India the next superpower? The new strategic partner of the U.S.A.? Or, is this all so much hype and myth?
The author says that the reality of India is that public health and education are poor, the unemployment situation is serious, and that there is an agrarian crisis in the making. And that India’s model of economic growth is not environmentally sustainable. The author says that this is not a question of undermining India’s achievements (or washing dirty linen in public), but merely a question of realism.
The author says that (in the modern world) there are limits to American power. Can India uccessfully combine elements of soft power with hard power – when America has failed to do so? The author does not deny that this is what many (globalized) Indians really want, but he believes that these are just so many fantasies and delusions. Playing junior partner to the U.S.A. will not help India with its problems of rural poverty, illiteracy and inequality.
The author believes that India has a rich cultural heritage of her own, and India’s destiny does not lie in imitating America’s consumer society.
More summaries about the Article: Grow up, Junior