India – US relations, the US citizen paradigm
Dr. Ivory Lyons, professor
of philosophy and religious studies, He teaches a course on Buddhism in Film
and explore historical aspects of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism in
Indian culture. Lyons earned a Bachelor of Science degree in interdisciplinary
science from Morehouse College, a Bachelor of Science degree in manufacturing
engineering from Boston University, a Master of Divinity degree from Bethel
Theological Seminary and Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in
religion from Claremont Graduate University.
Dr. Ivory
Lyons is a visiting professor of Media studies department from Mount Hill
University in Ohio, United States of America. He has visited India for the
first time in 2007 and has been a constant visitor. From 2012 he has taken the
responsibility of visiting professor. He contributes 3 months from his every
year to his knowledge trip to India and in the process he has encountered many
Indian practices which are indigenous.
US and us
This essay consists of opinion of an
American citizen and the public opinion of US regarding India from the latter’s
perspective. This has been written by frequently interacting with Dr. Ivory,
who is a visiting professor for Christ University, media studies department and
discussing about the common aspects and the real time relations between the
countries at an individual level.
The opinion has been weighted against
the official relations of US-India written by different scholars. Some of the
books used are Indian foreign policy and relations by Mr. Annadorai,
The report has been written with a
close scrutiny of the available information.
“India is a poor, untidy, dark, hot
climatic country”. Such is the general opinion of India among the Americans.
This has been psychologically embed into the subconscious of the people. India
is always seen as a rural country with agrarian economic activity. It is
interesting to note that people of US have a little knowledge about the world
geography as they are only concerned about the neighbors such as Canada and
Mexico, but if asked about India they would find it difficult to point it out.
People over there never prefer to come into contact with the Asians.
Fortunately or unfortunately, they don’t recognize Indians as Asians. According
to them Asians are Far East Asians. Even though they know little about other
countries, they want others to recognize their country as a major power.
The American perception can be
divided into categories.
1.
Political
2.
Economical
3.
Social
4.
Cultural,
religion and education
Political:
From the paradigm of foreign
individuals, India is more inclined towards socialism and it opposes capitalism
with is ardently supported by them. In the United States, people inclined
towards communism or socialism are considered as enemies of the state and
nation. This can be observed from the withdrawal of Bernie sanders as a
democratic candidate due to the little support from the public who mistook him
for socialist. With this opinion, US public are under opinion that India lags
behind the technology by a decade.
United States being a super power is
not only heard in the international arena but it has been strongly rooted into
the minds of the American citizens.
US public opinion regarding India in
the South Asia is interesting. They see India as a buffer state between the
super power and the China. They strongly believe in the Asia pivot policy of
US. This shows how the psych of the people has been mended in the favor of the
state using the obvious tools such as media.
Dr. Ivory has opinioned that he would
prefer state to hold the production of the essential commodities and some basic
services such as education, health and others can be left to the private
individuals. From this we can understand that the mindset of the people there
is under change and they have started to move towards mixed economy from the
core capitalist ideology.
Economic:
As they have opinioned, India is
still considered to be a poor country with people starving on the roads. BY the
report of the World Bank India has brought down the poverty level from 59% to
23.6%. However this happened when the minimum amount of money needed for the
consumption has been brought to 1.25$ per day (present 1.9$). The purchasing
power of 1.25$ in India does not supplement the basic needs of a man, so it is
no wonder people still call it as a poor country.
There is a huge uproar in the west
regarding the migration of Asians snatching their jobs. There is such uproar
because the menial jobs are being offered to Asians as they are available as
cheap labour. To the surprise of India, people in US consider south Asians as
Asians but not Indians. So now, it can be termed that public are wary about
Indians and Asians.
When asked which country you prefer
to invest in south Asia, the answer was India. This shows the change in the outlook
of economy of India and people over there consider India as huge market and
safe place to invest.
Social:
People of United States usually do
not mix-up with the foreigners, and they have built up a strange opinion of India.
In the past people have very less knowledge about India but now India shows up
many a times on the news channels and people are aware about it. The major
change has come after the NDA has taken the reigns of the Indian government
which emphasized on the diaspora and extended its hand in economic cooperation.
Dr. Ivory has opinioned that there should be more people to people interaction
so as to change the opinion of India. Before
visiting India he was opinion that
India is a poor and untidy country but after visiting he was taken by surprise
by the cities. He has found every cuisine and basic luxury which is found in
his country. It is evident that the image of India has been portrayed in a
wrong sense and it must be changed.
People by seeing the news which are
screened in the national channels and the national newspapers, they have become
sceptic about the religious clashes, beef ban and minority uprisings. People
don’t like business process outsourcing units to be setup in India. Taken an
example of call centers, people call whenever there is a problem and they get
irritated just by listening to the accent of Indians.
Dr. Ivory has interestingly opinioned
that India must showcase itself so as to change the perception of the public in
United States. He has suggested that commercials can be used to do the latter
and more preferably commercials during the super bowl game. This would increase
the number of tourists visiting from the US and which would increase the
tourism revenue.
According to Dr. Ivory, People to
people interactions must be improved and this is being improved in the present
day but the change seen is very sluggish.
India and US constantly strengthening
their strategic partnership and increasing their defence collaborations leaving
out the social interaction. The latter must be taken along in the front to
strengthen the ties.
Cultural and education:
People visiting India always wonder
about the diversity and the colourful cultures of India. They respect the
harmonious integration of the differences which is not seen in US. In US they
say that there is still prevalence of racism and whites get richer and blacks
become poorer. “Whites are very powerful and dangerous” was the statement I
have heard from Dr. Ivory. This shows the extent of prevalence of racism in
United States.
When it comes to westernization of
Indian society, he of opinion that westernization is inevitable in this
contemporary world but at the same time India must preserve their own culture
emphasizing on food, clothing and language.
Most loved attribute of India is its
cuisine. People of United States love the Indian cuisine and it should be noted
that they do not in the way it is eaten in India, they rather prefer their own
way. They consider Indian way is an uncivilized and untidy way. From the latter
we can infer that they are ready to invite the different cultures but not ready
to assimilate into theirs.
Muslims are normally seen with
scientism and people know a little about Islam in United States. Islam is
generally connected to 9/11 attacks. Dr. Ivory has quoted an example of New
York City administration which issued a law saying that they would observe
every Muslim and have them
on radar which was an unsuccessful
attempt. He opinioned that India could help US in this matter as it has rich
experience in handling the diversity anywhere in this world.
In the education system US vastly
differentiates itself from India. In US people are allowed to choose any
subject and liberal disciples are provided unlike the classical disciplines in
India. It is opinioned that lack of awareness has made Indians to get struck
with the classical disciplines. US has a triangle approach of education where
as India has inverted triangle approach.
Having inverted triangle approach Indians have wide scope of employment
than the US. When it comes to students every one is the same with same
understanding capacity but it is seen that Indian students are more
inquisitive.
India-US relations:
The relationship between India and US
has been kick started with the visit of former president Bill Clinton to India 2002.
Before that during the cold war the relations were sore as India opted NAM.
Americans thought that India is ideologically inclined towards socialism (In
the era of cold war) and thus were very sceptic about it. More over India
wanted zero influence of west in the Asia. This can be observed from Mr.
Nehru’s statement “India has to play a very important role in Asia, if you have
to consider any question affecting the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Far East
India would inevitably come into the picture”. India’s relations hip has been
soured again when Pakistan has entered in to SEATO, CENTO and worsened when
after US has signed “Mutual Defence Assistance Agreement” with Pakistan in
1954. Until 1965 India was holding rooftop talking without really participating
in the international politics.
In 1962, during Indo-China war,
strings have been added to the relations and there was seen a massive support
from the US in terms of arms and ammunition. The arms consignment was sent to
India even before that agreement has been signed and then president, John. F.
Kennedy has sent a letter to Nehru asking not to change its stand on NAM. From
the latter we can understand that India is respected for its decisions. Relations
again soured during 1971, war of liberation of Bangladesh and continued during
the 1989-1991. It is after 1991 the relations have been taken a positive course
and most significant deal to happen was 123 agreement between President Bush
and prime minister Man Mohan Singh.
Today US has backed India for the
permanent seat in UNSC and India has been granted one time exception from the
NSG so as to have economic relations with the nuclear power states (34 states
of NSG). Bilateral trade between India and the US reached
US$ 63.7 billion in 2013. FDI share of US is about 6% and there is an
increasing inflow of capital into US from India.
India- US relations has changed from just being a
strategic cooperation to relations which stand along five pillars of mutual
interest, namely:
Strategic Cooperation; Energy and Climate Change,
Education and Development;
Economy, Trade and Agriculture; Science and Technology;
and Health and Innovation.
References:
Bibliography: Malone, D. M., &
Mukherjee, R. (2009). India-US relations: The shock of the new. International
Journal: Canada’s Journal of Global Policy Analysis, 64(4),
1057–1074. doi:10.1177/002070200906400413 In-line Citation: (Malone & Mukherjee, 2009)
Appadorai, A.; Rajan, M.S. (1985). India's
foreign policy and relations. New Delhi: South Asian Publishers. ISBN 9788170030546.
India-US relations. (2014). MEA
India. Retrieved from
http://www.mea.gov.in/Portal/ForeignRelation/USA_15_01_2016.pdf
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