Why India failed and china succeeded!!
71Abhinav Bindra
The recently concluded Olympics showcased the world china's domination in world arena. I was wondering about a few things. First of all why India got only one Gold Medal only and china got 50 Gold Medals?
Since I grew up in India I know the scenario where parents are more keen on Children's "education" which only means becoming an Engineer, Doctor, Lawyer, Scientist or any other white collar profession. Where as in China in spite of a strict one child policy if the State considers the child extremely gifted then the state takes the responsibility of training him/her to be a champion. And in America with tons of money, fame and opportunities for athletes many parents do encourage the innate talents/abilities of their kids to become champions.
Abhinav Bindra the lone Gold Medalist had to buy his own ticket from Germany to China in spite of qualifying for olympics due to strange rules of Indian Athletic federation to give tickets only from New Delhi. But since he is from a well to do family he could afford the costs and continue training in Germany till the last moment.
A country of Billion People and just one gold medal. Very soon India is going to surpass china and will have the maximum population. Every election year we attribute our backwardness to population growth leading to poverty for millions. Then why like china we couldn't implement a one child policy. I agree Sanjay Gandhi long time back tried and the government fell at that time.
Then the question arises if democracy is inhibiting the government from taking any action on this front as any unpopular move(maybe good in the long run) will lead to the people voting them out of power. Then China's communism maybe better in taking firm action.
I agree population by itself isn't a burden if it's used as a human resource like china which is the manufacturing power house of the world. Today if I go to Walmart almost every item is made in china. In India we may have the freedom in calling our government/leaders inept or taking them to court for any abuse/misuse of power. But more population without access to education, health and opportunities depending on his/her attitude & aptitude isn't the solution. Also for an ordinary lay man who is only concerned whether he/she will earn a decent livelihood? And for parents that is the primary concern in deciding what their kids should focus on.
I am not a socialist or anti democracy. I feel every country is unique, and needs to adapt depending on its circumstances to grow and realize it's full potential in every sphere. I am asking questions and hope you(my friends) will provide some solutions.
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Comments
India nobody wants to follow everybody has a point of view and they stick to it. Government can't make people do anything they don't want to do. If any government tries too hard they are voted out of power(The ills of being a democracy).
I think different countries (governments) have different priorities. China likes to do everything up front for the world to see. You never really know what's going on behind the scenes but they find appearances to be all important. Therefore, if your child has talent as a gymnast then that child may find herself far away from home, being trained like a little gymnast soldier. Parents have little say-so.
India, it seems to me, is a little more deep. Education seems all important and it doesn't seem to me that India makes moves just to impress the rest of the world and India isn't a communist country where individuals don't always have choices over their own lives.
The old system in the USSR produced many world-class athletes, and China seems to mirror the old Eastern Block system.
Madison
I don't know what the situation in China is? I don't know if it's not voluntary in china then the parents may go to court of law sue the concerned officials. But in anycase if the child gets a gold medal he/she gets name, fame and money. The government is atleast interested in taking up the responsibility which is lacking in India. At the end of the day its the results that matter not the path.
In india also the individuals esp the child has no say it's the parents who mostly push their kids into "education" irrespective of their talents or aptitude.
if a strong leader came about in India would you support a totalitarian coup
I don't know if a coup can ever be possible in India. As per the Indian constitution the military is always controlled by the civilian leadership. Anyway hypothetically if a great leader with a vision who has a track record of achieving good results than why not. Democracy is also a man made institution with its own successes and failures. Monarchy was pretty successful in Ancient India but totalitarian military regimes have usually bought more misfortune than prosperity hence maynot support. I would deal this issue on a case by case basis.
Democracy gives freedom but also freedom to make mistakes, freedom to drag the country in 100 diferent directions without a cohesive vision isn't successful. I guess for now china's unified command and control structure is yielding pretty good results.
In india we have the Legislative but if the acts passed by parliament are not conducive then it is challenged by the judiciary. If the Judiciary wants it can pro actively direct the executive arm of the country to take responsible action. The press is so powerful it can make or break individuals/departments hence they also have to be well managed as one wrong step by government/public officials (sting operations) and then the government can be doomed by the media broadcast.
This system of checks and balances is good for organized democracy like USA but india isn't yet totally ready for that level of sophistication. There is too much corruption, red tape and lack of accountability. I agree now the country is taking baby steps but we still have miles to achieve what the western countries have achieved.
People from Europe/Asia prefer to settle in USA and people from USA prefer not to relocate to other countries most of the times. A country's greatness can be judged by how many people want to get into it and vice versa how many people want to get out of it.
I don't know about Indian politics so I can't comment much. But where I come from, we now have tons of Indian engineers. I remember walking into a firm dealing with financial data and practically every cubicle houses an Indian engineer!
You guys are making your mark in the IT field.
David (Wandererh),
In India atleast the 80's generation the parents had a lot of say in what their kids should be doing i.e., Engineer, Doctor, Lawyer, Scientist or Any other white collar job. But the 90's generation is diversifying into many new areas. The 80's generation we had lots of engineers who are moving into IT field thus creating this impression that Indians are all Computer engineers.
A nation can't develop having a single skill set it also needs to encourage arts, music, culture and history which are unfortunately not so widely sought after careers in India.
In this graet post,you've expressed the emotions of millions of Indians.
You have right explanations with your insightful comments on the current status of India .
However,sorry to say,I differ with you on this view:
"Then the question arises if democracy is inhibiting the government from taking any action on this front as any unpopular move(maybe good in the long run) will lead to the people voting them out of power. Then China's communism maybe better in taking firm action."
India's constttution allows the government to take all measures to eradicate poverty,hunger,lack of education for poor,etc.They have all powers to do it.
And,if they act for the people who are lacking all basic needs,the people will not reject them or vote them out in the next elctions.
The lack of strong will,sacrifice and dedication for the interests of the nation is the problem we face in today's Indian polity.
Tselvi- Thanks for stopping by and feeling as passionately about this issue as I do. Well I am glad you find that statement disturbing but honestly in India we have tried Family Planning measure but little success compared to China's strict implementation of One Child Policy. Another area is compulsory education in China in India we have directive principles of state policy guaranteeing upto 14 years of education but it's not a fundamental right hence unenforceble. There are so many areas where we can improve if we have strong political will but too many political changes with frequent direction changes isn't achieving the objectives that our noble forefathers envisioned in the constitution. You are free to disagree with me my friend but this is what I felt when I wrote that.
If it is a matter of just gold medals in olympics, the reasons are different.
In India a n olympic gold medal means nothing if it comes at the cost of education and career. Young persons in school are far more focussed on their higher education than a higher jump in the games. Pursuit of education and prsuit of medals takes place at the same time, and it is not surprising that hitting the bull's eye in a tough entrance exam is more more important than anything else.
Sharma- I agree with you. In India we are more inclined towards education and career. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
I went through this complete discussion and want to comment over it.
As you said that people from india want to come to USA and you think that it is the greatness of USA. In my view it's not. I think you know the reason why an Indian wants to come to USA and it is just to earn some good money for his/her family (which is in India). Personaly i too want to do the same but never want to settle down other than india. It's not because of my patriotism but my affection to my family, my vilage and my culture.Commenting and criticising some one is an easy task. There are quite a lot person here who read the news paper while taking tea and just forget about whatever happened. The reason behind that is, they are happy if their family is getting a good life, if they have good relations with their friends and relatives. Don't you think it's a normal and quite usual thinking of a comman man. Do you want him/her to come out his office and try to make things correct ? If a person is happy with his life then why to disturb him. Don't you think it's breach of privacy and an attack on someone's personal life.
you are a greedy girl so you are in US
Yes I am greedy and sometimes very needy too. Btw please spell my profile name correctly i.e., it is countrywomEn and not countrywomAn..hehe. Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.
very true!
Well...i'm from China and i just stop by here at noon break~~~ i've read all the above discussions and i think you guys are really having great points. I've never been to India before while I know few about politics. Thus, I just would like to clarify something for the things that happen here in China.
Here in China, we have One Child Policy. It is carried out strictly. If you get across the line, you will be economically pulished. But such policy is not for all Chinese people. As you might not know, in China, we have 56 nationalities among which there's the biggest nationality called Han. You may consider the nationalities as tribes if you are from India. More than 85% of China populations are from Han. For the other 55 nationalities, the One Child Policy is sometimes not available. Sometimes, they may be allowed to have two or even three kids.
For the education, it's not the government who decides to train the gifted kids to be champions. The government provides a whole system for training those kids. But it's the parents who make the decisions. Some parents will also follow the kid's request to send him/her to those gym schools. Those kids will accept systemlized trainings while also learning the normal courses. Some of them will turn to be athletes. Others might go to normal universities and take some other occupations. For those who turn to be athletes, they will also accept distance educations for university courses.
einron says:
15 months ago
You are probably right. Thanks for evaluating both China and India. Maybe India will adopt your views.
God bless.