Asklemmy

At a risk of downvote oblivion, this is what comes to mind to me. Keep in mind that this is just what I perceive about India through all the media I've consumed so it can come across as a bit prejudiced. I'm sure there's more nuance.

The good:

• Amazing food, rich culture
• Seemingly big into tech.
• Very colorful.
• People seem generally friendly.

The bad:

• So. Insanely. Chaotic.
• Basic sanitation and infrastructure seem stuck a few decades ago.
• Female emancipation is lacking as far as I can gather.
• A lot of inequality in general.
• The weather seems like hell to me.
• Even though they're big into tech, it comes across to me that the government and general population is still stuck in the mid 90's regarding devices (pc's etc, smartphones excluded).

It was the loudest and smelliest country I’ve ever been to.

I’ve never seen a country where the cross-country sleeper train bathrooms had literal holes on the floor to shit and piss out of. You saw the tracks wizz below you from the toilets. No plumbing, just excrete onto the tracks.

Chennai train station had the strongest most overwhelming diarrhea smell I ever experienced in my entire life.

Dudes were creepy as hell. They see you’re white and then you’re swarmed everywhere you go. People trying to scam, trying to appoint themselves as your tour guide and won’t stop following you and trying to guide you to “the mall”. Calling you Harry Potter because you wear glasses. I couldn’t imagine what would happen if I was a woman there. I shudder to think.

Crossing the street means walking into oncoming traffic and hoping and trusting everyone to just drive around you. Absolute fucking chaos. The people are not warm or friendly. They stare and get too close and touch you all the time. I kept having people touch my shoulders and try and touch my face when I was in public or queuing.

I never ever want to return to India ever again. I don’t recommend any of my friends go there. There were very few positives about that trip other than it being an eye opening experience as to how over 1 billion humans on the planet live.

The things that come to my mind are

-The country has a set goal to improve in tech industry, aiming to rival big countries like China.

-The people definetly know their spices. While they use it a bit too much at times, it certainly works well.

-The country is overpopulated, leading to talented people having harder time to succeed.

-If you're watching an Indian man's tutorial on any topic, you can assume it'll work well.

-It has a noticable split in religious beliefs.

-fuck the remote scammers operating from Kolkata. The people in India also hate these people.

I wouldn't view India as a world leader in any field but may be ignorant of some specialities? I know there is innovation but nothing major springs to mind. I'm being lazy though - that can likely be looked up and verified with stats.

Technology wise, it appears to depend on western countries outsourcing work, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but isn't a good thing either since the draw to using India isn't skill but cost. If the cost goes up, the west will stop outsourcing there and go to some other low cost base. (I'm not saying Indians aren't skilled, just that's not the primary reason why outsourcing there is happening, it's all about exploitation from the west in search of more profit).

Politically it seems to have been a dumpster fire for some time and looks like it's trending towards more national extremism. Though that doesn't seem to be unique at all - feels like the world is shifting to more fascist tendencies.

The caste system is especially cruel and I regularly read stories that it's going strong with no signs of stopping. I find that morally repugnant.

The amount of scams against innocent people that originate from India is shocking, and it really appears as though corruption is so high that it's not going to get better any time soon.

Professionally, I deal with Indians semi regularly and it's overall positive. Personally, I've come across a few assholes but the majority have been decent people and none of the issues above ever come up.

To be fair, every country believes their culture is superior in some way, partly because it’s beneficial for governments to instil a sense of nationalism in its citizens. India’s not alone in that.

I know India has a booming tech sector and produces tons of great engineers which is cool. I hate their scam call centers its disgusting.

I've never been but I've seen traveling vlogs and the news and it looks so unbelievably polluted and gross. With all the money and education I would expect basic infrastructure to be in every city. The country still has a lot of natural beauty and historical sites well preserved, big respect for that.

As for generalizations about the people. I see a lot of videos of indians mobbing and doing crazy acts. When they are abroad they tend to mostly interact with other indians and shut others out but generally follow the law and arent violent. Women's rights are pretty awful. Sellers are too pushy.

In general my perception of Indians normally comes from the ones I've met who grew up in New Zealand and I have a good perception of them. When I have to exclude that and only think of India as a country my perception is very negative.

• Biggest democracy in the world
• Wouldn't consider it a world leader, to me it often seems more like they refuse to take a clear stance in world affairs, so they can continue positive relations with authoritarian countries like Russia
• Rapid development, but still a lot of extreme poverty and inequality
• Chaotic cities
• Great food, especially for vegetarians like me
• Religious extremism/conflicts seem prevalent

• exceptional food
• cheap workforce (the next major factory of world after China is becoming "too expensive" and competitive)
• hinduism
• religious segration
• caste system
• extreme poverty and extreme wealth
• racist towards dark skinned people (also due to caste)
• anti-queer
• lots of potential, but also among world leaders in corruption
• hot
• noisy, polluted cities
• very influenced by external forces

I'd like to visit, but Thailand, Vietnam, Bali, and Japan look more enticing.

I've been working with many Indians remotely who were in India and on site in Sweden and Germany. None of them ever said anything like you describe, most of them were very humble and hard working. Sadly often they would just keep their head down and work into the wrong direction sometimes for a long time not reaching out to others.

But if I'm honest, the people from India were as diverse as any other group of people. From very religious from small villages to atheists from rich families. The division between them was bigger then between them as a individual and me a European. They didn't even speak the same language and had to use English.

I am myself Indian

I think most Indians don't realise how large and diverse India is. Most Indians underestimate how foreign parts of thier own country are in terms of economy, culture, language, food etc.

bunch of daredevils that can somehow cross roads WHILE CARS ARE SPEEDING BY in expert fashion

I grew up in India's abusive ex (UK). My impression was that people have a

Most people have no problems with Indians and British culture is pretty heavily influenced by India (or at least more so than other countries). Most Brits like Indian food and everyone drinks tea. Vindaloo is especially popular with people who are very drunk, and also happens to be my favourite meal generally (they might ban it in Denmark soon). My experience is that Indians are pretty chill people.

All the news we get from India paints the north as being full of insane zealots/rapists. Stories about whole villages pinning a man down so they can saw off and steal a man's "holy leg" or young girls getting brutally gang raped etc. I know this probably isn't the whole story but you need a decent pr team.

Narendra Modi is a twat.

Indians are stereotypically seen as either doctors or corner shop owners. Indians are typically seen as hard working. All tech support and telemarketing is outsourced to India and people don't typically enjoy those things.

That said the UK does have it's fair share of racist morons, who will always have a problem with Indians, but that's because they weren't raised right.

The caste system and arranged marriage are terrible. It doesn't strike me as a good place for women.

I view India as a rising power that has the potential to rival China and the USA. I think the culture is backwards in many ways and advanced in others. I don't like your current administration, but I do think India overall has interesting politics. I mean, you guys have an active Maoist insurgency. Pretty wild for the 21st century.

I tend to get along well with Indians I meet in the states. I appreciate India long history and cultural impact (Buddha came from India for example). There were democracies in India before Athens was a thing.

All in all India's a rising power with a lot of potential. Unfortunately I don't think they will reach China-status anytime soon because they don't exercise as much central control as China does.

In some ways this is good, Cultural Revolution wasn't exactly a great experience for a lot of people. But in other ways it means the Indian government doesn't have the power to reshape India in a way where it can successfully rival the European powers.

Had a talk with some friends a while back about this. Used to be this big far away country with wonders and crappy things. And it's turning into scam center galore because the only contact we have these days is the weekly scammer. To the point we've come to associate he accent with the situation. It's really an undeserved fate.

I'm pretty indifferent to India. They do have cool stuff, but they also have... not so cool stuff. All in all, it's India.

I don't see much about India in the news. I have a friend who worked in a small town for a month during medical school and talks about the poverty and the number of people she saw sleeping on every flat surface in the city.

I work in public education in the US. With Indian families I've seen two very different attitudes, which leads me to believe that culturally they either serve others or expect to be served. Most are kind, pleasant, and very appreciative of anything we do for their kids. Others expect us to bend every rule for them- start and end times, attendance, bus times/routes, etc. Our Indian families tend to carry and feed their kiddos longer than others and it seems like little kids (especially boys) 'rule the roost' as parents often say things like - he won't go to bed, won't stay at the table to eat, won't get up in the morning, etc. You want to say, "He's 5. You're the mom. Set some rules."

I wonder in what ways does India believe they are the world leader of anything? India is just another country America outsources things to. Its way over crowded, weather is insane and the people seem to be stuck in the past in terms of acceptable hygiene and women's rights.

That being said, i still would love to eat some indian food and witness India's culture as a tourist.

I really respect the area of Kerala and its commitment to their public. Very robust educational system, healthcare, and a focus on access to clean water. That's just from stuff I've seen and read though, I've never been to India, I'm American.

I hope the best for India's future, but it seems worrying from what I hear. I would hope for greater collaboration with China and an easing of tensions with Pakistan. India is a massively diverse place though, with multiple languages and even multiple writing scripts, so sometimes it's amazing it's a functional country at all.

Most of what I hear though is about India dominated by very right wing movements, but there's a strong history of Indian working class movements as well. I'll try to be optimistic about the future.

On India itself, its impressive that it's the world's largest democracy. Indians are well educated relative to similarly poor countries and have high English literacy, which is why many believe it could outpace China.

I admire their charitibility. My local area has a large Indian population as I live near a large hindu temples in the US. There is always cheap, high quality food for those in need (1$ for a large plate of food). The kitchen is operated by volunteers and rely on donations and food banks. I Believe this is also common practice in many temples within India proper.

There are plenty of unsavory things such as the caste system but overall harbor a lot of respect for the country and people.

My basic view of India is of a super diverse country with a fascinating history and cultures, and really great food. Politically I see a country that unfortunately is leaning in a more authoritarian direction as time goes one, and one that is getting increasingly unequal to its inhabitants. I really think India has so much potential but little will to actually improve.

They try to scam you on the phone and their movies suck or are impossible to take seriously. Is a parody of Hollywood. And Hollywood is already a parody of former Hollywoodland.

I really like the food, movies and most people I've met from India are extremely nice.

What I don't like is the huge inequality, treatment of women and the lack of hygiene in the big cities.

It's definitely a country that has been on it's way up for a while now, things could be really good for India in the future.

Honestly, off the top of my head I often like the people who come to England but as far as the country itself I don’t really think about it much. First thoughts are that it’s a massive country that’s heavily polluted and kinda obsessed with making money without much care for how they do it, such as how much of the world is making sacrifices to stop buying gas from Russia but India’s just undermining their good intentions for profit. I think if Pakistan invaded they’d expect the whole world to rally around them.

My general impression is that India are really good at scientific innovation and so on but only because the incredible inequality allows India to channel its resources so that it can be on par with other countries a fraction it's size.

If they did the work required to lift the poor regions out of poverty, and sometimes just straight up feudalism, the country would become a proper superpower with far reaching cultural impact but right now India seem to slide further into Hindu nationalism so now it's more of a worry for everyone else if India became another dictatorship like china.

BJP/RSS - right wing fundamentalist zealots have taken over India. It's gross, it's dangerous and frightening. It's what we hope America will not become with Trump and Heritage types.

All of this is IMHO so keep that in mind.

Politically it's pretty extremist from what I can tell. Not just that but support for that extreme political stance is also rather high. Neithe of which is a good thing in my book. Other news I get to know about also tend to paint a pretty grim picture when it comes to human rights, rich/ poor divide and acceptance of people who have different preferences. I also mostly remember having met people how you described in the opening.

To say how it is, my opinion is not exactly good. Primarily because of how they act a d their political choices. Though I chalk some of that up to a lack of education. And it's also not so bad that I'd rather not deal with them. Just that I have a healthy dose of " oh no, not one of those guys again. This will get exhausting, isn't it" whenever I see someone that fits the description.

India gets my respect for its very long history, and the fact it invented buddhism.

But Indian code is terrible. It degrades my respect for the country because it’s just consistently really bad.

A lot of Indian code seems like someone tried to fix a broken car window by caulking a fish tank into place. You confront them and they’re like “What? It’s glass isn’t it? It’s exactly the same”

Now I haven’t seen a lot of Indian code. I’ve seen the output of maybe ten different devs in India, and of that sample it’s all bad. Like really bad.

They work hard and get shit done, but it’s always some kind of hacky kluge made from copy-pasted code.

It’s unclean. It’s full of tech debt. It’s redundant. It’s often not even indented correctly.

Regional power with powerful neighbours, has nuclear weapons, struggles with impacts of climate change, (completely?) electrified railway recently, doesn't take a stance on the war in Ukraine due to involvement with Russia, farmer's protests, BJP/Modi won't step down, religious conflicts.

My country's media don't report much about India, but occasionally they do features about specific topics.