Sometimes I do feel the way Prashant feels in this link http://indianeconomy.org/2009/01/10/et-tu-gurcharan/. Since I work in projects in both countries, I too get this question “India or China ?” comparison very often. But most of the time the question is from Indian partners, colleagues or friends. The people who worked with me in China don´t seem to take India as a competition. Sometimes they think Indians are “barbaric” because they eat with plain hands. On the other hand they think that Indian Technology and Service sectors are a lot more advanced than their own. They love Indian music. But think Indian movies are outdated and boring. But most Indians associate China with cheap goods and definitely as a cut-throat competitor. History of China when I studied was probably one chapter in one of my school history classes while European history was a whole book. Even that focussed on only the building of the wall and thier conflict with Mongols. Culturally China doesn´t exist at all for Indians.
But in economy, can we say that China is going the better way and India not ? I don´t think any of us have sufficient information. The time is too short to judge ( ..like Gurcharan Das states in his book..I totally beleive that indian woke up only early 90s and so comparison are valid only from that time onwards). Even comparison figures made by Ishant in the above site is based on notoriously unreliable government dressed up statistical figures. So what are we arguing about here? If we need to grow what have Chinese figures got to do with it? Chinese growth model is completely different from the Indian growth model and they cannot be interchanged. What works for the Chinese will not work for India and vice versa.
Gurcharan Das is one of my favourite Indian economics commentator and essayist. Normally his views are structurally organised and clearly put out. But in this article he seems a bit exasperated by the questions from his Chinese friends. But he is very right in pointing out that if analysed on caste lines , the trader castes still score better in capital generation. This means even this generation is yet to break out of the mindset of the older generations (which were more stereo typed on caste lines). How do you break generational mindsets ? One way is by education and the other is media. I would say media is more balanced and for sure does not bank on caste or such divides (we don´t even have explicit politically biased newspaper like the west has ..like a Liberal newspaper or Conservative newspaper). So the main culprit which is not doing its job properly is the education system. The education system is still not strong to reinforce modern ideas (or the necessary ideas to take us forward) and not equipped well enough to cultivate modern thinking among its students.
Well to the question ”Is China Vs India Debate…Overdone? ” I would say. But if it brings out from people to rethink inwards and look for solutions to grow just by sense of competitions, I don´t mind another thousand of these discussions.
