☀️ JOIN SPN MOBILE
Forums
New posts
Guru Granth Sahib
Composition, Arrangement & Layout
ਜਪੁ | Jup
ਸੋ ਦਰੁ | So Dar
ਸੋਹਿਲਾ | Sohilaa
ਰਾਗੁ ਸਿਰੀਰਾਗੁ | Raag Siree-Raag
Gurbani (14-53)
Ashtpadiyan (53-71)
Gurbani (71-74)
Pahre (74-78)
Chhant (78-81)
Vanjara (81-82)
Vaar Siri Raag (83-91)
Bhagat Bani (91-93)
ਰਾਗੁ ਮਾਝ | Raag Maajh
Gurbani (94-109)
Ashtpadi (109)
Ashtpadiyan (110-129)
Ashtpadi (129-130)
Ashtpadiyan (130-133)
Bara Maha (133-136)
Din Raen (136-137)
Vaar Maajh Ki (137-150)
ਰਾਗੁ ਗਉੜੀ | Raag Gauree
Gurbani (151-185)
Quartets/Couplets (185-220)
Ashtpadiyan (220-234)
Karhalei (234-235)
Ashtpadiyan (235-242)
Chhant (242-249)
Baavan Akhari (250-262)
Sukhmani (262-296)
Thittee (296-300)
Gauree kii Vaar (300-323)
Gurbani (323-330)
Ashtpadiyan (330-340)
Baavan Akhari (340-343)
Thintteen (343-344)
Vaar Kabir (344-345)
Bhagat Bani (345-346)
ਰਾਗੁ ਆਸਾ | Raag Aasaa
Gurbani (347-348)
Chaupaday (348-364)
Panchpadde (364-365)
Kaafee (365-409)
Aasaavaree (409-411)
Ashtpadiyan (411-432)
Patee (432-435)
Chhant (435-462)
Vaar Aasaa (462-475)
Bhagat Bani (475-488)
ਰਾਗੁ ਗੂਜਰੀ | Raag Goojaree
Gurbani (489-503)
Ashtpadiyan (503-508)
Vaar Gujari (508-517)
Vaar Gujari (517-526)
ਰਾਗੁ ਦੇਵਗੰਧਾਰੀ | Raag Dayv-Gandhaaree
Gurbani (527-536)
ਰਾਗੁ ਬਿਹਾਗੜਾ | Raag Bihaagraa
Gurbani (537-556)
Chhant (538-548)
Vaar Bihaagraa (548-556)
ਰਾਗੁ ਵਡਹੰਸ | Raag Wadhans
Gurbani (557-564)
Ashtpadiyan (564-565)
Chhant (565-575)
Ghoriaan (575-578)
Alaahaniiaa (578-582)
Vaar Wadhans (582-594)
ਰਾਗੁ ਸੋਰਠਿ | Raag Sorath
Gurbani (595-634)
Asatpadhiya (634-642)
Vaar Sorath (642-659)
ਰਾਗੁ ਧਨਾਸਰੀ | Raag Dhanasaree
Gurbani (660-685)
Astpadhiya (685-687)
Chhant (687-691)
Bhagat Bani (691-695)
ਰਾਗੁ ਜੈਤਸਰੀ | Raag Jaitsree
Gurbani (696-703)
Chhant (703-705)
Vaar Jaitsaree (705-710)
Bhagat Bani (710)
ਰਾਗੁ ਟੋਡੀ | Raag Todee
ਰਾਗੁ ਬੈਰਾੜੀ | Raag Bairaaree
ਰਾਗੁ ਤਿਲੰਗ | Raag Tilang
Gurbani (721-727)
Bhagat Bani (727)
ਰਾਗੁ ਸੂਹੀ | Raag Suhi
Gurbani (728-750)
Ashtpadiyan (750-761)
Kaafee (761-762)
Suchajee (762)
Gunvantee (763)
Chhant (763-785)
Vaar Soohee (785-792)
Bhagat Bani (792-794)
ਰਾਗੁ ਬਿਲਾਵਲੁ | Raag Bilaaval
Gurbani (795-831)
Ashtpadiyan (831-838)
Thitteen (838-840)
Vaar Sat (841-843)
Chhant (843-848)
Vaar Bilaaval (849-855)
Bhagat Bani (855-858)
ਰਾਗੁ ਗੋਂਡ | Raag Gond
Gurbani (859-869)
Ashtpadiyan (869)
Bhagat Bani (870-875)
ਰਾਗੁ ਰਾਮਕਲੀ | Raag Ramkalee
Ashtpadiyan (902-916)
Gurbani (876-902)
Anand (917-922)
Sadd (923-924)
Chhant (924-929)
Dakhnee (929-938)
Sidh Gosat (938-946)
Vaar Ramkalee (947-968)
ਰਾਗੁ ਨਟ ਨਾਰਾਇਨ | Raag Nat Narayan
Gurbani (975-980)
Ashtpadiyan (980-983)
ਰਾਗੁ ਮਾਲੀ ਗਉੜਾ | Raag Maalee Gauraa
Gurbani (984-988)
Bhagat Bani (988)
ਰਾਗੁ ਮਾਰੂ | Raag Maaroo
Gurbani (889-1008)
Ashtpadiyan (1008-1014)
Kaafee (1014-1016)
Ashtpadiyan (1016-1019)
Anjulian (1019-1020)
Solhe (1020-1033)
Dakhni (1033-1043)
ਰਾਗੁ ਤੁਖਾਰੀ | Raag Tukhaari
Bara Maha (1107-1110)
Chhant (1110-1117)
ਰਾਗੁ ਕੇਦਾਰਾ | Raag Kedara
Gurbani (1118-1123)
Bhagat Bani (1123-1124)
ਰਾਗੁ ਭੈਰਉ | Raag Bhairo
Gurbani (1125-1152)
Partaal (1153)
Ashtpadiyan (1153-1167)
ਰਾਗੁ ਬਸੰਤੁ | Raag Basant
Gurbani (1168-1187)
Ashtpadiyan (1187-1193)
Vaar Basant (1193-1196)
ਰਾਗੁ ਸਾਰਗ | Raag Saarag
Gurbani (1197-1200)
Partaal (1200-1231)
Ashtpadiyan (1232-1236)
Chhant (1236-1237)
Vaar Saarang (1237-1253)
ਰਾਗੁ ਮਲਾਰ | Raag Malaar
Gurbani (1254-1293)
Partaal (1265-1273)
Ashtpadiyan (1273-1278)
Chhant (1278)
Vaar Malaar (1278-91)
Bhagat Bani (1292-93)
ਰਾਗੁ ਕਾਨੜਾ | Raag Kaanraa
Gurbani (1294-96)
Partaal (1296-1318)
Ashtpadiyan (1308-1312)
Chhant (1312)
Vaar Kaanraa
Bhagat Bani (1318)
ਰਾਗੁ ਕਲਿਆਨ | Raag Kalyaan
Gurbani (1319-23)
Ashtpadiyan (1323-26)
ਰਾਗੁ ਪ੍ਰਭਾਤੀ | Raag Prabhaatee
Gurbani (1327-1341)
Ashtpadiyan (1342-51)
ਰਾਗੁ ਜੈਜਾਵੰਤੀ | Raag Jaijaiwanti
Gurbani (1352-53)
Salok | Gatha | Phunahe | Chaubole | Swayiye
Sehskritee Mahala 1
Sehskritee Mahala 5
Gaathaa Mahala 5
Phunhay Mahala 5
Chaubolae Mahala 5
Shaloks Bhagat Kabir
Shaloks Sheikh Farid
Swaiyyae Mahala 5
Swaiyyae in Praise of Gurus
Shaloks in Addition To Vaars
Shalok Ninth Mehl
Mundavanee Mehl 5
ਰਾਗ ਮਾਲਾ, Raag Maalaa
What's new
New posts
New media
New media comments
New resources
Latest activity
Videos
New media
New comments
Library
Latest reviews
Donate
Log in
Register
What's new
New posts
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Welcome to all New Sikh Philosophy Network Forums!
Explore Sikh Sikhi Sikhism...
Sign up
Log in
Discussions
Hard Talk
Interviews
India Cannot Help But Be Complex
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Archived_Member16" data-source="post: 134310" data-attributes="member: 884"><p><strong><span style="font-size: 18px"><span style="color: #002060">India cannot help but be complex</span></span></strong> </p><p></p><p><span style="color: #002060">October 02, 2010</span></p><p><span style="color: #002060">Haroon Siddiqui - THE TORONTO STAR</span></p><p> </p><p></p><p style="text-align: left"><span style="color: #c00000">Photo: Schoolgirls ride along a beach road in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. </span><span style="color: #c00000">India is reaping a “demographic dividend,” with half its 1.2 billion </span></p> <p style="text-align: left"><span style="color: #c00000">people under 25.</span></p><p></p><p style="text-align: left"><span style="color: #c00000">Michael Melford/National Geographic Society </span></p><p></p><p><span style="color: #002060">Arriving in Canada in 1967, I was swept up by the Centennial, especially Expo, but was soon distressed to discover that there was no yogurt, only something called sour cream, a blob that bloated your tummy. There were few fresh green vegetables and no mangoes. No basmati rice. No coriander, cloves or cardamom. Nor saffron, which few had heard of and said it could be procured, perhaps, around Easter for the seasonal bread.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">Informed of this state of affairs, mom in India said: “In that case, son, you had better come back home.”</span></p><p></p><p><span style="color: #002060">I am glad I stayed. </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">At the time, Canadians thought of India as the land of starving people and emaciated holy cows. Now the two countries can't get enough of each other, Canada needing India more than India needing Canada. Which is why the <em>Star</em> is exploring India in every section of the paper today. </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">India, an emerging economic and geopolitical giant, might overtake China economically within two decades. Wooed by the world, it does need Canadian natural resources as well as capital and expertise for infrastructure. </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">Canada — besides recruiting skilled Indians as immigrants and using India for outsourced call centres — is keen to tap into India's booming $1.3 trillion economy (about the same as Canada's).</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">Canadian politicians and corporate leaders, who never used to return a phone call from India, now go on pilgrimages there and attend Indo-Canadian events to troll for votes and business. </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">Yet India can still unnerve Canadians, as during two current crises — the Commonwealth Games, where accommodation for athletes in New Delhi was deemed unfit for human habitation; and the scary spectre of Hindu-Muslim bloodletting over a 16th century mosque following a court decision Thursday in the decades-long dispute.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">But to me, all this sounds normal. India is forever in a crisis — and is not.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">Whatever is true of India, the exact opposite is almost always also true: </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">Efficiency and chaos. Secularism and sectarianism. Wealth and poverty. Hope and despondency. Gandhian non-violence and murderous frenzy. Humanity and cruelty. Exploitation and generosity. Piety and prostitution. Dedicated indigenous NGOs and corrupt politics.</span></p><p><span style="color: #002060">That's India. </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">In fact, India is many Indias, where the good far outweighs the bad. </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">India cannot but be complex — an ancient civilization leapfrogging from British colonized penury to new economic heights, and slowly shedding centuries-old caste-based hierarchy for a culture of Bollywood, cricket and corporate celebrity.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060"><strong>India </strong>is relevant to Canada.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">Our manufacturing base is denuded, especially in Ontario. The American economy, on which we've been overly dependant, will likely be in doldrums for years. </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">Canada can no longer postpone finding new markets — in Europe and, increasingly, China and particularly India. </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">Go East, young man, says Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of Canada, noting the shift in the centre of gravity from the West <em>back</em> to the East.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">Until the early 19th century, China and India controlled half the world's economy, even if that fact has been obliterated from Western conscience. Today, China and India are simply going back to the future.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">China, with a 2009 GDP of almost $5 trillion, recently passed Japan as the world's second largest economy on a quarterly basis. India's is projected to overtake China's in the foreseeable future.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">Whereas China's economic growth comes mostly from exports, India's emanates from domestic consumption. That's why it weathered the world economic meltdown. This year, its economy is growing at thrice the rate of Canada's.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">India has been doubling per capita income every 10 years — something Canada used to do but doesn't any longer. Our children face the prospect of earning less than us.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">India is reaping a “demographic dividend.” Half its 1.2 billion people are under 25. In the next 10 years, it will produce between 80 million and 110 million new workers. China's population, like Canada's, is aging. India's population will overtake China's.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">India is democratic. Its entrepreneurial drive comes from the private sector, not the state or state-owned enterprises. </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">While Canada's trade with the U.S. is suffering, India's with America, albeit comparatively small, is growing, to $60 billion a year. So is India's trade with China, approaching $50 billion. </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">But Canada's trade with India is just $5 billion. We have our work cut out for us.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060"><strong>Not</strong> all is hunky-dory in India.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">It has the world's largest number of poor. About 600 million survive on less than $2 a day. About 65 million live in slums. About 1.75 million children die before reaching their first birthday. Nearly 45 per cent of children are malnourished. About 160 million kids are not in school.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">A quarter of women marry before 18. About 4,000 are killed a year for not bringing sufficient dowry or in “honour killings” for marrying outside their Hindu <em>gotra</em> (clan) or across caste or religion. </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">Discrimination against the <em>dalits</em>, the untouchables, continues, despite being outlawed. </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">About 200,000 debt-ridden farmers have committed suicide.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">Corruption is endemic. Dynastic politics is rampant. Rahul Gandhi, 40, is prime minister presumptive. His mother, Sonia Gandhi, is president of the ruling Congress Party. His father, Rajiv, was prime minister. So was his grandmother, Indira. So was his great grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, the first leader of post-independent India.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">Environmental degradation is shocking — deforestation, dried riverbeds and depleting water tables.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">Only 60 per cent of municipal waste is collected. Road fatalities number 120,000 a year, the highest in the world, ahead of China's 75,000, mostly because only a tiny percentage of India's roads are highways and people are regularly darting in and out of traffic.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">India is also dragged down by two domestic wars — a decades-long insurgency in Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state, which wants greater autonomy; and a Maoist rebellion, called the Naxalite movement, in a wide swath of the south and northeast, championing the poor, especially those displaced from their land because of dams, highways, airports and big manufacturing plants. </span></p><p><span style="color: #002060">As staggering as all this is, the galloping economy offers a historic moment of transformation. </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">As India embarks on a $500 billion infrastructure program, Canada has unlimited opportunities to make a difference — supplying nuclear and clean energy technologies, building roads, railways and subways, selling products and services to a middle class of more than 300 million.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">There are also strategic reasons to engage nuclear India.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">Despite all its internal challenges, India is a stable democracy — the world's largest. Weathering a million challenges, India has become resilient. </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">It took the 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai in stride and moved on. It did not wallow in self pity and, ignoring some initial nationalistic jingoism, it did not wage war on Pakistan from where the terrorists had come. </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">India has the world's fourth- largest army. Its navy controls vast swaths of the Indian Ocean. It is a player in the G20. It has signed free trade deals with Singapore, South Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and strengthened its relations with Vietnam, Japan and Australia.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">It has offered $5 billion credit to Africa; $800 million to post-civil-war Sri Lanka; and $1 billion worth of projects in Afghanistan, the same as Canada. We should be co-operating with India on civilian projects in Afghanistan.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">At an individual level, young and retired Canadians should be going to India to volunteer for the thousands of indigenous Indian NGOs that are working for justice for the poor, the landless, Muslims and other minorities, women, dalits, tribal people and other vulnerable Indians. </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">The contribution of these idealistic grassroots organizations are, in many ways, nobler and more effective than those of governments and corporations. </span></p><p> </p><p><span style="color: #002060">Every time I see them in action, I am uplifted — and hope that they would have some Canadian content.</span></p><p> </p><p><em><span style="color: #002060"><strong>Haroon Siddiqui</strong>, the Star's editorial page editor emeritus, usually writes Thursdays and Saturdays. </span></em></p><p><em><strong><a href="mailto:hsiddiqui@thestar.ca"><span style="color: #002060">hsiddiqui@thestar.ca</span></a></strong></em></p><p> </p><p><em><strong><span style="color: #002060">source: </span></strong></em></p><p><a href="http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/869708--siddiqui-india-cannot-help-but-be-complex" target="_blank"><span style="color: #002060">http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/869708--siddiqui-india-cannot-help-but-be-complex</span></a></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Archived_Member16, post: 134310, member: 884"] [B][SIZE=5][COLOR=#002060]India cannot help but be complex[/COLOR][/SIZE][/B] [COLOR=#002060]October 02, 2010[/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]Haroon Siddiqui - THE TORONTO STAR[/COLOR] [LEFT][COLOR=#c00000]Photo: Schoolgirls ride along a beach road in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. [/COLOR][COLOR=#c00000]India is reaping a “demographic dividend,” with half its 1.2 billion [/COLOR] [COLOR=#c00000]people under 25.[/COLOR][/LEFT] [LEFT][COLOR=#c00000]Michael Melford/National Geographic Society [/COLOR][/LEFT] [COLOR=#002060]Arriving in Canada in 1967, I was swept up by the Centennial, especially Expo, but was soon distressed to discover that there was no yogurt, only something called sour cream, a blob that bloated your tummy. There were few fresh green vegetables and no mangoes. No basmati rice. No coriander, cloves or cardamom. Nor saffron, which few had heard of and said it could be procured, perhaps, around Easter for the seasonal bread.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]Informed of this state of affairs, mom in India said: “In that case, son, you had better come back home.”[/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]I am glad I stayed. [/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]At the time, Canadians thought of India as the land of starving people and emaciated holy cows. Now the two countries can't get enough of each other, Canada needing India more than India needing Canada. Which is why the [I]Star[/I] is exploring India in every section of the paper today. [/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]India, an emerging economic and geopolitical giant, might overtake China economically within two decades. Wooed by the world, it does need Canadian natural resources as well as capital and expertise for infrastructure. [/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]Canada — besides recruiting skilled Indians as immigrants and using India for outsourced call centres — is keen to tap into India's booming $1.3 trillion economy (about the same as Canada's).[/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]Canadian politicians and corporate leaders, who never used to return a phone call from India, now go on pilgrimages there and attend Indo-Canadian events to troll for votes and business. [/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]Yet India can still unnerve Canadians, as during two current crises — the Commonwealth Games, where accommodation for athletes in New Delhi was deemed unfit for human habitation; and the scary spectre of Hindu-Muslim bloodletting over a 16th century mosque following a court decision Thursday in the decades-long dispute.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]But to me, all this sounds normal. India is forever in a crisis — and is not.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]Whatever is true of India, the exact opposite is almost always also true: [/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]Efficiency and chaos. Secularism and sectarianism. Wealth and poverty. Hope and despondency. Gandhian non-violence and murderous frenzy. Humanity and cruelty. Exploitation and generosity. Piety and prostitution. Dedicated indigenous NGOs and corrupt politics.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]That's India. [/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]In fact, India is many Indias, where the good far outweighs the bad. [/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]India cannot but be complex — an ancient civilization leapfrogging from British colonized penury to new economic heights, and slowly shedding centuries-old caste-based hierarchy for a culture of Bollywood, cricket and corporate celebrity.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060][B]India [/B]is relevant to Canada.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]Our manufacturing base is denuded, especially in Ontario. The American economy, on which we've been overly dependant, will likely be in doldrums for years. [/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]Canada can no longer postpone finding new markets — in Europe and, increasingly, China and particularly India. [/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]Go East, young man, says Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of Canada, noting the shift in the centre of gravity from the West [I]back[/I] to the East.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]Until the early 19th century, China and India controlled half the world's economy, even if that fact has been obliterated from Western conscience. Today, China and India are simply going back to the future.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]China, with a 2009 GDP of almost $5 trillion, recently passed Japan as the world's second largest economy on a quarterly basis. India's is projected to overtake China's in the foreseeable future.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]Whereas China's economic growth comes mostly from exports, India's emanates from domestic consumption. That's why it weathered the world economic meltdown. This year, its economy is growing at thrice the rate of Canada's.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]India has been doubling per capita income every 10 years — something Canada used to do but doesn't any longer. Our children face the prospect of earning less than us.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]India is reaping a “demographic dividend.” Half its 1.2 billion people are under 25. In the next 10 years, it will produce between 80 million and 110 million new workers. China's population, like Canada's, is aging. India's population will overtake China's.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]India is democratic. Its entrepreneurial drive comes from the private sector, not the state or state-owned enterprises. [/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]While Canada's trade with the U.S. is suffering, India's with America, albeit comparatively small, is growing, to $60 billion a year. So is India's trade with China, approaching $50 billion. [/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]But Canada's trade with India is just $5 billion. We have our work cut out for us.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060][B]Not[/B] all is hunky-dory in India.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]It has the world's largest number of poor. About 600 million survive on less than $2 a day. About 65 million live in slums. About 1.75 million children die before reaching their first birthday. Nearly 45 per cent of children are malnourished. About 160 million kids are not in school.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]A quarter of women marry before 18. About 4,000 are killed a year for not bringing sufficient dowry or in “honour killings” for marrying outside their Hindu [I]gotra[/I] (clan) or across caste or religion. [/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]Discrimination against the [I]dalits[/I], the untouchables, continues, despite being outlawed. [/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]About 200,000 debt-ridden farmers have committed suicide.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]Corruption is endemic. Dynastic politics is rampant. Rahul Gandhi, 40, is prime minister presumptive. His mother, Sonia Gandhi, is president of the ruling Congress Party. His father, Rajiv, was prime minister. So was his grandmother, Indira. So was his great grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, the first leader of post-independent India.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]Environmental degradation is shocking — deforestation, dried riverbeds and depleting water tables.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]Only 60 per cent of municipal waste is collected. Road fatalities number 120,000 a year, the highest in the world, ahead of China's 75,000, mostly because only a tiny percentage of India's roads are highways and people are regularly darting in and out of traffic.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]India is also dragged down by two domestic wars — a decades-long insurgency in Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state, which wants greater autonomy; and a Maoist rebellion, called the Naxalite movement, in a wide swath of the south and northeast, championing the poor, especially those displaced from their land because of dams, highways, airports and big manufacturing plants. [/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]As staggering as all this is, the galloping economy offers a historic moment of transformation. [/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]As India embarks on a $500 billion infrastructure program, Canada has unlimited opportunities to make a difference — supplying nuclear and clean energy technologies, building roads, railways and subways, selling products and services to a middle class of more than 300 million.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]There are also strategic reasons to engage nuclear India.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]Despite all its internal challenges, India is a stable democracy — the world's largest. Weathering a million challenges, India has become resilient. [/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]It took the 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai in stride and moved on. It did not wallow in self pity and, ignoring some initial nationalistic jingoism, it did not wage war on Pakistan from where the terrorists had come. [/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]India has the world's fourth- largest army. Its navy controls vast swaths of the Indian Ocean. It is a player in the G20. It has signed free trade deals with Singapore, South Korea and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and strengthened its relations with Vietnam, Japan and Australia.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]It has offered $5 billion credit to Africa; $800 million to post-civil-war Sri Lanka; and $1 billion worth of projects in Afghanistan, the same as Canada. We should be co-operating with India on civilian projects in Afghanistan.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]At an individual level, young and retired Canadians should be going to India to volunteer for the thousands of indigenous Indian NGOs that are working for justice for the poor, the landless, Muslims and other minorities, women, dalits, tribal people and other vulnerable Indians. [/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]The contribution of these idealistic grassroots organizations are, in many ways, nobler and more effective than those of governments and corporations. [/COLOR] [COLOR=#002060]Every time I see them in action, I am uplifted — and hope that they would have some Canadian content.[/COLOR] [I][COLOR=#002060][B]Haroon Siddiqui[/B], the Star's editorial page editor emeritus, usually writes Thursdays and Saturdays. [/COLOR][/I] [I][B][EMAIL="hsiddiqui@thestar.ca"][COLOR=#002060]hsiddiqui@thestar.ca[/COLOR][/EMAIL][/B][/I] [I][B][COLOR=#002060]source: [/COLOR][/B][/I] [URL="http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/869708--siddiqui-india-cannot-help-but-be-complex"][COLOR=#002060]http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/869708--siddiqui-india-cannot-help-but-be-complex[/COLOR][/URL] [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Discussions
Hard Talk
Interviews
India Cannot Help But Be Complex
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
Accept
Learn more…
Top