|
Can anyone verify this?
Ok, here is the promised information on weights and
measures on my trip.
First, let me start by saying that India is primarily metric. All education is metric. Imperial units may be taught as a means of demonstrating conversion factors. However, here is the key point: People in India understand and feel comfortable with many imperial measures. If someone asked how far something was down the street, most people would answer in kilometers, however, if someone answered in miles, the person asking would not consider it strange or unusual in any way. This would apply to lengths (miles, feet, inches - I never heard yards used), and weights (pounds and ounces), but not volume or temperature. I never heard anyone mention volume or temperature in imperial in conversation. I do remember one billboard advertising a pint of something, and CNN America did display degrees Fahrenheit alongside Centigrade when displaying the weather on the screen. But average people in daily conversation did not use those units. Another interesting one: Bombay public buses, directly above the tire, have the required tire pressure labeled in both psi and ksc. At petrol pumps, there is usually a conversion chart displayed. On the intercity highway, I saw several trucks that very closely resembled some I have seen in the US, brown in color and labeled on the back in white letters with gross and net weight in "kgs" followed by "lbs" and capacity in "cu m" followed by "cu ft". I am positive the same company makes these trucks worldwide. Anyway, in summary: areas where only imperial is used are, as far as I can think of, heights of people, areas of real estate, and tailoring (inches only), areas where metric is usually used but people would feel just as comfortable using imperial include the heights or dimensions of other things (buildings, bridges, etc.) in feet, and for most other things people would feel more comfortable in imperial. The only commonly used imperial units that I did not see refered to by a native Indian or in the media during the week and a half that I was there were the gallon, quart, fluid ounce and yard. btw, when English-language newspapers in India print stories from the US, Associated Press or New York Times for instance (which they have been doing a lot of in recent months), the measurements are always kept the way they originally were, which is usually in imperial. |
