On Wed, Mar 30, 2011 at 4:47 AM, Thaths <[email protected]> wrote: > On Tue, Mar 29, 2011 at 6:41 PM, ss <[email protected]> wrote: >> Well in my view the popularity of self help books does not translate to >> Indians not being confident. > > I agree. The popularity of Mein Kampf and Dinesh D'Souza books does > not translate to Indians being jackbooted, goose-stepping, > black-shirt-wearing militarists.
First I've heard of Dinesh D'Souza, so I'll stick to the Mein Kampf example. I've haven't read Mein Kampf, but I doubt it says anything about wearing jackboots. Jack boots, shaven heads, leather jackets are all cultural artifact that arise from the milieu of the times. In the absence of ever being soaked in this cultural context Indian readers of these books won't become neo-nazis - they see the book perhaps as a voice that is very sure of itself, so too Ayn Rand. Nothing more. Alcohol is the other parallel that comes to mind. The poor drunk who washes up in the gutter after eclipsing his consciousness on a liter of cheap arrack isn't in the same class as any of us seated in our parlors swilling Single Malt. Self help books are disproportionately more popular on the sidewalk than at an upmarket bookstore like Landmark; this is poverty at play. The greatest selling book of all time, the Bible is a self help book at one level really. India's fascination with charms, swamis and astrology is natural, they promise to tame an otherwise unpredictable life. Cheeni
