I am an Indian and I have noticed that Indians are way too proud of their country for some reason and at the same time lack any civic sense towards it, they are extremely loud and extremely proud. We feel like the world revolves around India and our culture is superior to that of others. Also, a considerable chunk of the population has been sold the “India is a world-leader” myth and they think India is somehow leading the world in innovation, science and technology, human development etc.,
Now, I know for a fact that this is not true, when I try to gauge the perception of Indians abroad on Twitter, I get pretty negative results, but Twitter has nothing good to say about any group of people, so… I kinda wanted to know what you people though of India, don’t base it upon the etnic Indians who might be your friends and are decent people, but base it upon the news you read, the stories you hear from those Indians, etc.
At a risk of downvote oblivion, this is what comes to mind to me. Keep in mind that this is just what I perceive about India through all the media I’ve consumed so it can come across as a bit prejudiced. I’m sure there’s more nuance.
The good:
- Amazing food, rich culture
- Seemingly big into tech.
- Very colorful.
- People seem generally friendly.
The bad:
- So. Insanely. Chaotic.
- Basic sanitation and infrastructure seem stuck a few decades ago.
- Female emancipation is lacking as far as I can gather.
- A lot of inequality in general.
- The weather seems like hell to me.
- Even though they’re big into tech, it comes across to me that the government and general population is still stuck in the mid 90’s regarding devices (pc’s etc, smartphones excluded).
I feel combining this with @PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca likely creates a fairly accurate sense for the place.
India is, well…despite their historical advances in medicine and continued strong cultural fascination with academia, at some point they became nothing but call centers, distribution points, and scam centers. There is certainly more to India, though when I think of hacking, I think of China and Russia. When I think of scams, unfortunately India is top of the list.
It was the loudest and smelliest country I’ve ever been to.
I’ve never seen a country where the cross-country sleeper train bathrooms had literal holes on the floor to shit and piss out of. You saw the tracks wizz below you from the toilets. No plumbing, just excrete onto the tracks.
Chennai train station had the strongest most overwhelming diarrhea smell I ever experienced in my entire life.
Dudes were creepy as hell. They see you’re white and then you’re swarmed everywhere you go. People trying to scam, trying to appoint themselves as your tour guide and won’t stop following you and trying to guide you to “the mall”. Calling you Harry Potter because you wear glasses. I couldn’t imagine what would happen if I was a woman there. I shudder to think.
Crossing the street means walking into oncoming traffic and hoping and trusting everyone to just drive around you. Absolute fucking chaos. The people are not warm or friendly. They stare and get too close and touch you all the time. I kept having people touch my shoulders and try and touch my face when I was in public or queuing.
I never ever want to return to India ever again. I don’t recommend any of my friends go there. There were very few positives about that trip other than it being an eye opening experience as to how over 1 billion humans on the planet live.
They stare and get too close and touch you all the time. I kept having people touch my shoulders and try and touch my face when I was in public or queuing
This is more of a culture thing, I used to do it a lot when I was younger (it’s considered friendly)
The things that come to my mind are
-The country has a set goal to improve in tech industry, aiming to rival big countries like China.
-The people definetly know their spices. While they use it a bit too much at times, it certainly works well.
-The country is overpopulated, leading to talented people having harder time to succeed.
-If you’re watching an Indian man’s tutorial on any topic, you can assume it’ll work well.
-It has a noticable split in religious beliefs.
-fuck the remote scammers operating from Kolkata. The people in India also hate these people.
Can second the comment about tutorials. It’s amazing how your very very specific problem has a great tutorial, with the worst possible audio, that is perfectly solved by some random dude in his bedroom in India.
Kolkata and Gurgaon. We fucking hate them. They ruin our country’s reputation even though they are probably just 0.0001% of our country.
Can second the comment about tutorials. It’s amazing how your very very specific problem has a great tutorial, with the worst possible audio, that is perfectly solved by some random dude in his bedroom in India.
I wouldn’t view India as a world leader in any field but may be ignorant of some specialities? I know there is innovation but nothing major springs to mind. I’m being lazy though - that can likely be looked up and verified with stats.
Technology wise, it appears to depend on western countries outsourcing work, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing but isn’t a good thing either since the draw to using India isn’t skill but cost. If the cost goes up, the west will stop outsourcing there and go to some other low cost base. (I’m not saying Indians aren’t skilled, just that’s not the primary reason why outsourcing there is happening, it’s all about exploitation from the west in search of more profit).
Politically it seems to have been a dumpster fire for some time and looks like it’s trending towards more national extremism. Though that doesn’t seem to be unique at all - feels like the world is shifting to more fascist tendencies.
The caste system is especially cruel and I regularly read stories that it’s going strong with no signs of stopping. I find that morally repugnant.
The amount of scams against innocent people that originate from India is shocking, and it really appears as though corruption is so high that it’s not going to get better any time soon.
Professionally, I deal with Indians semi regularly and it’s overall positive. Personally, I’ve come across a few assholes but the majority have been decent people and none of the issues above ever come up.
To be fair, every country believes their culture is superior in some way, partly because it’s beneficial for governments to instil a sense of nationalism in its citizens. India’s not alone in that.
I agree, but we have crossed a limit between self-love and self-obsession. It’s hindering progress because people in India are not even ready to acknowledge what’s wrong with our priorities, culture and way of living and are calling anyone who questions their way of life anti-national. Sometimes, it feels like I am living in Eritrea or something!
You see that everywhere. Even within countries that aren’t classed as developing nations. The UK massively shot itself in the foot with the disaster that was Brexit thanks to nationalistic propaganda and outright lies from campaigners, and US liberals have faced “anti-American” backlash for their views.
I can attest to that. I was born and brought up in India, and right now in the US for education. It’s kind of the same here as well, just expressed differently due to cultural differences. The fact that the US is actually the world leader at this time makes these people much more dangerous imo.
In any case, I’m more hopeful about my country after the last election. They seem to be rejecting religious fundamentalism to some degree. It’ll take time, but I think we’re finally starting to see through BJP’s lies. I hope I can go back to India soon enough. (It’s hard to get good jobs in my field there at the moment. Counting on it changing at some point.)
I know India has a booming tech sector and produces tons of great engineers which is cool. I hate their scam call centers its disgusting.
I’ve never been but I’ve seen traveling vlogs and the news and it looks so unbelievably polluted and gross. With all the money and education I would expect basic infrastructure to be in every city. The country still has a lot of natural beauty and historical sites well preserved, big respect for that.
As for generalizations about the people. I see a lot of videos of indians mobbing and doing crazy acts. When they are abroad they tend to mostly interact with other indians and shut others out but generally follow the law and arent violent. Women’s rights are pretty awful. Sellers are too pushy.
In general my perception of Indians normally comes from the ones I’ve met who grew up in New Zealand and I have a good perception of them. When I have to exclude that and only think of India as a country my perception is very negative.
interestingly, almost everyone in the comments have been as calm headed and rational as you. There is not one emotionally charged reply which is devoid of real answers. This is pretty good!
- Biggest democracy in the world
- Wouldn’t consider it a world leader, to me it often seems more like they refuse to take a clear stance in world affairs, so they can continue positive relations with authoritarian countries like Russia
- Rapid development, but still a lot of extreme poverty and inequality
- Chaotic cities
- Great food, especially for vegetarians like me
- Religious extremism/conflicts seem prevalent
Wouldn’t consider it a world leader, to me it often seems more like they refuse to take a clear stance in world affairs, so they can continue positive relations with authoritarian countries like Russia
We are not interested in tying ourselves to backstabbing nations like USA or former coloniser UK. In the 1970s, these two countries sent nuclear submarines to nuke India. We were saved by Russia’s intel. Mother Russia is great. USA also has funded Pakistan for decades, that has housed terrorists that have attacked us on various occasions and killed far more citizens than that insignificant 9/11 thing.
Well, it’s not like you’re willing to cut ties with the West and align yourself with Russia either. Instead you’re trying to thread the middle ground by keeping your head down and keeping up trade with both. You’re not taking a stance, which is exactly why you’re not a political world leader.
Too bad diplomacy is pinching your little butt so hard. Here is something that will trigger you. I may be wrong though, you probably already support this.
It’s pretty telling that you think these pictures would be triggering to me. I’m not a nationalist, I have no problem saying that the nazi regime was horrifying. I have no issue saying that the current government unconditionally supporting Israel is a bad thing either. I’d never pretend the place I live in is the best place ever, or morally superior. Can you do the same?
And what place do I live in?
Anything goes with people that hate Russia. I am okay with believing they can believe in anything horrifying.
This thread is not the place for it.
This thread was also not the place to spread anti-communist propaganda about Russia. But you did not object to that, right? Also why are you afraid about people knowing USA and UK sent nukes for us in 1970s?
anti-communist propaganda about Russia
Anti-Communist? Russia has been a capitalist country since 1989, they’re not even claiming to be communist.
Russia has been a capitalist country since 1989
Damn I did not know the Communist Party of Russia, elected to govern, is capitalist. Next you will tell me western countries claim to be “civilised” and “democratic”, which I can also say is false.
You were just trying to spread propaganda rhetoric.
United Russia is the ruling party since the fall of USSR and is absolutely conservative by any definition of the term. The Communist Party of the Russian Federation, their main political opponent, that is indeed communist, hasn’t been elected, ever.
The communist party of Russia is a minority party in opposition, it’s not governing at all. That’s United Russia, which holds over 70% of the seats of parliament. United Russia is not communist. You’re very confidently incorrect here.
That makes both of us wrong then. Or is it just going to be me? Because you have an agenda.
We were saved by Russia’s intel.
No, you were saved by a Soviet intervention, led at that time by a Ukrainian man, by ships mostly made by Ukrainians.
It was Russia, not Ukraine. You may proceed to cry. And it was Russian intel.
Did I forget to tell you that you may proceed to cry?
In 1971? I’m pretty sure it was the Soviet Union buddy, and Leonid Brezhnev was from Kamianske, Ukraine. As was a majority of Soviet cold war equipment.
I know that doesn’t fit your political preferences and deep seated need to excuse genocide, but facts don’t care about your feelings.
I know that doesn’t fit your political preferences and deep seated need to excuse genocide
You are projecting your feelings so Indians start infighting with Russia, so that western NATO regime benefits. It is divide and conquer strategy, and we are quite alert about it, having gone through 200 years of it. You are the people comfortable about genocide of Russians and Ukrainians so you could continue to live a more lavish lifestyle in West.
People like you are the most emotional, living in delusion about being logical.
India and China have similar stances on matters, as does Russia, to the point India and China are the only countries in the world to sign a pact of not using nukes first. Why do western nations never sign that pact? 1945 Japan vibes?
Brezhnev was a leader in Russia, not Ukraine. His place of birth does not matter. How manipulative do you have to be to claim Soviet Union and Russia (core of USSR) are not the same, and to delude me with technical nonsense?
You are the people comfortable about genocide of Russians and Ukrainians so you could continue to live a more lavish lifestyle in West.
I am very much not comfortable with the fact that Russia is mass deporting Ukrainians and taking their children.
India and China have similar stances on matters, as does Russia, to the point India and China are the only countries in the world to sign a pact of not using nukes first. Why do western nations never sign that pact? 1945 Japan vibes?
Not only has Russia not signed it, Russia is actively using chemical weapons right now, despite numerous treaties about it.
Russia also signed a treaty to leave Ukraine alone if it gave up it’s nuclear weapons, and look how they are respecting it.
Brezhnev was a leader in Russia, not Ukraine. His place of birth does not matter.
Oh boy. You really really need a course in history if you think all the parts were treated the same. It mattered a LOT.
How manipulative do you have to be to claim Soviet Union and Russia (core of USSR) are not the same,
Despite Russia’s best efforts, and post cold-war propaganda, they really aren’t. I think the continued fall from Soviet superpower into Russianpetro-olicharchy should be a big hint.
But, as with most people like you, it’s protection all the way down
I’ve been working with many Indians remotely who were in India and on site in Sweden and Germany. None of them ever said anything like you describe, most of them were very humble and hard working. Sadly often they would just keep their head down and work into the wrong direction sometimes for a long time not reaching out to others.
But if I’m honest, the people from India were as diverse as any other group of people. From very religious from small villages to atheists from rich families. The division between them was bigger then between them as a individual and me a European. They didn’t even speak the same language and had to use English.
I am myself Indian
I think most Indians don’t realise how large and diverse India is. Most Indians underestimate how foreign parts of thier own country are in terms of economy, culture, language, food etc.
- exceptional food
- cheap workforce (the next major factory of world after China is becoming “too expensive” and competitive)
- hinduism
- religious segration
- caste system
- extreme poverty and extreme wealth
- racist towards dark skinned people (also due to caste)
- anti-queer
- lots of potential, but also among world leaders in corruption
- hot
- noisy, polluted cities
- very influenced by external forces
I’d like to visit, but Thailand, Vietnam, Bali, and Japan look more enticing.
Vietnam is wonderful. You also poop directly onto the train tracks in Vietnam (someone else commented about that), but somehow it’s much cleaner than I imagine India is (though I’ve never been to India).
South East Asia is an awesome place to travel. Highly recommend Thailand.
bunch of daredevils that can somehow cross roads WHILE CARS ARE SPEEDING BY in expert fashion
I feel called out!
LoL
I grew up in India’s abusive ex (UK). My impression was that people have a
Most people have no problems with Indians and British culture is pretty heavily influenced by India (or at least more so than other countries). Most Brits like Indian food and everyone drinks tea. Vindaloo is especially popular with people who are very drunk, and also happens to be my favourite meal generally (they might ban it in Denmark soon). My experience is that Indians are pretty chill people.
All the news we get from India paints the north as being full of insane zealots/rapists. Stories about whole villages pinning a man down so they can saw off and steal a man’s “holy leg” or young girls getting brutally gang raped etc. I know this probably isn’t the whole story but you need a decent pr team.
Narendra Modi is a twat.
Indians are stereotypically seen as either doctors or corner shop owners. Indians are typically seen as hard working. All tech support and telemarketing is outsourced to India and people don’t typically enjoy those things.
That said the UK does have it’s fair share of racist morons, who will always have a problem with Indians, but that’s because they weren’t raised right.
The caste system and arranged marriage are terrible. It doesn’t strike me as a good place for women.
Wait, they might ban vindaloo in denmark? Why?
I’m joking, Denmark recently banned a variety of instant ramen for being too spicy not joking
I view India as a rising power that has the potential to rival China and the USA. I think the culture is backwards in many ways and advanced in others. I don’t like your current administration, but I do think India overall has interesting politics. I mean, you guys have an active Maoist insurgency. Pretty wild for the 21st century.
I tend to get along well with Indians I meet in the states. I appreciate India long history and cultural impact (Buddha came from India for example). There were democracies in India before Athens was a thing.
All in all India’s a rising power with a lot of potential. Unfortunately I don’t think they will reach China-status anytime soon because they don’t exercise as much central control as China does.
In some ways this is good, Cultural Revolution wasn’t exactly a great experience for a lot of people. But in other ways it means the Indian government doesn’t have the power to reshape India in a way where it can successfully rival the European powers.
Had a talk with some friends a while back about this. Used to be this big far away country with wonders and crappy things. And it’s turning into scam center galore because the only contact we have these days is the weekly scammer. To the point we’ve come to associate he accent with the situation. It’s really an undeserved fate.
I really respect the area of Kerala and its commitment to their public. Very robust educational system, healthcare, and a focus on access to clean water. That’s just from stuff I’ve seen and read though, I’ve never been to India, I’m American.
I hope the best for India’s future, but it seems worrying from what I hear. I would hope for greater collaboration with China and an easing of tensions with Pakistan. India is a massively diverse place though, with multiple languages and even multiple writing scripts, so sometimes it’s amazing it’s a functional country at all.
Most of what I hear though is about India dominated by very right wing movements, but there’s a strong history of Indian working class movements as well. I’ll try to be optimistic about the future.
