Why Does the American Left Fear the Rise of India?

Pajamas Media ^ | FEb. 27 | N.M. Guariglia

[AJKauf]

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.

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[sinsofsolarempirefan]

The Anglo-Saxon world should be forging closer ties with India than with China. We hold a world outlook and philosophy of governance that is considerably closer than that of the Authoritarian PRC....

[stboz]

The Anglo-Saxon world should be forging closer ties with India than with China. We hold a world outlook and philosophy of governance that is considerably closer than that of the Authoritarian PRC....

And, besides, the Indians speak English better than the English and the Yanks!

[Anti-Utopian]

If it has brown skin and reproduces, leftists hate it. I’m sure they were hoping malaria would Darwinize the Indians a long time ago.

[mamelukesabre]

They are good people. Mostly. They have a healthy disdain of communism and radical islam and they tend to approve of free markets. Not to mention they speak english.

Those things make them a fairly strong ally AUTOMATICALLY.

And this is precisely why the american left fears them. The emerging power of indians in india will be horrible proof to the world that western socialist ideals are deeply flawed.

I just wish they would give up the hindi language and start eating cows.

[RC one]

It is absolutely critical that we do not end up playing favorites in any way with India and Pakistan.

[alloysteel]

People might be missing the ideology behind this. We have a Muslim-sympathizer titular head of state, and some of the more xenophobic people our nation has ever seen directing the politics in the legislative branch of our government. (Yes, I’m talking to YOU, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.)

India has an internal problem with its Muslim minorities, who are behind most of the massive bombings and acts of terrorism in their own territory, besides which they have never had an easy relationship with Pakistan, and it has come to armed conflict. It is no secret that both India and Pakistan have nuclear weaponry, though neither has used the capability, but it is a powder keg waiting to be ignited.

What George W. Bush practiced in the region was more on the basis of even-handedness, while favoring India to some degree, because in many ways, India has come to its national maturity in much the same way the original United States did, by rebelling aginst their colonial status under the yoke of England. India has a long history, thousands of years, before England came along and pretty much demolished most of the old customs and hierarchies that once existed.

But in that destruction of the old hierarchy, a new, and much more robust India arose, one with a growing entrepreneural class, filled with brilliant innovators and shrewd business practices, in short, a vision patterned after that of the United States, only with a population already in the hundreds of millions.

The shift in emphasis on the balance between India and Pakistan has been subtle, but now it more favors Pakistan, especially since they they got rid of Pervez Musharraf.

This cannot end well.

[InABunkerUnderSF]

The American left hates India because they didn’t starve like Paul Ehrlich said they would. According to Mr. Ehrlich and his ilk, by 1984 the situation in India was supposed to be so bad that it wouldn’t be worth sending them foreign aid. This failed to happen on schedule, thus disproving the thesis behind the left’s “Population Crisis” (about three crises before the current “Climate Crisis” for those of you who don’t remember back that far).

To make matters worse India went on to abandon village socialism and turn themselves into the world’s leading exporters of knowledge workers. Once again proving that given freedom, capitalism works.

And oh yes, Obama loves Muslims and hates democracy.

[ajay_kumar]

I received my bachelor’s degree in India and master’s degree in USA. Take it from me...academic competition was much stiffer in India. I had to work my butt off to get best grades. US engineering college was much easier for aceing most courses. Only course which gave me a B grade was taught by a professor from Texas with a pronounced drawl and I had difficulty comprehending what he was saying. Take it from me, who has seen both sides intimately, there is tremendous brain power in India, both quantity and quality.

India required foreign aid since independence in 1947 during the reign of Congress party which is closer to our Democrats here. It believes in BIG Government. After several cycles of Congress party rule India elected the Janata party in power and that was the start of capitalism there. In my opinion that was also the beginning of prosperity.

It is a historical fact that India and China had the largest economies in the world 400 years ago. Both are on their way to those positions during this century. Both have not only huge manpower but also huge quantities of brain power. Now both have discovered capitalism and there will be no stopping them.

The predominant religion in India is Hinduism, one of the most tolerant religions in the world. Buddhism started in India and progressed in to the Oriental region. Sikhs and Jains also had origins in India. There are also large populations of Muslims & Christians.

[Oldexpat]

India turned its back on socialism established by Ghandi and has moved strongly toward free market captialism. Without the reforms their brainpower would still be frustrated.
We had the great fortune of living in India during a lot of this transition..from 1998 to 2003. After watching Indian talent die on the vine during my Asian career..it was heartening to see real freedom take root.

[denydenydeny]

India has an internal problem with its Muslim minorities, who are behind most of the massive bombings and acts of terrorism in their own territory,

I would strongly disagree with this. We know absolutely everything about how last year's Mumbai massacres happened and it was a 100 percent Pakistani (Lashkar-e-Toiba) operation.

[Agamemnon]

China and India have had territorial and border skirmishes -- some might even say, wars -- with each other in the last century. I believe that will be the same frontier on which the next truly "hot" war will occur. Japan allies itself with India, Pakistan allies itself with China. Hindus/Buddhists vs Muslims/X? Market capitalists vs. Command and control oligarchic monopolists.

It's interesting to take note of the Bush family's historic diplomatic dealings with China (George HW Bush) on the one hand and India (George W Bush) on the other.

Opening the door to India as a counter-balance to the Chinese was a brilliant achievement by W. Not widely hearlded, but as important as Nixon's opening to China.

China leveraged Nixon and Nixon leveraged China vis a vis North Vietnam in 1972. China -- just as happy to see us bomb Hanoi in Dec. 1972 and that got the first US POWs out in Jan., 1973 -- and US out entirely shortly after, later sees China in a "hot" border conflict with Vietnam in 1979. Today, India leverages China for the US, and may likely step up to compete for US debt holding with China in order to gain larger over all access to the US market.

On the premise that the country that holds the greatest amount of US debt gets the leg up to export to the US market consider the following. Remember Japan's ascendancy in the 1990's as a holder of US debt -- with resultant access to US market which still remains, now overtaken by China at ~$1T US debt holding and Chinese goods flooding the US market.

Will India be next in line and will China feel threatened? Will this result in "hot" war that has been brewing since the 1950's?

Already seeing this competition being played out hugely in the prescription drug manufacturing world -- not only for furnishing therapeutic drug supplies to China's and India's own populaces, but also for attaining growing shares and access in the US market.

FReegards!

[JimWayne]

We know absolutely everything about how last year's Mumbai massacres happened and it was a 100 percent Pakistani (Lashkar-e-Toiba) operation.

Indian Muslims and Muslims from Pakistan work together. I have heard that the Indian government is paranoid about retaliation and so panics and exonerates the Indian Muslims every single time.

The most barbaric case of Muslims killing others in India was a few years ago when they set a train on fire and 5000 Muslims surrounded the train and threw rocks on the passengers to prevent them from getting out.

[ajay_kumar]

So true....brain power without free market capitalism = fruit tree without water!

[IndianChief]

India turned its back on socialism established by Ghandi

Nehruvian Socialism . Nehru ruined India, not Gandhiji.

And his family continue the fine tradition /s

Gandhiji is reviled for a lot of unnecessary things, mainly because the left conveniently use some of his philosophies while ignoring the rest. Notably, one that says that non-violence should never be an excuse for cowardice . I don't remember the exact words.

[John Valentine]

And, besides, the Indians speak English better than the English and the Yanks!

Not hardly. While some can, others write stuff like this "Avoid the use of Lift, in case of fire," instead of the correct "In case of fire, avoid use of the lift."

[ajay_kumar]

Correct....it was Jawaharlal Nehru who is responsible for drifting India into socialism. Gandhi was assassinated in 1948, soon after independence in 1947, so he was not even there much after India became a sovereign country.

Nehru had his gargantuan 5 year plans to bring India out of poverty by means of big government running everything. The government owned Railroads, power generation, airlines, telephone manufacture, aircraft manufacture, machine tool manufacture, ran banks & insurance, and even cement manufacture. Car manufacturing was restricted to political friends so there was no competition. The country was awash in bureaucracy, nepotism & bribery and inefficiency.

I recall visiting India in 1984 and just to buy a airline ticket was 3 visits to the ticket office and several days wait. To buy a car one had to put down deposit and wait years for delivery.

India is a classic example how socialism & big government is a path to trickle down poverty. Fortunately Indians have finally discovered capitalism.

[ajay_kumar]

You are correct in that majority of Indians have mediocre command of English language, but more people can speak English in India than any other country, and that includes UK & USA! Never forget India has over a Billion people and English is taught in every school curriculum.

That sign you are talking about was most likely written by a employee of the building, and not an English professor.

[John Valentine]

Here the deal. Language is a malleable, evolutionary thing and it isn’t the property of any group or clan. You are right - India has wholeheartedly adopted English and has devised a version with pronunciations and usages all her own. The educated class can and does use something approximating standard English, and in the call centers of Bangalore have mastered the American pronunciation and idiom to a “tee”.

The rest of us “native English” speakers have to welcome all the world’s versions and varieties of English! As you point out, we are outnumbered in any case.

I deal with Indian expatriates every day (I am physically somewhere that Indians have flocked to as workers and merchants). It’s strange that face-to-face I have no problem understanding their English, but over the phone, often it is entirely impossible for me. It is a matter of cadence. Sometime Indians speak English with the rhythm and cadence of Hindi, and listening, I lose track of where words begin and end - and when that happens, the language loses its meaning and becomes just a string of sounds. I am sure that other Indian English speakers would have NO problem clearly understanding that same speech that entirely escapes me.