I am not sure that I would like being awake under major surgery, but the Indians have a cultural advantage. They seem to respect tricks like lying on a bed of nails, or walking on hot coals.
But seriously, I admire their common-sense innovation. Everything indicates that India is advancing very rapidly. One might ask, why is India advancing, and the Muslim countries of Pakistan and Bangledesh are essentially going nowhere?
I favor the theory that family structure plays a big part in the cultural forms which determine competitive success. The best is the nuclear family, or alternatively the tight Confucian family model, which has well defined roles of responsibility. Less effective is the “extended family” model found in the more backward parts of India, because many of the extended family are out-of-work lay-abouts, who diminish the rewards of the harder-working family members. Third is the Islamic model, which constricts the creativity of women, and distorts their natural role as mothers, is generally anti-intellectual, and glorifies violence.
The single-parent family is the weakest form of all. The end-result example is Haiti, poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, where about 5% of the children are in two-parent families. Marriage is virtually ineffective as a social force in Haiti.
>>Everything indicates that India is advancing very rapidly
In certain aspects the Chinese are far ahead, like in the lack of malnourishment as found in India. However, totalitarian societies have advantages in imposing all kinds of solutions. India’s political gabfest culture, while often slow and frustrating, also imposes the constraints of democracy, solutions take time, but are in turn validated by the process.
India’s still rigourous family structure is proving flexible enough to allow the urban professionals to have significant independence and choices in their lives while still adhering to regular, if not always joyous or pleasant family interactions.