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Strategies & Market Trends : India Coffee House -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (876)	5/25/1998 6:39:00 PM
From: Mohan Marette	Respond to of 12475

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To: Mohan Marette who wrote (876)	5/26/1998 12:57:00 AM
From: Papillon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12475

Mohan, Thanks for responding, and yes, I did just want to say my piece, but as I have a little time tonight I'll continue the dialogue. First of all, let me clarify something. I am not at all opposed to India defending itself and all that jazz. I am not nearly as concerned about India having nuclear weapons (if it really does) as I am about China selling missile technology and who knows what else to whomever. The idea that China would want to invade HP is absurd; the idea that the Pakistanis would want to invade Kashmir is real. After all, from their point of view India went back on its word to allow the people of Kashmir to decide their own fate many years ago and the majority Muslims have been unfairly dominated by a Hindu minority. Now, after allowing a bad situation to ossify for years and years no good, clear-cut, fair resolution seems possible. It is like the Babri Masjid/Ram Janam Bhoomi situation. Lock it up, throw away the key, wait several decades and then, eventually, boom! I am not concerned to defend Muslims, after all, they did invade India. Did you know that the Qutab Minar was built as a monument to the destruction of Hinduism? It was built using the stones from destroyed mandirs. But after 400 years is destroying mosques the right thing to do? The BJP has boasted for years that they have a list of a 1,000 more places. Number two on that list is Jnan Vapi in Banaras. Kasi may be the city of light, but remember that 35% of the population there is Muslim. People on this thread keep repeating that poor India has been invaded and plundered time and again. True! And who did this first (that we know of)? The Aryans! The Aryan people came from the steppes of central Euroasia and destroyed the magnificent cities of the Dravidians and enslaved the people. History is history and people are people, everywhere. Everywhere there are good and bad people, greedy and generous people, smart and dumb, etc. The idea that there is an "Indian mind" is absurd. I know you didn't say there is, but some on this thread seem to think there is. Some of the worst paternalism is perpetrated by Indians. Especially those who think the poor villagers are happy in their poverty because they aren't "materialistic" like Westerners. What crap! People are people. There are materialistic people everywhere and also those who aren't. The majority of people in India are just like people everywhere. When they can finally buy a bicycle, they want a scooter, when they get that they want a motorcycle, then a car. If you can afford a radio, you want a TV, when you get a TV you want to get Star TV. Certainly many Indians are resigned to their poverty, after all "Sab bhagvan ke haat me hain." I did not say that the poor of India were starving, as you implied I did. India has done a pretty good job of feeding itself, even if that means you have to use wheat with 5% dirt and rocks added by weight and vegies are a rare luxury. The inability of NRIs to face the fact that tens of millions of Indians live in poverty so severe, so harsh that it is not seen on such a scale anywhere else in the world is amazing to me. This is what keeps India from being a world power. Like I said before, when a quarter of the population of the economic/industrial capital of the county doesn't even have toliet facilities, then it is a third world country, with all that that implies. I am not as up to date on contemporary politics in India as many on this thread, but I have heard Advani speak. I know the RSS roots of the BJP. The BJP is the political wing of a Hindu fundamentalism that saddens me very much and this is the issue I think NRIs should be focusing on. The Indian inferiority complex that I, and many, many others have noted over the years is just an irritant, but I believe it keeps Indians from developing their full potential and from facing up to their problems. N.B. "Inferiority complex" does NOT mean inferior. India has given the world many brilliant minds. Lucky USA, we reap the rewards of India's brain drain. I'll continue this in answer to some of the others. Toodles, Papillon