Depends on what you mean by "majority opinion," GK. If you are talking about average Janes and Joes, most don't really care about India one way or the other. In certain IT-intensive regions, one might come across people who work with Indians or have collegues in India. Outsourcing is a topic of discussion too.
Now, I don't mean to suggest that Americans are not interested in other cultures. It is just that India is a relatively new quantity for them. Most Americans tend to be very open-minded about new people and cultures when they meet a foreigner like me. Of course, there are exceptions and idiots but these are far and few between (in my experience). In any case, every country has its share of nutjobs.
The Bush administration is very friendly and IMO we should look beyond the prism of Pakistan. While US support of the Paki koranimals is a source of frustration for India, we must understand their compulstions too (with the WOT). Personally, I see a great future for US-India relationships at the business, military, and policy levels.
Thought you might be interested in this posting (by me). Any thoughts? Do you think I represent Americans' attitudes toward India accrately?
I agree with you about the need (for India) to look beyond the prism of Pakistan.
However Razzor and me were refering to the large number of recent anti-India threads and the sentiments expressed therein.
I like the Hindu nationalists. Language, borders, culture... we could learn a few things from them...
We have a choice, trade with and align ourselves with the world's largest democracy (India) or the world's largest dictatorship (China).
The choice is easy for me...
Yes, indcons, you wrote a good synopsis of the situation. I'll put it more bluntly for GK.
Most of my fellow Americans are ignorant of how we are regarded by most Indians who know anything about the USA. The piece you posted above was written through British eyes. Most of us are also ignorant about how we are regarded by most British people (like the writer of the propaganda piece above). Most in the USA are ignorant of the evil meaning and international backstabbing behind the phrase, "Pax Americana." We don't want "empire," and most of us do like the Indian immigrants and visitors we meet. For one, they are not as condescending and cynical toward us as are certain Europeans.
If the most tolerant and caring people of India continue to educate us, we will learn.
Those who distributed the recent anti-India columns that you've seen are members of small Christian identity organizations. They seek to divert America toward allying with countries where majority sentiment is in favor of religious fascism. They are more tied to religious sentiments in Europe (Italy, Russia, Serbia and others) than to the USA.
Some background for you on religious issues in America:
In our US Constitution, we have a clause for freedom of religious expression and another one against establishment of any one religion by our government. Those words are in our Constitution, because the first Europeans to arrive and survive in America sought to escape the Catholic edicts of Europe in those days (see Reformation, meetings in Holland, the English Civil War,...). They were the true Protestants (which Protestantism has been since overwhelmed and is now quietly reviving). They would not have crosses in their churches, and they despised celebrations like Halloween and Christmas as "paganism." Many true Protestants now are going Noachide (learning about Judaism with intentions to convert). A few others have been going back to Puritanism, Calvinism and other truly Protestant faiths.
But our Constitution remains the same on religion, and it will remain so due to the mixture of cultures that live in and enrich our country. And remember that most people in the USA don't have strong religious beliefs at all. They rather indulge in their daily personal affairs without much regard for written philosophies.