People specially those existing in Europe still assume that we are a country of Snakes, Fakirs and Maharajas. If you chatter with some European critics on India you will discover that we are still a land of mystic and sadhus. The British were really good in their propaganda. But the general idea that ours is a country fighting amongst ourselves is not quite unsubstantiated, speculative or baseless. We are indeed a bickering lot.
We in India are quite proud and pompous in our belief that our civilization is not dead unlike that of Egypt, Babylon, Phoenicia or Greece. It still lives in the present – though we live in the past. We claim that we have the same thoughts, the same feelings, the same ideals of life as our forefathers who lived 2000 or 3000 years ago. We feel that our nation is a nation of continuity – historically, religiously, and culturally.
Time has passed by, alongwith a lot of water. If we continue to think that we hold those 2000 – 3000 years old feeling and thought, then look at China. China has one of the world's oldest civilizations and has the oldest continuous civilization. It has archaeological evidence dating back over 5,000 years. China had the largest economy for most of the last two millenia; until the 1850s when it missed the industrial revolution. Subsequently, imperialism, wars and civil wars damaged the country and its economy for most of the twentieth century. They had their own feudal dynastic rules for years. Then the last of the Qing Dynasty was overthrown by the revolutionary ideas of Sun Yat-sen en. They had their share of civil wars, Famines Japanese attack during WWII, Opium War, Cultural Revolution.
Today they are a UN permanent member, they have Hongkong and Macau (one should know what powerhouse this two locations are!!), 20+ great cities, the largest army in the world, 48,000 Km road, growing at 9%+, it is now the 2nd largest economy in the world after the US with a GDP of US$7.8 trillion when measured on a Purchasing Power Parity, is the largest producer of steel in the world, is the world’s 3rd largest automotive industry, is the 5th largest producer of gold, is well endowed with mineral resources, 720 million mobile phones in active use, the number of electronic information industry-related companies in China jumped from 7,500 in 2001, to 17,600 in 2003 and 67,000 in 2005, with approximately 56,000 of these being manufacturing companies, Internet in China has grown to host the largest base of net users in the world, The number of container units handled by mainland Chinese ports in November 2007 reached 100 million, the country also manufactures 90% of the world's containers, the throughput of cargo and containers at China's ports has been the largest in the world for the past five years, with an annual growth rate of 35%., in the list of 50 top world’s busiest container seaport – Shanghai, HKG, Shenzhen, Ningbo, Ghangzhou, Qingdao, Tianjin, Xiamen, Dalian combined to handle 124,227K of 20 Ft equivalent unit of containers while India’s Jawarlal Nehru India Port handled 3,953K units which turned out to be only 3.18% of China. The list is long. . . . . . . . . . . . .
Last 50 years, China was working hard to develop. Last 50 years we were sleeping. Suddenly now we wake up and look at China and wonder how they could have leaped forward to 50 years ahead of us. Then we start to question…. We sleep and we wonder. Most of the time we day dream, while they worked hard and prospered.
Whatever it is, the notion is not to compare and evaluate ourselves with China or worry, that the Chinese economy will overtake that of US in around 20 years from now, and that we will be where China is now.
Let us not get into that rat race and number game. Lets us instead concentrate and contemplate internally on how to resolve the poverty in India, improve the health system , remove gender analysis, improve the judiciary system, guard our children from child abuses, provide basic fundamental education for all, remove working women’s problems, solve Female foetcide problems, look at the inhuman condition that the sex workers live in; address the day to day corruption in our lives, alcoholism, problems of untouchability, Infant mortality, water problems, Child malnutrition, problem of growing old and old age, growing population, Polio issues, prostitution, Beggary, crime against women, HIV issues, Hunger, corruption in the education system, Female infanticides, Class struggles, Drug abuse, dowry issues, child labour, employment issues, Girl and women trafficking, domestic violence against women.
If we are able to do these - then we would have achieved a lot and would create a better world for our children. There is no need to follow China and become a world power.
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