The level of corruption in India is beyond belief - and the issue is not just with the politicians. The general populace itself is extremely corrupt.
It does not help that the dominant religion thinks of truth and morality as extremely subjective.
All of this leads to a very low trust society where each person is only for themselves and their families. So it is not at all surprising that the biggest cities where people live in extremely densely populated clusters turn out to be extremely unlivable places.
You’ve gone from corruption (which I agree with) to something about dominant religion thinking of truth and morality as subjective ( which is debatable as you have cited nothing - infact seems like it’s your opinion and nothing else) to low trust ( which I agree with). What’s the logical link to cities being unlivable? The article says that mayors and councillors lack powers which is the major problem.
Not sure about the subjective part though I feel that the OP is right.
My experience growing up in India is that we are extremely tolerant of corruption and self aggrandisement. In fact, people speak of envy and admiration of folks working in govt who even takes bribes even to issue death and birth certificate.
The corruption of the profession of teachers and doctors is something I've witnessed myself. In just the last 20 years, no one in my village shows any respect for both of them. Things were very different when I was a kid.
Personally I do believe that ours is a very cynical, low trust and 'corrupt' society. Though southern India is much better than North (especially the Ganges planes).
You'd think so, but things are a LOT worse in the country's rural/sparser spaces in every aspect. Urban citizens are at least mostly self-aware, and high population density in cities has some dampening effect to prevent most of the social bads from going beyond intolerable limits.
It all stems from the general phenomenon of Indians still being stuck in the subsistence mindset - including those who don't need to. This is because 1) unlike the US and Europe, (almost all of) India has never had a nontrivial period of continuous and consistent economic security, and 2) The country has a MASSIVE load of "liability" population of a size ridiculously disproportionate to the "asset" population, despite having the largest youth count in the world.
India is one of the very rare wonder countries that would have fared much better (nonviolently) balkanized.
Becoming? They were always unliveable. The difference is that the dysfunction is a lot more visible than before, and even then it was a disaster. The problem is that in India things tend to get very visibly worse before they get _much_ better, and then there are other things that pop up which are also visibly bad; the cycle goes on. It is highly likely of our current problems will get solved in the next 20 years, only to be replaced with other problems of a similar magnitude, and thus the country will keep getting tagged as unlivable even though efforts do get made.
This is primarily because most of the problems have their roots in the very flexible mindset Indians tend to adopt; it's basically the antithesis of the "Deutsche Bahn" issue pointed out in another HN post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46419970.
The air quality issue alone is mind-boggling. The air quality index nominally tops out at 500, corresponding to 'hazardous.' Major Indian cities blow past this threshold on a regular basis in the winter months. In Delhi, poor air quality is responsible for one in seven deaths annually [0]. People born in Delhi now are estimated to lose 8-12 years in life expectancy, depending on the study [1]. This is the norm for now, but it's hard to imagine how much worse things can get.
The level of corruption in India is beyond belief - and the issue is not just with the politicians. The general populace itself is extremely corrupt.
It does not help that the dominant religion thinks of truth and morality as extremely subjective.
All of this leads to a very low trust society where each person is only for themselves and their families. So it is not at all surprising that the biggest cities where people live in extremely densely populated clusters turn out to be extremely unlivable places.
You’ve gone from corruption (which I agree with) to something about dominant religion thinking of truth and morality as subjective ( which is debatable as you have cited nothing - infact seems like it’s your opinion and nothing else) to low trust ( which I agree with). What’s the logical link to cities being unlivable? The article says that mayors and councillors lack powers which is the major problem.
Not sure about the subjective part though I feel that the OP is right.
My experience growing up in India is that we are extremely tolerant of corruption and self aggrandisement. In fact, people speak of envy and admiration of folks working in govt who even takes bribes even to issue death and birth certificate.
The corruption of the profession of teachers and doctors is something I've witnessed myself. In just the last 20 years, no one in my village shows any respect for both of them. Things were very different when I was a kid.
Personally I do believe that ours is a very cynical, low trust and 'corrupt' society. Though southern India is much better than North (especially the Ganges planes).
You'd think so, but things are a LOT worse in the country's rural/sparser spaces in every aspect. Urban citizens are at least mostly self-aware, and high population density in cities has some dampening effect to prevent most of the social bads from going beyond intolerable limits.
It all stems from the general phenomenon of Indians still being stuck in the subsistence mindset - including those who don't need to. This is because 1) unlike the US and Europe, (almost all of) India has never had a nontrivial period of continuous and consistent economic security, and 2) The country has a MASSIVE load of "liability" population of a size ridiculously disproportionate to the "asset" population, despite having the largest youth count in the world.
India is one of the very rare wonder countries that would have fared much better (nonviolently) balkanized.
> It does not help that the dominant religion thinks of truth and morality as extremely subjective.
This is categorically false.
> It does not help that the dominant religion thinks of truth and morality as extremely subjective.
Would like to learn more about this.
My Western eyes look worriedly upon India as it may well give us a glimpse of a horrible future awaiting all major cities.
I don't know what the answer is, but good luck, India. We're all hoping you can solve this.
Becoming? They were always unliveable. The difference is that the dysfunction is a lot more visible than before, and even then it was a disaster. The problem is that in India things tend to get very visibly worse before they get _much_ better, and then there are other things that pop up which are also visibly bad; the cycle goes on. It is highly likely of our current problems will get solved in the next 20 years, only to be replaced with other problems of a similar magnitude, and thus the country will keep getting tagged as unlivable even though efforts do get made.
This is primarily because most of the problems have their roots in the very flexible mindset Indians tend to adopt; it's basically the antithesis of the "Deutsche Bahn" issue pointed out in another HN post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46419970.
The air quality issue alone is mind-boggling. The air quality index nominally tops out at 500, corresponding to 'hazardous.' Major Indian cities blow past this threshold on a regular basis in the winter months. In Delhi, poor air quality is responsible for one in seven deaths annually [0]. People born in Delhi now are estimated to lose 8-12 years in life expectancy, depending on the study [1]. This is the norm for now, but it's hard to imagine how much worse things can get.
[0] https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/toxicity-15-o...
[1] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-61793884
Humans have the ability to survive anything. They just won't make it to 70...
But it makes me wonder how they get foreign diplomats to be stationed in Delhi? Westerners don't accept 200+ AQI.
> Westerners don't accept 200+ AQI.
Our grandparents did: https://waterandpower.org/museum/Smog_in_Early_Los_Angeles.h... https://www.fastcompany.com/90909054/the-origin-story-of-the...
I think one of the European embassy moved from Delhi to Banglore which has much better air and climate but terrible traffic and garbage issues.
Becoming?