Today, is India a rich country or a poor country ?

[lordstanher]

While I do find an agreeable backing in most of ur points, I beg to differ in this one aspect u stated:

The adoption of English language in our higher educational needs, commercial and professional dealings is an obvious evidence of our linguistic handicap. Once, a society drives itself in the helpless adoption of a non-native language, the adoption of non-native culture becomes unstoppable by default as, language and culture are essentially inseparable entities...

Tat language forms the sole/main basis for exposure to/adaptation of a non-native culture needn't nec. be true......if u look at it this way, India is one country where nearly every state has a variation in its culture along w/ the language.
Yet most ppl. who settle down in another part of the country from their native regions don't give up their own culture, even if they adopt the local language or get used to the local mannerisms there.
Taking my own case, I'm Tamil but born/brought up in Hyd. where I learnt Telugu/Hindi......then we even lived for a while in Rajasthan, where I was exposed to a totally different culture, & I even learnt Marwadi there (now forgotten!) but all this never made me/my family less native Tamils......even my father's family (starting from 3 gens. before him!) was born/raised in AP, thus they r even more fluent in Telugu than Tamil (which they cud only speak & sounds quite different from the native (TN) Tamil).......but they still hadn't switched over to Andhra culture even tho sum of their successive gens. had married Andhra ppl.....
Plus I've evn come across many Marwadis/other northies settled down South for generations & turning out to be as fluent in the local South languages as their own, yet remaining attached to their native culture!
OK if individuals r not to be counted, even if u look at a general society, Hindi is becoming more common as a national/official language even in certain parts of the South where it was not welcome earlier......but tat hasn't led to such a severe dettachment from the native culture in the South so far.
So IMO, its solely left to an individual if they want to embrace even the main culture/other parts of it while learning a non-native language for watever reason/s they do so.

[madhuk]

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Can a modern multi-racial, multi-linguistic and multi-religion society remain united and caring? The answer is yes if we clearly define the role of Government and rights of Individuals. The US constitution is the closet to any modern society gave such assurances. Can India do it? Yes! In addition to US Constitution, we have to adopt sovereign rights of Individual state?s culture and language similar to European Union. As lordshanter said, if some one goes from one Indian state to another state for a living, the person must learn and respect the local language/culture similar EU nations...... also practice two-language formula, States mother tongue and English as link language to communicate with neighbors or across the Globe.

[mahadevan]

Three most significant happenings in the last few decades have sown the seeds for a great Indian future

i)Privitizations of Eductaion: Purist often argue that the mushrooming of the private eng colleges has diluted the quality of education. Guess what, it is not the IIT/IIM ivory tower guys that has made India proud today, it is the graduates of abc college of eng and the muniyandi college of eng that has made our nation proud. Our nation is much better of with a lot of people having a basic knowledge then just a few being higly knowledge. Till now the latter was our model, knowledge mostly in the form of so called spiritual thingi (that cannot stand the test of a senile person) was being held by a select few and they limited access to it for the majoity.
This privitazation started in TN and spread like wild fire to AP/Karnataka, thanks a million to the TN politicians.

ii) Affirmative actions: what happened in TN, in the name of quota system, has started the beginning of a great social justice affirmation. It made the subjugated masses the biggest benificieries of the expanding knowledge domain and as their intellect develops, a lot of this dogmatism that we see in India would be shown the door. Thanks again to certain sections of TN politicians

iii)Saying no to Hindi, if not for english, there would not have been any science and technology in India.
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Today we are integrating with the entire world only because of English, again thanks to certain Politicians of TN

[lordstanher]

As lordshanter said, if some one goes from one Indian state to another state for a living, the person must learn and respect the local language/culture

Um....sorry madhuk but reading this comment of urs, I re-read my own post & I cudn't find ne such statement by myself as u mention....?
I only said tat its solely left to an individual if they want to embrace even the main culture/other parts of it while learning a non-native language for watever reason/s they do so.
And btw, my Id is actually STANHER, short for Standard Herald (my fav. car! )...thinking of changing it now tat many ppl. r finding it difficult to spell/interpret.....!

[madhuk]

lordstanher, this is what you said:

"Taking my own case, I'm Tamil but born/brought up in Hyd. where I learnt Telugu/Hindi......then we even lived for a while in Rajasthan, where I was exposed to a totally different culture, & I even learnt Marwadi there (now forgotten!) but all this never made me/my family less native Tamils......even my father's family (starting from 3 gens. before him!) was born/raised in AP, thus they r even more fluent in Telugu than Tamil (which they cud only speak & sounds quite different from the native (TN) Tamil).......but they still hadn't switched over to Andhra culture even tho sum of their successive gens. had married Andhra ppl....."

It means you and your faamily learned telugu and respected local culture. You did the same when you moved to rajasthan. When you respect local culture does not mean you disrepscet your own culture.

[sivajayan]

And btw, my Id is actually STANHER, short for Standard Herald (my fav. car! )...thinking of changing it now tat many ppl. r finding it difficult to spell/interpret.....!

I first read it "lord stuns her" for whatever reason!

[lordstanher]

And btw, my Id is actually STANHER, short for Standard Herald (my fav. car! )...thinking of changing it now tat many ppl. r finding it difficult to spell/interpret.....!

I first read it "lord stuns her" for whatever reason!

Aha.....here's the living proof of my point (which I've outlined above)......!

[arvind]

My father was poorer than my grandfather even though he got a first degree.

I am poorer than my father even though I got a second degree.

I am confident that my son will be poorer than me.

This is the lot of backward Third World societies like India that pretend to have moral high ground.

[gaddeswarup]

I have been browsing through Jeffrey Sachs' book 'The end of poverty", Penguin Books, 2005. I find the book interesting and Sachs had some success in rejuvenating the economies of Bolivia and Poland and mixed results in Russia. He has also colloborated with Indian economists. Some information about his work can be found in:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Sachs
http://www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/about/director/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/commandinghe...freysachs.html
and links to some crtical articlers in:
http://www.danieldrezner.com/archives/001933.html
If others have read this book and have comments, I would like to know. Thanks.
Swarup

[Eelavar]

India is poor !

But India have many very rich personnality !

The division between the very rich and the very poor is rising in India....