American India

As I noted in my previous post, India is not so foreign as to not have signs of our country everywhere. It really is incredible to see the influence that the United States has had on the rest of the world. Our products are everywhere--brands such as McDonald's, Coca-Cola, and Fed-Ex. Our news makes the front page here in India. The elite here are often American-educated. India and the United States are separated by a vast wealth gap, but we aren't horribly different when it comes right down to it. We both are large democracies. Both of us are diverse populations, making it difficult for true democracy. And as for our infrastructure, both of ours are awful when compared to similarly developed countries (e.g., compare India's urban sprawl and dilapidated infrastructure with the perfectly designed and brand-new infrastructure in China; or the pathetic American transit system when compared with that of France). Both of us recognize the dangers of terrorism, and have witnessed it firsthand with attacks in our largest respective cities. In the United States, we have 9/11. In India, it's known in the newspapers as 26/11.

One must wonder what that means for the south Asian superpower. China and India are both emerging onto the world stage, which means that while they may not necessarily compete with the United States for economic dominance, they will surely become a player on the world stage. Yet they have taken two very different paths. China's has been clouded by the methods of an authoritarian government. India has set itself on the path that looks to be like the Asian United States. It will take decades (if not centuries) achieve the western standard of living, and there are cultural and language barriers that will need to be broken down, but the future seems almost inevitable. Fareed Zakaria wrote an article just recently that claims that the recent elections in India may be an important mile marker in the road towards a true Indian power. Often, the talk is about Chinese-American relations. Indeed, that is important, because the government in Beijing is perhaps one of the most powerful on Earth and China holds considerable economic leverage over the United States. However, it seems that India is our natural Asian ally. The similarities between our two nations are too great to ignore. The current administration would do well to put some emphasis on maintaining and improving Indian-American relationship, setting a solid precedent for years to come.

Interestingly, Zakaria's article mentions China's coming out party--the Beijing Olympics. So in two summers, I'll be able to see firsthand the respective "coming out parties" of the two Asian superpowers. Later this summer, after I've had time to digest and explore more of India, I'll have a later post about that.