6 ms·
488 people for a country of nearly 1.5 billion is a pretty slim number. The US has 6x the death row inmates despite having less than 1/4 the population. India
by justworkout 3y ago
488 people for a country of nearly 1.5 billion is a pretty slim number. The US has 6x the death row inmates despite having less than 1/4 the population.
India is pretty far behind the rest of the world, but to be fair, they were enslaved for centuries then dropped and left to build a society from scratch less than a century ago. There are going to be problems, but on many fronts, India is doing better than a lot of countries in some aspects. Instead of comparing them to Western/Central Europe, it's better to compare them to other countries in their class. Countries in Central America, Subsaharan Africa, etc.
As someone who just visited a few weeks ago, one thing really impressed me about India: government hospitals provide free service. I had a medical emergency, a total foreigner who pays no taxes, and they helped me without hesitation in my time of need and refused to take a single cent. That's something I can truly admire about their country and something the world could learn from India.
- badpun 3y ago[flagged]
- rusticpenn 3y agoThe population of Finland is less than that of many cities in India.
- badpun 3y agoThis plays to India's advantage - it could be a very powerful nation, while Finland is small and easily bullied.
- rusticpenn 3y agoThe population was uneducated and divided when India gained independence.
- rramadass 3y agoSilly goose! Do you think a Country's development is mere numbers game? Don't trivialize complex subjects.
- badpun 3y agoI'm merely pointing out that the argument that India grew and civilized itself much slower than Finland because of its larger size has little merit.
- rramadass 3y agoYou are merely again insinuating racist overtones by using phrases like "shitshow", "civilized itself" etc. and not debating/discussing anything.
- bllguo 3y agoscale matters. i expect that to be obvious in a place like HN there _is_ an interesting discussion to be had about how far behind india is vs. china, but the average westerner refuses to entertain the obvious conclusion to be drawn there.
- clarionbell 3y ago[flagged]
- rramadass 3y ago[flagged]
- clarionbell 3y ago[flagged]
- shash 3y agoSo... are you trying to argue _for_ colonialism instead?
- rramadass 3y agoDon't try to hide your ignorance(wilful?) behind snide comments and supercilious language. Two can play at this game. I have taken apart your insidious arguments, pointed you to books/videos/articles demolishing your attempt at "whitewashing" Indian history and your response is what? Mere petulant ad hominem attacks again betraying your lack of knowledge of the topic. Anybody who tries to defend colonialism (which is merely slavery in a different form) is a textbook "Racist".
- galaxyofdoom 3y ago[dead]
- manishsharan 3y ago> First they were not enslaved. Second, it wasn't for centuries. Raj was heavily decentralized with local autonomous governance over much of its territory That is patently false. My ancestral family had owned land in what is present day Bihar going back to reign of Akbar. Their land was given to an Englishman by the British Raj and my ancestors became laborers on their own land and they were displaced and scattered in poverty. So fuck off with your whitewashing.
- MomoXenosaga 3y agoThis is a kind of racism. Brown people have every capability to be just as cruel, heartless and devilishly cunning as white people. We don't know who invented slavery and we'll never know but when European explorers arrived they did not introduce the concept. Nor did they introduce war, superstition, poverty, starvation or inequality. There's no such thing as the "noble savage".
- rramadass 3y ago>We don't know who invented slavery and we'll never know but when European explorers arrived they did not introduce the concept. Wrong; the System of Racism as it is known today is entirely an invention of White European Countries. Prior to their institutionalizing of Racism on pseudo-scientific lines it was merely simple enslavement of the loser by the victor on a case-by-case basis. Also not all Countries/Kingdoms engaged in this. It is only with the expansion by Europeans that the idea of "Races" some of which were considered inferior by birth/definition because of skin color(black/brown/yellow/red), facial features(Caucasian/Negroid/Mongoloid), lack of understanding of native cultures(civilized/uncivilized), etc. became Systematized/Institutionalized and given legitimacy using what we know today as pseudo-science. > Nor did they introduce war, superstition, poverty, starvation or inequality. But they increased it exponentially, devastating entire countries/civilizations/cultural groups/social groups/etc. Much of the mess in the World today particularly in Africa, Middle East and South Asia has its genesis in their colonial past.