Rahul Gandhi Rising?
Whenever I am up late I turn on the TV and watch the “Tonight Show” hosted by comedian Jay Leno. My favorite segment of this show is called “Jaywalking”. Reporters from the Tonight Show approach pedestrians in some of the major American cities and ask them fairly basic questions. Some of the responses are hilarious. Others will make you wonder how citizens of the richest and one of the most advanced nations on earth can be so ill-informed (my favorite Jaywalk response. What is the DC in Washington DC stand for? The answer “Da Capital”).
One of the complaints that you will hear from Indian immigrants (particularly those who are here on work visas) is that Americans are “ignorant”. This is hardly the case. An average Indian immigrant is much more educated than an average American we encounter on a daily basis (among adults only 27% of Americans have a Bachelors degree while 85% of Americans have completed high school). I believe that an average American is very knowledgeable about their fundamental rights, health, financial and political issues, and government policies when compared to an average Indian.
In addition some Indians also equate knowledge about specific subjects and general knowledge or knowledge of world affairs or current events. We have a tendency to accumulate information about anything and everything that goes on in this world (most of it is useless and a waste of time) and using that to compare ourselves with the rest of the world. An average American on the other hand is very “local”. They are more concerned about what is going on in their communities than what is happening in India or Afghanistan (I am not suggesting that this is the correct strategy for the citizens of the worlds only remaining empire).
If citizens of a country like the United States with almost 99% overall literacy has difficulty naming their president or vice president then what would be the situation in India? How many Indians can name their country or the state that they live in? How many of us can name our nation’s capital or point out India in a world map?
I was thinking about this as I was reading an article on India Today that claims that according to their recent poll Rahul Gandhi was most favored by Indians to become the next Prime Minister of India and that Narendra Modi was the most popular Chief Minister. This poll gives the impression that most Indians already know the concept of India, division of India into states and process of administering a state by a legislature elected by the people under the leadership of the Chief Minister and his/her cabinet.
The assumption is that if the Americans (or any other country in the world) can find out who the most popular governor of the nation is then why can we not find out who the most popular Chief Minister of India is? Guess what. Most Americans will not be able to name a governor of a state other than the governor of their own state. So how are we able to do it?
How was this poll conducted? India Today says that a “sample size of 12,392 eligible voters of 98 parliamentary constituencies in 19 states, the poll covered all age groups, and both genders in urban and rural areas “. I definitely know that there are more than 19 states in India!! I also know that there are close to 550 parliamentary constituencies in India. Is this because of sampling related issues? We know that caste, religion, ethnicity, region, language and income play an important role in Indian politics. Where these taken into account in the sample size as well?
Did the organization that conducted the poll talk to the respondents over the phone (85% of Indians do not have a phone), did they send out a form to fill out (most villages in India do not have a post office) or was it through the internet (only 5% of Indians have internet access). Did the pollsters provide the list of the names of some of the politicians or did they ask the respondents to come up with their own list?
My point is that India is very complex for a poll like this to mean anything. There are approximately 400 million of us who cannot read or write. There are 500 million of us who live without electricity (which directly means that they are cut off from current events) and there are millions of others who lead a migratory life where state and national boundaries does not mean much.
Polls like this give us (the literate middle class) an illusion of a strong and united nation state that exists only on paper. They create an impression in our minds that what other more developed nations do we can also do. The reality is that a South Indian would care less about Narendra Modi or Rahul Gandhi as a North Indian would about South Indian languages. And then there are the Indians who live the Northeastern parts of the country. My sympathies are with them!!
“We are so vain that we even care for the opinion of those we don’t care for” – Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach
Related posts:
- Rahul Gandhi – India’s Confucius
- Rahul Gandhi and His Two Hindustan Myth
- Sonia Gandhi Destroying Indian Religion, Culture and Traditions
- Barack Obama: Inspiration From Mahatma Gandhi?
- Eradicating Corruption in India: Sonia Gandhi’s Ill-Advised 4 Step Process
Category: News & Government
I think you are comparing apples and oranges. General knowledge (what’s the capital of Russia) doesn’t mean much to an american as opposed to knowledge of their rights (eligibility criteria for medicaid). It is not that americans aren’t educated (you don’t need a enginering degree to be educated), it’s just that they choose to be ignorant on current or world affairs; fortunately for them, they can afford to be so. I also think the american media caters to it by focusing so much on local community affairs.
On the other hand, most indians are so concerned with food on the table (or the floor) to care about Rahul Gandhi or Narendra Modi.
I think it is not just world affairs. What Jaywalking (it is not scientific study in any way) shows that they can be unaware of what goes on in their own country although they are very educated by Indian standards. They can distance themselves from information/knowledge about things that does not directly have an impact on them.
hey,
@Ram: American media , in this case also means Jay Leno’s Jay Walking section.
@everyone who reads this
They always ask someone who probably did not even receive education and works at a gas station. Him/her not knowing these answers is understood..just like any average uneducated person in India.
yaa go to a theater/ street in India, even Mumbai or Delhi and ask them a simple question like:
“What is the language spoken in Managalore”
i am not assuming how many will get the right answer, but it is something to think about.
you think the people Jay Leno interviews on the road are educated because they speak good english, and all americans speak decent english, whether they have a degree or whether they have never ever seen school
its not like they ever go to a university in front of an MBA building and ask these questions.
They cant , because his show would be less funnier than it already is.
I have heard a lot of “educated” indians, make fun of other communities based on this topic, esp americans, because they are brainwashed to believe that cliche about “americans are ignorant”, and also i dont meet any other community talking about this cliche.
example (on 4th of july)…this Indian guy came laughing to me saying: “4/5 Americans do not know from whom america got its independence”…and i got a little pissed off because of the cliche and nothing else so i asked him “do u know which year it was?”…he did not answer…i think your average indian makes fun of the average american about topics they themselves do not have a full idea about.
knowing from whom you won your independence is not enough. the topic stretches way deeper than that
besides with respect to this question, the answer can be a guess work: Britain..even if u do not know the answer 3/5 times, this is the answer. and i assumed since he(the indian friend) did not know any thing else about the 4th of july history, he probably guessed it.
My point: stop watching Jay Leno. He is not funny.
here is show u must watch, if you are looking for laughs.
Arrested Development.
KP
An average American is much more educated than an average Indian even if he is working in a gas station. In defense of Jay I have seen many episodes where he has asked questions in University and even during university graduations.