Rajan, kudos to you for exposing Indian general shoddiness at work:
- outdated web design even in national institute or university websites,
broken links etc.
- chaotic state even at completed construction sites etc.
I am reminded of similar observations by VS Naipaul in his early
writings: An Area of Darkness (1964); A Wounded Civilisation (1977) and
India: A Million Mutinies Now (1990).
The following excerpts are taken from a long piece in Britain's Daily
Telegraph magazine (August 1967):
To see mysteriousness is to excuse the intellectual failure. The poverty
of the Indian land also extends to the Indian mind. The simplicity of
India disappoints and in the end fatigues. India lies all on the
surface.
[On Hindu beliefs] The holy cow is absurd, an ignorant corruption of an
ancient Aryan practice. The caste marks and the turbans belong to a
people who, incapable of contemplating man as man, know no other way to
define themselves. Even I could anticipate much of what was said at the
meeting. Where here is no play of the intellect, there is no surprise.
While the West is many-featured, India possesses only mystery. In March
1962, the glossy Indian Hotelkeeper & Traveller produced a series “Seers
of India”:
“India’s seers and sages have something to offer to the
world. Th the spiritually rudderless foreigners, India’s saints and
sadhus provide irresistible magnets of attraction. India, steeped in
spirituality, ha singularly unique facet to project to the world…”
The absurdity of India can be total. It appears to ridicule analysis.
The onlooker is taken beyond anger and despair.
[Naipaul's stay in in the North]
Poverty could not explain the worn carpets of the 5-star Ashoka Hotel,
the grimy armchairs in the lounge, the long-handled broom left there by
the menial in khaki... Poverty did not explain the dirt in the
first-class railway carriages, the absence of trees, even near the
resort of Naini Tal.
Poverty did not explain the open stinking sewers of the new middle class
Lake Gardens suburb in Calcutta...It spoke of a more general collapse of
sensibility. People had grown barbarous, indifferent and
self-wounding... Here is a nation ceaselessly exchanging banalities with
itself; regeneration is believed to come not from being receptive to
thought but through magic. In a time of famine, hundreds of gallons of
milk were poured over a deity while an Air Force helicopter dropped
flowers.
[A country held together by no intellectual current]
India is profoundly dependent on others, both for questions and answers.
There is no true aristocracy, no element that preserves the graces of a
country... The state is withering away for lack of ideas. Every
discipline, skill and proclaimed ideal of the modern Indian state is a
copy of something known to exist elsewhere. Indians, including the holy
men, have continually to look outside for approval. Local judgment has
no value. Without the foreign chit, Indians can have no confirmation of
their own reality.
[Post election headlines]:
We must be educated to make democracy a success; Past mistakes are
responsible for current problems.
Here was a nation exchanging banalities with itself: it was the
impression Indians frequently gave when they attempted analysis. They
were either expressing the old world of myth and magic or interpreting
the new in terms of the old. The concrete eluded them.
[Ideas all borrowed]
India is profoundly dependent. She depends on others now both for
questions and answers. Here’s a country held together by no intellectual
current. There is no true Indian aristocracy, no element that preserves
the graces of a country… There have been parasitic landowners,
tax-farmers. The rulers represented a brute authority. The aptly named
‘native princes’ have disappeared and nothing marks their passing. Every
Indian, prince or peasant, is a villager. All are separate and, in the
decay of sensibility, equal.Each trade (except entertainment) is
borrowed. Every discipline, skill and proclaimed ideal of the modern
Indian state is known to exist in its true form somewhere else. Cabinet
government looks to Westminster. Indians had borrowed words like
"democracy" and "science" from the West, without knowing what they
meant. The journals of protest look, even for their typography, to the
New Statesman, Indians, holy men included, have continually to look
outside for approval. Local judgment has not value. Without the foreign
chit, Indian s have no confirmation of their own identity.
-------------------------------------------------------
Eddie
------ Original Message ------
From: "Rajan Parrikar" <parri...@gmail.com>
To: goa...@goanet.org
Sent: Monday, 1 Feb, 21 At 08:32
Subject: [Goanet] India's real and virtual worlds
Have you wondered why websites in India are, in general, so awful? The
templates are outdated, the web technologies behind the curve, the
visual
design an eyesore, several links invariably broken. In a word, unkempt.
It
is not just the small trader’s page that is delinquent. Examples abound
of
the dismal websites of national institutes, official government pages,
universities, and important organizations. And I haven’t even gotten to
the
content yet. Why is this the case?
I don’t have an answer to the question. Observation suggests that the
situation in the virtual world has a direct analogue in the real world.
Step out of your home in India and onto the footpath. Doesn’t matter
which
city or town. What do you see? Broken tiles, cracked concrete, shabby
finish, uneven steps, squatters, debris, all peppered with dog
droppings,
paan stains, and trash. In short, a picture of carelessness and general
neglect.
My proposal is that the Indian’s virtual world is a mirror reflection of
his real external world. This still doesn’t get to the deeper “why.” The
other day while driving over the new Mandovi bridge I saw mounds of
piled-up debris beneath the columns, by-products of the massive project.
Never a clean finish, that’s just not an Indian thing. Like the
electrician
who comes to your home to install an appliance - he leaves behind a
trail
of dunnage and dirt for you to clean up.
