I am an Indian and I have noticed that Indians are way too proud of their country for some reason and at the same time lack any civic sense towards it, they are extremely loud and extremely proud. We feel like the world revolves around India and our culture is superior to that of others. Also, a considerable chunk of the population has been sold the “India is a world-leader” myth and they think India is somehow leading the world in innovation, science and technology, human development etc.,
Now, I know for a fact that this is not true, when I try to gauge the perception of Indians abroad on Twitter, I get pretty negative results, but Twitter has nothing good to say about any group of people, so… I kinda wanted to know what you people though of India, don’t base it upon the etnic Indians who might be your friends and are decent people, but base it upon the news you read, the stories you hear from those Indians, etc.
It was the loudest and smelliest country I’ve ever been to.
I’ve never seen a country where the cross-country sleeper train bathrooms had literal holes on the floor to shit and piss out of. You saw the tracks wizz below you from the toilets. No plumbing, just excrete onto the tracks.
Chennai train station had the strongest most overwhelming diarrhea smell I ever experienced in my entire life.
Dudes were creepy as hell. They see you’re white and then you’re swarmed everywhere you go. People trying to scam, trying to appoint themselves as your tour guide and won’t stop following you and trying to guide you to “the mall”. Calling you Harry Potter because you wear glasses. I couldn’t imagine what would happen if I was a woman there. I shudder to think.
Crossing the street means walking into oncoming traffic and hoping and trusting everyone to just drive around you. Absolute fucking chaos. The people are not warm or friendly. They stare and get too close and touch you all the time. I kept having people touch my shoulders and try and touch my face when I was in public or queuing.
I never ever want to return to India ever again. I don’t recommend any of my friends go there. There were very few positives about that trip other than it being an eye opening experience as to how over 1 billion humans on the planet live.
They stare and get too close and touch you all the time. I kept having people touch my shoulders and try and touch my face when I was in public or queuing
This is more of a culture thing, I used to do it a lot when I was younger (it’s considered friendly)
Thank you for being genuinely interested in the opinion of others and for explaining culture differences.
To someone from my culture and to me when I was there, I hated it. It felt the absolute opposite of friendly. It felt predatory. I didn’t feel safe, I felt uncomfortable, I felt I was a freak and an oddity and it made me embarrassed to go anywhere. And this was with Indian-American guides who were familiar with which places to go to and which to avoid for tourists.
I say this to you with no disrespect to you as a person. I’m just trying to state things without sugarcoating them. I appreciate you explaining the cultural perception.
It felt predatory. I didn’t feel safe, I felt uncomfortable, I felt I was a freak and an oddity
I feel no connection to this culture whatsoever, I would happily follow your cultural norms if ever am lucky enough to visit the West, so you are not offending me, and I appreciate the honestly too :)
At a risk of downvote oblivion, this is what comes to mind to me. Keep in mind that this is just what I perceive about India through all the media I’ve consumed so it can come across as a bit prejudiced. I’m sure there’s more nuance.
The good:
- Amazing food, rich culture
- Seemingly big into tech.
- Very colorful.
- People seem generally friendly.
The bad:
- So. Insanely. Chaotic.
- Basic sanitation and infrastructure seem stuck a few decades ago.
- Female emancipation is lacking as far as I can gather.
- A lot of inequality in general.
- The weather seems like hell to me.
- Even though they’re big into tech, it comes across to me that the government and general population is still stuck in the mid 90’s regarding devices (pc’s etc, smartphones excluded).
I feel combining this with @PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca likely creates a fairly accurate sense for the place.
India is, well…despite their historical advances in medicine and continued strong cultural fascination with academia, at some point they became nothing but call centers, distribution points, and scam centers. There is certainly more to India, though when I think of hacking, I think of China and Russia. When I think of scams, unfortunately India is top of the list.
The things that come to my mind are
-The country has a set goal to improve in tech industry, aiming to rival big countries like China.
-The people definetly know their spices. While they use it a bit too much at times, it certainly works well.
-The country is overpopulated, leading to talented people having harder time to succeed.
-If you’re watching an Indian man’s tutorial on any topic, you can assume it’ll work well.
-It has a noticable split in religious beliefs.
-fuck the remote scammers operating from Kolkata. The people in India also hate these people.
Can second the comment about tutorials. It’s amazing how your very very specific problem has a great tutorial, with the worst possible audio, that is perfectly solved by some random dude in his bedroom in India.
- large
- tap water can be dirty
- great curry
- massive population
- caste system
- makes many YouTube tutorials
- has some beef with Pakistan
- likes to bob their heads
- arranged marriages
- spices
- really hot and humid
- as other people have mentioned, can be a bit unruly at times
So from the perspective of being in the United States. Remote Indian work it’s cheap but of extremely low quality. This ranges from call center workers to programming and engineering work.
This is usually a sign of the company trying to cheap out and having poor products in general. So it’s kind of a compounding problem.
Politically India seemes racist, nationalist, and terrible on climate change. I’m from the USA so yes I know we are not great on these topics as well.
Having been to India a few times from inside here it’s what I’ve noticed in the country.
The poverty and wealth gap between Indians and westerners means almost everybody wants money from you and to up charge you. From beggars, to chai vendors, to high end stores and hotels. They also love hidden fees and you have to be vigilant about details. This puts me on a constant tense alertness when dealing with people that gets very draining.
I’ve also spent time with an indian family during holy. My western friend was dating a member of the family and we went for a visit. The family was very generous and welcoming. It was the only time in India when I was relaxed and able to chat and enjoy the company.
Racism and classism abound. The ways different ethnic groups treat each other and try to force the use of their language on the other group. For example a Hindi and Malayalam language standoff when I was in Kerala.
Or when at a store that sells stone art has two clearly miserable lower cast people working a human powered cutting tool for the tourists when you can hear the sound of high speed electric tools from the back room.
Animals other then cows are treated horribly. Elephants in particular always looked miserable and broken.
People with government jobs are arrogant and lazy. From customs and immigration to the national parks. I arrived 20 min before closing at a national park to buy tickets for a late night tour that was latter that evening. The ticket both was empty with one other person waiting. Two minutes before closing the guy came to the window in a towel because he had been showing before getting off work.
The belief in crap science abounds. I got an ayurvedic massage that wasn’t a very skilled massage and then the guy tried to give me medical advice. Several people tried to explain that the ayurvedic guys were just as good as doctors. On way out another of the ayurvedic “doctors” tried to sell me a medicine that he assured would remove belly fat and regrow hair. This from a fat bald man.
The fiet time I was in India Modi had just won his first term as Prime Minister while I was there. There was a huge procession of angry young men yelling and pushing people out of the way. I assumed they were from the losing party. My driver informed me that no they had just won the election.
It was clear that this wasn’t a jubilant celebration of success. It was a angry group that now had the power to do what they wanted.
I know i’ve been negative and there is a fair amount of nice things in India but they always are fleeting and overshadowed by something. In the multiple times i’ve been to India i’ve never had a bad meal and there are a lot of nice people. I just think they are constantly at odds with each other.
The most Indian moment I had was drinking tea while enjoying the smell of the spice fields. Then the wind shifted and all I could smell was the stench of shit and diesel from the cesspool over the hill.
I know India has a booming tech sector and produces tons of great engineers which is cool. I hate their scam call centers its disgusting.
I’ve never been but I’ve seen traveling vlogs and the news and it looks so unbelievably polluted and gross. With all the money and education I would expect basic infrastructure to be in every city. The country still has a lot of natural beauty and historical sites well preserved, big respect for that.
As for generalizations about the people. I see a lot of videos of indians mobbing and doing crazy acts. When they are abroad they tend to mostly interact with other indians and shut others out but generally follow the law and arent violent. Women’s rights are pretty awful. Sellers are too pushy.
In general my perception of Indians normally comes from the ones I’ve met who grew up in New Zealand and I have a good perception of them. When I have to exclude that and only think of India as a country my perception is very negative.
interestingly, almost everyone in the comments have been as calm headed and rational as you. There is not one emotionally charged reply which is devoid of real answers. This is pretty good!
Echoing what other people have said, it’s great that you’re looking for this type of knowledge and taking the replies so well. Awareness of how you (or a group you’re a part of) is perceived is a valuable thing to have, but people don’t often say these types of observations publically.
I think it has a rich history and culture. That being said, I’ve never been, but the news that comes from there doesn’t make me form a good opinion. I always hear about horrific sex crimes against women, or gang rapes, or murders. I’m certainly not going to say that’s all they do, but that’s the bulk of news I hear about it. I hear about the scam centers that seemed to be baked into society. I hear about the caste system, the lack of cleanliness and infrastructure, I hear about the overcrowding. Yes, I hear that they work towards better tech, but the news I hear from there has places India squarely on the “Do not visit” list.
Extremely dirty. Why does nobody care about all the shit and litter out there? What caused such ignorance to form?
I wouldn’t view India as a world leader in any field but may be ignorant of some specialities? I know there is innovation but nothing major springs to mind. I’m being lazy though - that can likely be looked up and verified with stats.
Technology wise, it appears to depend on western countries outsourcing work, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing but isn’t a good thing either since the draw to using India isn’t skill but cost. If the cost goes up, the west will stop outsourcing there and go to some other low cost base. (I’m not saying Indians aren’t skilled, just that’s not the primary reason why outsourcing there is happening, it’s all about exploitation from the west in search of more profit).
Politically it seems to have been a dumpster fire for some time and looks like it’s trending towards more national extremism. Though that doesn’t seem to be unique at all - feels like the world is shifting to more fascist tendencies.
The caste system is especially cruel and I regularly read stories that it’s going strong with no signs of stopping. I find that morally repugnant.
The amount of scams against innocent people that originate from India is shocking, and it really appears as though corruption is so high that it’s not going to get better any time soon.
Professionally, I deal with Indians semi regularly and it’s overall positive. Personally, I’ve come across a few assholes but the majority have been decent people and none of the issues above ever come up.
I know there is innovation but nothing major springs to mind
There is NO INNOVATION. There are no discoveries happening here. R&D budget and the budget for education is peanuts, there isn’t much innovation happening in India and the innovation that does happen, happens in handful of universities by students who could not afford to move out to a better country which would fund their research.
- Biggest democracy in the world
- Wouldn’t consider it a world leader, to me it often seems more like they refuse to take a clear stance in world affairs, so they can continue positive relations with authoritarian countries like Russia
- Rapid development, but still a lot of extreme poverty and inequality
- Chaotic cities
- Great food, especially for vegetarians like me
- Religious extremism/conflicts seem prevalent
I hope that India doesn’t make the same mistakes my county (America) made, such as trying to be a major international player while ignoring the people in need at home. They’re already going that way, but there’s time to change course.
Also, I’d like them to fix their issues with Pakistan. That border was drawn by the British specifically to cause problems, and falling into that trap is letting the previous colonizers win.
It’s one of the World’s Great Civilizations, rather than just a country like Ireland is, it’s got more historical importance and influence.
I don’t understand why people are downvoting you, you are right!
I don’t like people taking credit for something that happened in the past (they had nothing to do with it) but you are right in stating that.
India is one of the last places I’d like to visit. This is based on how India has been portrayed in various travel shows over the years (Amazing Race, Top Gear). It looks crowded, dirty, and the locals often aren’t very friendly, especially towards women.
One of your main exports to the west is scam calls. It’s a huge PR problem and your government refuses to address it. Your other main export right now is Russian oil.
Indians used to have a fairly large online presence in English-speaking spaces with mixed results. There were a lot of helpful tech bros on YouTube, but also a lot of horny dudes on Facebook. I don’t really see much of either of those anymore though.
My wife works in software testing and has regular interactions with Indians. Some are really nice, but others are really not. Misogyny is far too common and when Indians are rude they are boldly rude.
I have never been to India and have no intention to travel there. My imagination is that it is overcrowded, the people there are mostly polite, hard working but not especially skilled. It is definitely a relatively poor country with a lot of inequality and crime.
hard working but not especially skilled
Terrible education and bad priorities doomed this country. Having a billion people is useless if they are not well-educated. I know this tale way too well, this is the reason why people who can leave this country do leave it and most who can send their children abroad for education do send them there.
Fuck! who am I kidding, I will make sure my kids study abroad, the education in this country won’t improve anytime soon.
edit: Good observation there!
I’m in a Western country and 9 out of 10 phone calls I recieve are scam calls from India. Right now in my country, there are Indians with temporary working visas protesting because they don’t want to return to India.
India does not seem like a place I want to visit.
In all honesty, I think most people can’t tell an Indian accent from a Filipino accent. I’ve heard primarily Filipino voices on customer service calls for decades now
