Blogging in India According to a recent survey, among Indian Net surfers, an astonishing number express themselves through blogs - 35 per cent .Considering that 60 per cent of India's bloggers are considered green, with less than a year of blogging experience, that amounts to an explosive growth in numbers. Moreover, 80 per cent of blogs in India are opinion blogs rather than theme blogs. In reaching for an explanation for why expressing one's opinion online is catching on like wildfire however, the argumentative Indian is held implicitly in contrast to the taciturn Chinese, then the Chinese are even greater bloggers - as much as 77 per cent of China's Internet population is blogging. It's a medium that allows people to be themselves, and the phenomenal popularity of blogging in China may owe to the fact that people have few other channels of self-expression. But it would be unduly self-congratulatory to claim that the high proportion of bloggers in China is because the Chinese are repressed, while the high proportion of bloggers in India is because Indians are free and argumentative. In reality, the two societies may have more in common. Consider what happens if one looks a little more closely at the data, and breaks up Indian bloggers by gender.
Among women citizens 51 per cent are bogglers. India may be a democracy, but in areas ranging from economics to sexuality it is heavily invested in bureaucratic regulation and controlAdultery is not just an ethical transgression and homosexuality an alternative lifestyle choice; both are criminal offences. Liberalisation notwithstanding, red tape remains rampant and India is near the bottom of the world in several business metrics. A World Bank study ranked India 134th among 175 countries in overall ease of doing business. It is easier to conduct business in Patna, Ranchi or Lucknow than in Mumbai, Delhi or Kolkata - India's proud centres of commerce. The combination of economic unfreedom and poor governance translates into lack of opportunity for people. But it's an encouraging trend that more and more Indians are climbing onto electronic soapboxes, giving civil society a voice. As in China, it's likely to grow into a social movement that forces change.