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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: arun gera who wrote (15113)	12/30/2001 11:35:25 AM
From: Hawkmoon	Respond to of 281500

Time, trade, and technology might have introduced those positives in India even without the British. Ohh.. when one compares and contrasts oriental empires with those of the west, it's evident that India would have remained a decentralized region with constant bickering between the various warlords and leaders in the region. Look at China... The British only had a coastal presence in that area (HK and Shanghai, primarily) and it's remained relatively backward until recent times (and vast parts of it remain that way). Japan was a feudal society as late as the 1860's when the US forced open its ports to trade and foreign interaction. The prevailing theme of economic development in that entire region is essentially that local powerbrokers have constantly attempted to isolate themselves from western influence, realizing such modern influences were a direct threat to their ability to control the peasants and maintain caste and class systems. This is particularly evident with India, where the caste system is deeply embedded, and has only recently been subverted by the creation of an economically prosperous merchant class from the lower castes. But much remains to be done in effecting this change since the caste system was officially banned in the 1950s, but is still unofficially in force). That's a HUGE (250 million) group of individuals who are not seeing their economic potential fully realized. ambedkar.org hartford-hwp.com Hawk