Why Does the American Left Fear the Rise of India?
The American relationship with the republic of India is heading in the wrong direction. Given recent history, where strong and positive U.S.-Indo relations were in full bloom, this is especially disconcerting. President George W. Bush’s administration, long maligned as arrogantly unilateralist, solidified a close bilateral partnership — friendship, even — with the rising South Asian power. Bush saw India as a natural ally: the world’s largest multiethnic democracy, looking at its place in the world at the turn of this century through much the same prism our own ancestors looked through in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As Harvard historian Sugata Bose observed, the strengthening of ties between India and the United States “may turn out to be the most significant foreign policy achievement of the Bush administration.”
Under President Barack Obama, however, those ties are in moderate though steady and not insignificant decline. Since Obama’s inauguration, our relationship with India has begun to erode. To its credit, the Obama administration authorized a $2.1 billion arms sale with New Delhi last year. But there is more — there should be more — to the American-Indian friendship than signing off on a Boeing contract with the Indian defense ministry.
For instance, trends in trade are worrisome. Whereas in 2008 the United States exported $17.6 billion worth of goods to India, by 2009 that figure had dropped by more than $1 billion. Some of this is due to the recession, but consider: from 2001 through 2008, imports from India to the United States had gone up by $2 or $3 billion annually, culminating in $24 and $25.7 billion worth of goods imported in 2007 and 2008. That figure plummeted by $4.6 billion in 2009. During Bush’s tenure, protectionist economic policies were done away with. Outsourcing, that dirty word, was embraced. The United States became India’s largest investment partner; foreign direct investment in petroleum exploration, infrastructure, mining, telecommunications, and other good things accounted for much of all investment into India.
The free trade policies agreed upon by President Bush and Prime Minister Singh liberated markets and destroyed barriers in agriculture, textiles, iron, steel, coffee, tea, information technology, pharmaceuticals, and more — and as a consequence, helped develop the rise of India’s first genuine middle class in history. According to the National Council for Applied Economic Research, there are approximately 220 million “aspiring” Indians — a “consumer class” — living in households earning between $2,000 and $4,400 per year, who can now afford to buy niceties and luxuries. Some estimates have India’s middle class even larger. This was not the case fifteen or even ten years ago.
And when a caveat in this relationship deemed less beneficial to the United States arose, President Bush still kept things in long-term perspective so as not to denigrate our newfound camaraderie with India. When American food prices skyrocketed in 2008, Bush attributed it to India’s progress and implored Americans to place developments into a broader context: “Their middle class is larger than our entire population,” Bush said. “And when you start getting wealth, you start demanding better nutrition and better food. And so demand is high and that causes the price to go up.”
Today, President Obama sounds markedly different about India. He has employed populist oratory, criticizing “a tax code that says you should pay lower taxes if you create a job in Bangalore, India, than if you create one in Buffalo, New York.” Such language has increased anxieties in New Delhi. “We are already witnessing signs of protectionism in the world’s biggest economy,” the Indian external affairs minister was quoted as saying, proclaiming that “we will need to argue against this trend at the international [forums].” Just one month into Obama’s presidency, India was prepared to present its grievances with the new administration’s protectionist policies to the World Trade Organization.
The bell shaped curve. The most intelligent 1% of Indians and Chinese dwarfs the population of American far leftists. They cannot compete with these people. They should be afraid.
Crabby Appleton RTTC
- The Obama-Reid-Pelosi trio eagerly canceled the highly successful H-1B visa program…
Canceled? You might want to factcheck that one. It will definitely come as news to some folks.
Thanks for the part where you compared the Left’s hatred for India to their hatred for Israel. I hadn’t thought of it that way, and now kinda/sorta have an answer for my Indian friends when they ask about why the government suddenly has a psychological problem when it comes to their country.
India is a sccessful model of capitaluism and a display of western civ providing for the benefit of hard-working people. They rteflect what has been successful in America an therefore the libiots hate them.
(sorry for typos, one asrm broken)
When India was in the grip of Nehru’s socialism and the “Licence Raj”, the left could feel virtuous by donating money to “feed the starving millions of India”. Then India saw the light and began to embrace capitalism. Whereas foreign aid merely reinforced a dismal status quo, dirty old capitalism has lifted many millions of Indians across the poverty line and transformed their economy. They have a long way to go but now India is confident about it’s ability to spread wealth to it’s citizens through capitalism.
No wonder this horrifies the left. Another scary thing for the left is the way that Indians loudly express ideas and love raucous political debate. Good gracious, they may be genetically inclined to raging democracy! Most intimidating to the tight-assed left, Indians have a giant sense of humour and don’t take themselves too seriously.
Finally, India’s secret weapon – the Indian morning – unbeatable.
Go Bharat go.
India, Israel, S Korea, Poland,Australia, Japan. . . these are the allies we need.The “o” is determined to weaken us as much as he can, including the degradation/ severing of ties with those countries that sure our mutual interests. How much longer, o LORD, must we deal with this farce?
Though far from perfect India has been a functioning democracy for 60 years. India makes its own choices and it’s in-brace of limited capitalism has been a boon for it. In 40 years India will be very rich and Pakistan will still be a basket case.
It’s worse than you think.
Today, thanks to Hillary Clinton, these irritants are back. Indian scientists, including people such as Goverdhan Mehta who is a member of the U.S. Academy of Sciences, are once again being denied visas to enter the United States. Those working in aerospace, physics and chemistry find it next to impossible to visit the United States even to attend a conference.
Outside View: Obama rejects high-tech cooperation with India – UPI.com (26 January 2010)
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Analysis/2010/01/26/Outside-View-Obama-rejects-high-tech-cooperation-with-India/UPI-37381264519484/
http://snipurl.com/u78j9
There is a truth here: the government of our country is becoming a national socialist government.
This time the socialists don’t wear their brown socialism as a shirt. They were it on their skins and in their souls.
White people and those who adopt parts of their culture and ideals (especially democracy and capitalism) are to be abhorred. Strong brown leaders and dictators are to be admired.
Brown is the new Aryan and redistribution and reparations are their creed and the State is God.
i don’t like outsourcing anymore than the next person, but India is a friend, China is an enemy.
“- The Obama-Reid-Pelosi trio eagerly canceled the highly successful H-1B visa program…
Canceled? You might want to factcheck that one. It will definitely come as news to some folks.”
This may be what the poster is referring to:
Several Indians who arrived with an H-1B visa at Newark and John F Kennedy airports were deported based on a new rule, immigration attorneys and activists have reported.
H-1B visa-holders being deported from port of landing! : Rediff.com Business (27 February 2010)
http://business.rediff.com/slide-show/2010/jan/25/slide-show-1-h-1b-visa-holders-being-deported-from-port-of-landing.htm
http://snipurl.com/ujugx
Socialist policies kept the Indian “civilization” a backassward dungheap, but the free market is making India a proserous and happier country.
India, as a huge democracy, that is relatively stable democracy (a heritage of British rule) has the potential to be our 2nd most important ally, much as the United Kingdom is. To cast aside that possibility is irresponsible in the extreme, but that hasn’t stopped this administration from insulting our closest allies and encouraging our enemies. This president is well on the way to being ranked with those towering Democrats of your, James Earl Carter and James Buchanan as the worst president in our history.
India puts proves that Classical Liberalism and Democracy work as the drivers of human progress and well being.
It’s as simple as that.
The work ethic, the enthusiasm, the embracing of democracy, the active & profitable free market within India, are examples of why leftists despise them. India is a terrific nation. It has many, many problems. That nation is working hard to overcome its third world status & to create a healthy & productive society. In short, they do represent many of the ideals & activities of America or American history. India will one day be America’s most significant ally in any conflict. And if our opponent is China, India will get “it” first since they are closest.
If the left is fearful of India or hates India because their actions look much like America’s actions as she became prosperous, then it fits with what appears to be a visceral hatred of America by the left. Lets face it, the left spends a great deal of time telling us why we are bad, why we are at fault (insert crime or offense here) for many things, why what we have done has harmed the world, & why our prosperity has harmed the planet. Most of their complaints are bogus & are based on their ideological position that mankind should only live as well as the left thinks we should & any other idea is based on imperialism & militaristic actions.
I think India is a terrific nation with great possibilities & I also think they can be & will be one of Americas most loyal & ardent allies in any situation we must deal with. Hatred of India because they will not embrace the climate change agenda, reveals once again a hatred by the left of progress. When the middle class begins to grow & live better, it seems the left gets upset since apparently, it means many no longer accept the babble that they should depend on the government.
When average people realize they can do better if they do for themselves, it de-fangs the left. They can no longer sell the you need us & our bureaucracy to survive. Average hard working people know they can not only do w/o the government, they know they can do much better w/o the government.
This hatred of progress, or people doing for themselves & people making their own way that the left displays on many issues, shows what they really want id to control people. They also want the wealth for themselves & that means they must keep average people down.
Obviously the people of India have already discovered this & time will show that Americans will see the Indian people as true allies who we must work with, rather than create anger and animosities with.
I am sick of the socialist attitude. These guys may not be ‘socialists’, but they sure act like them & they sure do take any decision as though it is based on socialist ideologies. Reminds me of the old saying, “if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, & quacks like a duck, then, its a duck!
“India, as a huge democracy, that is relatively stable democracy (a heritage of British rule)”
This is absolutely laughable. British rule was a brutual military dictatorship. Upto 30 million Indians died under forced starvation policies of the British. I realize many American’s are hesitant to criticize their Anglo-Saxon cousins, but let’s be brave enough to face facts. Free-market capitalism was also banned under British rule. India per-capita GDP as low as it is today was more than 5 times lower in 1947 after getting independence from the UK. The literacy rate was a measly 12% in 1947 (compared to 75% today), so English was largely self taught by Indians themselves. The total electricty generation was less than 1500 MW in 1947 compared to over 160,000 MW today.
Also most of the IIT and enginnering college graduates came AFTER British rule. What makes India great is it’s 5000 year old civilization. Some of it’s legacy is the Hindu numerical system, decimal system and also the language Sanskrit which is the root of all Indo-European languages BTW.
Capitalism will defeat Socialism anyday. India should embrace it more fully. Free-market societies will always be richer than one’s base on socialism. Western European countries (Like France, Germany etc) have 30% lower per-capita GDP than the U.S.
#16 Was your homegrown caste system more or less brutal than the British rule? As long? The Brits are gone. How about those castes?
Crabby A.
I like India a lot, in theory.
But, in practice, India is disappointing.
Why can’t RAW send a hit-team to take out this evil LeT/JuD clown who is prancing around giving rallies in Pakistan? When RAW rubs him out, I will then consider India worthy of inclusion into the “West.”
The Obama Administration forgets about the influence and wealth of a large Desai-American population. The caste system and “the Raj” are for the most part history. The Desai-Americans are a current reality, many have become US Citizens and Vote – and – more importantly contribute to political parties and candidates. Without getting into details, the GM/Chrysler Bankruptcies and Dealer Terminations have earned the President some lifelong enemies in that community apart from H1B visas. Hinduism came up with the theory of “Karma” – a Hindi shorthand for “What Goes Around – Comes Around.” ‘Nuff said? -S-
maybe our little Muslim prez is pissed off at the Indians because of global warming issue and the fact that they told the big O to f*ck off on the carbon credit deal. it’s Chicago politics man, it states I’m going to be mad if you don’t do what i want. my advice to the Indians, chill out for a couple of years and it will change.
Well, well, Dr. Bones, and here we–the Muses and thee and I, among others–have Neocomrade N. M. Guariglia the “foreign policy analyst and columnist.” I believe we have watched this same specimen of a _señorito_ drift down Pajama Creek headlong once before, back before it adopted our own practice of giving the monickers of neocomrades the way _Pravda_ and _Izvestiya_ (and indeed, Sovizdat generally) used to do for the prototype of Party ’n’ Ideology.
Even though I have lost my Leo Strauss Brand® magic decoder ring that came in the Cracker Jack® [1] box, I betcha I can discrypt that one. With a little help from the pet google, admittedly: I betcha http://tinyurl.com/yknp7bm is the specimen its ownself. Or rather, its ownneoself.
But the peanut gallery peanuts will not be havin’ much patience with philology, so _ad rem_!
The_señorito du jour_ has included at least one sentence that it definitely ought not to have, namely
“The left is wary of India for the same reasons it remains wary of Israel: both democracies are fiercely nationalistic and unapologetically defend themselves against the “downtrodden” “other,” i.e., Islamic lunatics.”
I am not sure whether to subtract ten points or twenty, _i.e._, whether it is here committin’ two distinct agitprop boo-boos in thirty-one (31) words. or only one boo-boo that can be viewed in stereo. I shall report it as two, sir, and thee may decide with thee’s incorrigible balance and fairness:
(1) There should have been a great deal more _trippa e bologna_ about “Islamic lunatics.”
(2) There should have been no (0.00) references to Jewish Statism or the Tel ’Avîv statelet.
_Timeo caryopteres et dona ferentes_, Dr. Bones!
Though admittedly the palæocomrades were Democracy fans too, in their fashion. They had their _Deutsche Demokratische Republik_, after all, _nicht wahr?_ Apart from maybe Duke Roger of Foxcuckooland [2], nobody is all bad. Always try to be charitable, sir, if only because _caritas_ annoys the wingnutettes and wingnuts almost as much as _l’éclaircissement_ annoys ’em.
Mother India gets this damnfool puffery largely because she is not strong in the charity department. I fear it is doubtful that Señorito Guariglia y Futurismo would give the New Delhi localisation of the democracy product the time of day if Demosoft Inc. were to scrap the islamophobia attachment in the next release.
Thus the junior neocomrade proceeds on the (distinctly pre-neo) maxim that the enemies of its paymasters’ enemies must be its paymasters’ friends, which is sound enoiugh up to a point, I guess, but was never designed to bear this much envelope-pushin’. One should in all fairness mark that Don Nicholetto is not tryin’ to interest the Indians themselves in a bizarre Pact of Steel [3], he is only entertainin’ the pajamatarian vulgar. Or tryin’ to.
Whether the performance can be pulled off depends on how successful Party-’n’-Ideology wombschoolin’ and downdumbin’ have been to date. If most of the sweet puppies have been *completely* sheltered from the traditional downside account of Mother India–divine boviculture, the self-immolation of widows in the path of Hubby and Juggernaut, the _Gospel according to Vidiadhar Surajprasad_ and a’ that [4]–then the señorito may hope for success in its agitproppin’.
But I cannot expect its success, Mr. Bones. Not when so little time has passed since that great luminary of Party ’n’ Ideology (plus also of Leostraussianity, by gum!), Neocomrade Herr Prof. Dok. A. D. Bloom informed the universe [5] that he began his undergraduate séances by attemptin’ to get Wally Wingnut and Cindy from Wasilla to agree that Hindus are OBJECTIVE ethical barbarians due to the suttee _shtyk_.
(( Maybe try it on again after another decade or degeneration or two, Nicky lad? ))
Healthy days.
___
[1] Did you know that the registrators of the mark want “Cracker Jack” as two separate words, sir? [http://www.crackerjack.com/home.htm]
That raises the question about “Leo Strauss brand,” which, having been awarded _hono®is ©ausâ_, so to speak, by thee and me, we get to specify, for thus decreeth Nature and Nature’s Law. Also Mlle. de la Main Invisible, without whom none of this would have been … &c. &c.
I seem to have always written it completely detached, and I’ll stand by my unconsconscious druthers. But bear in mind, please, that the snake oil proper is “LeoStraussianity,” semi-detached.
[2] “… inventor or discoverer of the Willie Horton product, … mighty slayer of Dukakis, ….”
[3] Call it “The Delhavîv Axis”? (( No, I think definitely not. ))
[4] _Cf._ http://tinyurl.com/yj4jws6 for the Golden Calf angle and http://tinyurl.com/yfpm6nh for _An Area of Nightfall_ .
[5] http://tinyurl.com/yk8ptbf (p. 26)
[38] That mysterious _caryopteres_ is only “wingnut[ette]s” in fancy dress. Since the smallest Liddell-Scott at 350a gives KAP’YON, “the nut”, in upper-case as a supposedly radical word, ’tis no great wonder that I am absolutely sure I never heard of it till just now. The one derivative there given would latinise as _caryonauta_, ‘caryonaut.’ The definition is “one who goes to sea in a nutshell,” which has a nice Edward Lear ring to it, admirably suited to spoofing the Foxcuckoolanders.
Naturally quack Latin has dug this chestnut up: “The only time that fungal nuclei ever actually merge with their cell-mate is just before spore production, and this process is called karyogamy.” [http://tinyurl.com/yjqqu8v]
That vaguely jocose word from the labóratory might actually do, though, for the Marriage of Sh’lomô and Sarasvatí….
They went to sea in a Sieve, they did,
In a Sieve they went to sea:
In spite of all their friends could say,
On a winter’s morn, on a stormy day,
In a Sieve they went to sea!
And when the Sieve turned round and round,
And every one cried, ’You’ll all be drowned!’
They called aloud, ’Our Sieve ain’t big,
But we don’t care a button! we don’t care a fig!
In a Sieve we’ll go to sea!’
Far and few, far and few,
Are the lands where the Jumblies live;
Their heads are green, and their hands are blue,
And they went to sea in a Sieve.
“#16 Was your homegrown caste system more or less brutal than the British rule? As long? The Brits are gone. How about those castes? ”
I don’t even know how to begin with this. Let’s start with Caste is not an Indian word but a Portuguese/Spanish word (Casta actually) and refers to the racially hierarchy scheme they have (and still going strong) in South and Central America. Read about casta, it will enlighten you BTW. Also check the GINI index from the CIA world factbook, you will notice the highest income disparities in the world are in Casta based societies like Brazil and Mexico. Even China and the U.S. have much higher income disparities than so called caste based India.
I don’t know about Brutal caste system, Jathi and Varna are not caste. Jathi is out tribal/ ethnicity, so is that a system. I guess it is in a way, but ethnic groups are found all over the world.
BTW, all your European last names are caste names, example, Smith, Farmer, Blacksmith, Schwarzenegger (mean Black smith caste), Cooper is a caste of Barrell makers. Serfdom was also found in Europe until well into the late 19th/ early 20th century. (Not to mention Slavery). So if China had invaded the U.S. and occupied it and said it was less brutal than slavery in the U.S., you would be ok with that?
Ofcourse, India’s so called caste system is a combination of two things one is Jathi which is tribe/ethnicity. The other is the feudual guilds which was found all throughout Europe in their serfs, knights, slaves, and other castes that I mentioned above (like smith, farmer, potter etc..).
Industrialized India has no castes. Infact the Indian government has a large affirmative action system (and actually pioneered the concept in the early 1950′s) to “even out” opportunity for all ethnic groups.
Under British rule we saw such wonderful practices like Blowing dissidents in front of cannons (1857), staged famines in provinces with unrest (last one in 1943). Decimation of the textile industry (including cutting thumbs of weavers in Bengal). They forced Indian farmers to grow cash crops like Cotton and Tea to supply British factories. They prevented the industrialization of India by banning construction of Steel and textile mills (which could compete against British industry).
So yes in conclusion, I can firmly say that India is far better off today without the British rule, so called castes and all. Indian ethnic groups are so much more united than Europeans. Each Indian state is the size of a European country. The little tiff today between Greece and Germany shows how castist Europeans are.
Hey, we should not be AGAINST India, but somehow I am not disturbed that FEWER jobs are bing outsourced there. Some day soon, I expect to call the police to report that someone has had an accident in front of my house…and get a voice on the phone with an Indian accent.
Whatever the British did to the indians in India, they did twice as much to the catholics in Ireland. And most hardline rightwingers are scots-irish and you should go back in your own history to figure out how you ended up first in ireland and then in America.
hmm. oh well. Lets focus on the deeper, far more dangerous, eternal, 1400 year old curse thats confronting all of us.
Bush’s ability to strengthen the relationship with both India and Pakistan at the same time was just one of many accomplishments that he didn’t get credit for. Both countries have a tremendous amount to offer as US strategic partners. Yet they are enemies – so to work together with both of them is incredible and I’m sure plenty of people said it couldn’t be done.
3 Reasons why India is a great nation,and was always destined for greatness:
1 Tandoori Chicken.
2 The invention of Zero.
3 The Kama Sutra.
India is a natural ally of the United States. Both economically and culturally through our mutual English Language. Indians believe in education and reward for performance and on merit. They are definitely not progressive liberals.
Our Marxist President naturally doesn’t feel comfortable with them. They are also a natural enemy of IslamoFascism.
Among other things, the Indians invented the “Arabic numbers.” Including zero.
India was hugely interested in a young American lieutenant who called himself Armor Geddon in the battle for Fallujah. He was an Indian descent American kid who graduated from Johns Hopkins with a degree in neuroscience and joined the Army to drive tanks. He ended up commanding a platoon of M1A1 Abrams tanks going into the battle of Fallujah in 2004. His blog and his stories were all over the Indian newspapers and internet. It was another positive story tying America and India together. Hopefully, all this will change next year with the new Congress.
“a tax code that says you should pay lower taxes if you create a job in Bangalore, India, than if you create one in Buffalo, New York.”
I can’t decide if this verbal/rhetorical quirk of Obama’s has anything to do with what he actually thinks policy-wise or if he just reflexively sets everything against a villain. Take for example, Las Vegas. Or doctors who cut off limbs for profit. Obama just talks that way. He might not be able to make an argument without something or someone in the place of antagonist.
That said… I’m just blowing hot air and enjoying the puzzle because IN THE END it doesn’t matter if Obama means it or not. He also has repeatedly shown that he doesn’t have in his conceptual space any notion that anyone should take what he says seriously about Las Vegas or doctors or Bangalore. And what he says, no matter his intent, matters a great deal. A statement made isn’t made in isolation but in the context of everything. Any statement made is made in the context of the whole world.
And my inquisitive monkey brain that keeps going off on weird tangents always finds this a little bit boggling that someone who is supposed to be so smart (and smart he may be – smart doesn’t mean being right, after all) can be smart without, more than anything else, being aware of connections. Isn’t that what IQ is in the end? The enhanced ability to conceive of connections and relationships?
So, no matter what he really thinks, how is it possible that he and a whole whopping boat-load of progressives think that anything he or they do or say happens in isolation?
Because they really do. All the time.
It’s a puzzle my brain keeps failing at. I don’t insist Palin (for example) is a brainiac but I’d trust her to wake up in the middle of the night and make a global decision half-groggy without ever ever missing that essential context of connection that Obama misses in pre-prepared and vetted speech making.
The invention of Zero.
India did not invent the zero. Zero was invented by the Babylonians about a thousand years before Mohammed (as part of their base-sixty “sexagesimal” numbering system), and approximately an equal period before the place-holding zero was added to the (originally zero-less) Indian “base-ten” system, which in the beginning possessed only nine symbols.
Of course the left fears prosperity in India. A prosperous country with over a billion people totally puts the lie to their equation that population = poverty. Where would they be without Malthusian panic mongering? How can they keep pimping abortion if they can’t claim that children are a cancer on the planet?
India can be a good ally for the US. However, it should be noted that India still has a large Communist minority and an active Communist insurgency going on in rural areas. India embraced Soviet Communism for many years. Many rural Indians are confused about why the official national government has made an about face on this subject. Some state governments have not. The US needs to tread carefully here.
An interesting fallout of Obama foreign policy is that Israel and India are drawing every closer to each other, although this started after the collapse of the Soviet hegemony. They share the fact that Islamist fanatics are at their borders, both are very entrepreneurial and hi-tech economies, which renounced state-heavy economic policies around the same time. A good example of this cooperation is that Israel designed and built a spy satellite which India put into space.
At a cultural level, both are ancient nations with ancient languages, which are able to combine modernity with tradition. Hinduism never had a problem with Judaism, they just didn’t cross each other as historical forces. (There was a small tribe of Indian Jews, mostly emigrated to Israel now.) When young Israelis finish their army duty and take a few years off, many of them go backpack around India. Until the Mumbai massacre Jews were always safe in India.
So as Obama disses both nations they can ally more with each other and ignore him.
The fact that their de facto national language is English is enough to inspire leftist enmity. But I think O’s extraordinary grudge against Britain extends to the old commonwealth states.
I want some of whatever JHM is smoking.
Serious I agree with the premise that India is much more of a natural partner than China any day of the week or century for that matter.
I am not buying we should have policies that promote outsourcing of American jobs and industry to any nation.
It’s simple: everything Bush did is evil. Bush favored India. Therefore India is evil and must be opposed.
16. Agnivayu:
“I realize many American’s are hesitant to criticize their Anglo-Saxon cousins”
It’s more like American conservatives see Indians as distant cultural cousins due to the influence of the British.
To say most of us are not Anglo-Saxon by blood btw (I’m not btw) is an understatement. I’m pretty sure they are well under 10% of the population in the US.. I’m also pretty sure this country never has been (re: even back as far as the American Revolution) majority Anglo-Saxon. So to the degree we feel any link to the UK; it is mostly due to their influence on our law, political customs, language, et cetera.
Perhaps it is a mistaken notion, perhaps not. English did end up being the common language to tie India’s various groups together. How much did English law become entrenched after independence? How many of the early Indian professionals and judges were educated by the English? Even now, India does have ties to the UK. It’s obvious every time I visit; there are so many people from India in the UK.
PS
On the other side, India probably picked up the dumb socialism ideas from those educated in England…. So you’ve got another one to add to the other scale.
27. jgreene:
“India is a natural ally of the United States. Both economically and culturally through our mutual English Language.”
This is part of the reason the left doesn’t like them. They are at war with all cultural ties (esp the old ones that remind us where we came from, what there was before them, et cetera); even small ones like this. They need to replace the old culture with their new lefty political based one.
Bush was actually regarded more highly in India than the US.
Obama is just a passing phase.
Make Bobby Jindal President, and things will happen for both America and India.
I remind everyone that until 1947, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh were all one country. If the 1947 borders held, it would be substantially larger than China in population.
First, bully for India! I’ve yet to meet someone from India who wasn’t a delight; however, I have met many North American leftist/statists who were not a delight.
The success of the H1-B depends in part on one’s standpoint. Big companies got cheap programmers that perhaps drove wages down and older US programmers out of work. The H1-Bs got valuable experience at a US firm before getting sent back to India after the visa’s 3 years were up (or, less likely, getting a green card or an extension). The consumer got more and cheaper software. There are claims that the shortages never existed but were convenient for pulling politician’s strings; back in the 1980s, there was a “shortage of engineers,” even when well-qualified ones weren’t getting hired. I opine that engineering is inherently more stable in content than CS with its constant new waves of technological evolution.
Prof. Norm Matloff works “the H1-B is bad” angle, from which I’ve pulled parts the above:
http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/matloff.html
I’m not in IT, but I am willing to consider aspects of Matloff’s work. That the Federal government created the visa to fill a need–political? economic? re-election?–makes me skeptical about claims of its success for American IT personnel.
Perhaps Lefties fear revenge of the Indians.
w’ncanadian;
you might like to rename yourself; you’ve misspelled your moniker! “wesetrn” = “western”? Also, memorize the following:
He’s, she’s, it’s;
His, hers, its.
I wouldn’t want the world to think we Canucks can’t do spelling or grammar!
@40, Toads;
Tragically, for similar reasons, Jindal is no more eligible to be POTUS than Obama was. His parents were not yet citizens when he was born. (Obama’s father never was, and never tried. Lifelong Kenyan/British.)
With any luck, there will be some legislative teeth in checks for these things before the next President.
Sanskrit is not the “root of all Indo-European languages”. It’s a very old example of one, of course, but it developed from proto-Indo-European on its own just like many others did. There’s a neat tree here: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4f/IndoEuropeanTree.svg
41:
H1B is tied to an employer. Thats why its “slavery”. People who don’t like H1Bs/Indians should try to remove this shackle. The H1Bs get their freedom to choose their employer and, in turn, the employer would have less incentive to bring a h1B , or if they “desparately” need him, to pay him prevailing wages. I was on H1B and I knew for a fact I was being paid prevailing (or more than my local/born-in-the-U.SA counterparts) back in the 90s, but I have an American degree.
44.
Even if Jindal’s parents were here (which they were NOT) illegally, it wouldnt matter. Where did you get the idea that the parents need to be citizens or legal? Its not a constitutional requirement. Anyway, I dont think Jindal is of presidential timbre anyway. Nor is (if my suspicion is right
your favorite:Palin. Hopefully the republicans can come to their senses and run someone acceptable to the middling independents: Romney. I voted for McCain but 6 votes in my family switched to OBama because of Palin, though they all WANTED to vote for McCain. This pattern repeated among my native-born (read, “white”) friends as well
The reason the watermelons (red inside, green outside) on the Left are so seriously annoyed with India is much simpler than anyone has mentioned here: India didn’t buy into the global warming hysteria.
India uses domestic coal for most non-automotive energy, and we all know that stuff is the devil incarnate for the watermelons. Add to that the fact that there is a huge emerging middle class in India whose major aspirations are a house, car and vacations where the weather is nicer, which the watermelons cannot stand (think of all the pollution! The world will burn up! We can’t get reservations at the cheap vacation spots because of all the Indians there!) and hence vilify.
Seriously: India is slowly discovering just how good things can be if you let people just be. The only real thing holding India back is the bureaucracy, which is simply mind-boggling.
The Brits knew this, which is probably the reason that they left India such a legacy.
Sensitive, compassionate people are dismayed to bee a large country with such a spiritual heritage destroyed by the juggernaut of American corporate greed. Advertising promises fulfillment but results only in slavery to the same billionaires who rule America.
China is a precedent here. Chairman Mao created a society based on love and compassion. Because of his good heart, he thought he make make peace even with the genocidal, racist corparchy that is America. However, Nixon fooled him into taking the first steps in selling out his people to the American Fortune 500. Now, the Chinese are now slaves to Wal-Mart and Coca-Cola. The spirituality Mao created is almost gone and replaced with greed and oppression. India seems to be going down the same road.
“[Jindal's] parents were not yet citizens when he was born.”
Expanding upon Raj’s comment, live birth in the US confers citizenship. We have many expat Japanese friends who have no intention of naturalizing, yet whose children are, none the less, US citizens. This is the sole citizenship requirement to become President.
As for Raj’s family’s hesitancy re. Palin, I would urge him and his to “not believe the hype.” My experience has always been that Republicans are rarely as evil or Democrats as virtuous as the MSM and popular culture would have you believe.
Actually, the definition of Natural Born Citizen is clear from all legal literature at the time: born on the country’s soil (jus soli) and having two citizen parents (jus sanguinis ). For other forms of “native” citizenship, either will usually do. It is a unique dual requirement they imposed on the one who was to be CIC , in charge of the nation’s armed forces, to try and ensure that his loyalties were undivided. No other official or elected representative has to meet the standard.
We see the horrible consequences of winking at that consideration, now.
submandave;
Excellent example. Your expat Japanese friends’ children cannot be POTUS. VP, Speaker, Senator, or Representative is fine — but not CIC/POTUS.
“English did end up being the common language to tie India’s various groups together.”
Bit of a stretch. Remember Sanskrit (an Indian language) is the root of all Indo-European languages including indirectly English.
India (Bharat) is a Greek/Latin word so even in Alexander’s time, it was obvious that the Indian subcontinent was culturally a similar place. The Mauryan Empire 2000 years ago was way bigger than even India of today, so the notion that the British were the first to unite India is a myth. The Roman Empire 2000 years ago had a huge trade deficit with India (Check this yourself). Hinduism and cultural commonality is what really unites India. Remember Pakistan was also under British rule and they have a lower per-capita, 10 years less life expectancy, and far lower literacy rate despite having a significant lead over India in 1947 (year of independence) in all these areas.
Most of the younger educated Indians are very much pro-free market and capitalism. The socialist thinking is stronger more in the older generations. From my experience, one of the biggest obstacles I see to West-Indian relations will be Christian fundamentalists as they seem irritated that most Indians won’t convert to their religion. However, I think the common threat of Islamic fundamentalism will probably override that especially as Europe get’s swamped by them. Even the Soviet Union fought with the West against Germany in WW-II.
The forces against socialism are very strong among the younger generation of Indian’s, which is one of the reasons with each passing decade, the economy grows faster (7%/yr for the last 10 years). The bureaucracy is large and entrenched, but they won’t be able to stop change. For example, the people can see the contrast between Jet or Kingfisher Airways (private airline) and Air India (Government run socialist legacy).