Friday, August 03, 2007

60 Years - Mahan? Pareshan? ...Jawan.

Close to our 60th Independence Day, It's a good time to be an Indian.
It makes more sense now. Sixty years after independence, India is beginning to deliver on its promise. Over the past few years the world's biggest and rowdiest democracy has matched its political freedoms with economic ones, unleashing a torrent of growth and wealth creation that is transforming the lives of millions. India's economic clout is beginning to make itself felt on the international stage, as the nation retakes the place it held as a global-trade giant long before colonial powers ever arrived there.
From A Young Giant Awakes.

Or this, an interesting perspective from William Dalrymple:
In hindsight, what is happening today with the rise of India and China is not some miraculous novelty — as it is usually depicted in the Western press — so much as a return to the traditional pattern of global trade in the medieval and ancient world, where gold drained from West to East in payment for silks and spices and all manner of luxuries undreamed of in the relatively primitive capitals of Europe.
...Extraordinary as it is, the rise of India and China is nothing more than a return to the ancient equilibrium of world trade, with Europeans no longer appearing as gun-toting, gunboat-riding colonial masters but instead reverting to their traditional role: that of eager consumers of the much celebrated manufactures, luxuries and services of the East.
From Why India's Rise is Business as Usual

I have a question that's been bugging me. Is economic prosperity necessarily directly related to God blessing a nation? It's the great claim of many Americans in our day. Or is it just something God allows for a season... like ancient Babylon or Egypt for example? I don't have an intelligent answer, but it doesn't seem to be simple linear "cause and effect".

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