5 ms·
The comparison isn't just economic. As a visitor, many things made more sense to me when I started seeing India through the lens of a confederation of mini-nati
by bguthrie 15y ago
The comparison isn't just economic. As a visitor, many things made more sense to me when I started seeing India through the lens of a confederation of mini-nations rather than a unified country in the American or European sense. Far more so than in America, each individual state has distinct cultures, cuisines, and languages. Historically many of them were once kingdoms themselves, which contributes to the sense of distinct identity.
- jeez 15y agothank the English, we're One big country now. ;)
- rmc 15y agoThe English went around invading a lot of places, then got really annoyed when those people followed them back.
- rahoulb 15y agoSo annoyed that they spent the second half of the twentieth century inviting them back to work in the UK.
- savrajsingh 15y agoIt's true. It's hard to imagine all of Europe as one country but that's exactly what happened when the British rolled in.
- roundsquare 15y agoOn top of that, there is still a fairly large amount of animosity between the regions (e.g. North Indians vs. South Indians).
- vijaydev 15y agoI won't call it "fairly large". Sure, some differences exist because of the culture and the size of the country. And I'm not considering divisive politicians when I say this.
- jeez 15y agoThe animosity is kind of blurring now, at least in South India. We have Bangalore and Hyderabad which are excellent examples of a super-heterogeneous population, running as one big machine. Chennai's trying, but hasn't gotten there yet. ;)
- sundarurfriend 15y agoThe population is heterogeneous, but there's still a fair amount of distrust and alienation between north and south Indians. However, I agree that that's still a step forward from the "animosity" of the previous generation.
- roundsquare 15y agoFair enough. "Animosity" might have been the wrong word. I didn't mean to imply that there hadn't been any progress on this front.
- known 15y agoHarvard Professor Robert Putnam's study showed that the more racially diverse a society is, the lower the levels of trust. http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/08/05/the_downside_of_diversity/ http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/08/05/t...