26.1.1950 - 26.1.2010 - 60 Jahre Republik Indien

"Those who claim that India is a 'rising global power' offer two statistics in their support—first, that, unlike China or Pakistan, we have held 15 general elections in a row; second, that, unlike the nations of Africa and Latin America, our growth rates are in the region of 8 per cent and 9 per cent.
Aldous Huxley remarked of the Taj Mahal that marble conceals a multitude of sins.
In the same manner, the statistics purporting to capture the political and economic achievements of India conceal, among other things:
shocking inequalities in wealth and living standards;
a third-rate education system and a fifth-rate healthcare system;
a criminal justice system on the verge of collapse;
a serious and still growing left-wing insurgency in central India;
continuing tensions in the states of the northeast and northwest;
a spate of farmer suicides in the countryside;
rising crime rates in the cities;
rapid and possibly irreversible environmental degradation in both city and countryside;
a fragile neighbourhood (with Pakistan mired in sectarian conflict and Sri Lanka and Nepal scarred by civil war);
and more."

Ramachandra Guha in "Outlook: Special Issue", 01.02.2010, S.26.
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