages, esp. in a set up where majority of public education is non-english. The effort of language development outside of Hindi is a state's mission, which itself has two or more official languages outside of English. So, only 20-30% of people who are educated in English medium has the ability to fully participate in the economy etc. The point is India will straddle along, the West and South will lead the economic growth, where as North and East will drag along, and there is nothing changing in the near future. Think China and India like the Hare and the Tortoise, China did the miraculous fast run esp. from late 90s to 2012 (when the miracle actually ran out of steam), and India will staddle and move along at 4-7% with ebbs and flows and will catch-up say, in 2050 (its my pure guess).

JumpCrisscross 10y ago
> the West and South will lead the economic growth, where as North and East will drag along What drives this divergence?