Ten Myths About India

chillibreeze writer — Kanika Goswami

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1. Modern India is about Call Centers and BPOs… because Indian labor comes cheap.

It may be true that setting up an office in India (well, in most Indian cities) costs about as much as an experienced copywriter’s salary in the US, but no, India is not just a cheap backyard of more intellectually developed nations. In fact, Back Office jobs are not the star attraction in the employment industry any more, call it awakening of self-respect if you like. It may come as a revelation that many technology, IT and software majors of the world are setting up R&D operations in India, that includes Nortel and Microsoft to name a few. This is a definitive indication of the fact that India is not just cheap labor any more; it is about intellectual achievements too.

Another closely related myth is…

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2. IT and the BPO boom is all that Indian economy and industry can boast about

Post independence, India was one of the few countries that had economic development plans in place for five year periods, assessment at the end of each plan, and planning based on these. As a result, India has a well developed core industrial sector, a booming manufacturing sector and an equally thriving agricultural sector, this is despite the fact that Indian agriculture depends largely on its erratic climate, where each crop cycle owes its fate to the monsoons.

Retail industry is expanding in India. No one ever believed that the good old Indian shopkeeper would be replaced by Malls and retail mammoths within a decade. Today, international brands are looking at this booming market(almost USD 250 million, reports say), driven by the burgeoning purchasing power that the great Indian middle class controls.

3. The Only country to suffer because of the Great Indian Boom is the US

Wrong, US is just another economic partner in India’s growth. The fact is that more than half of foreign capital in India is coming from the friendly neighborhood Asian companies, with almost 50% of foreign investment in India coming from Japan. Hard to believe but true.

4. India is booming…but it’s like fungus…only is spots

WRONG…most Indian cities are unrecognizable today. Hyderabad, the Nizam’s city is now a Hitech city. Over the span of a decade, it has metamorphosed into this chrome and steel ideal, from a sleepy city with minarets and the muezzin’s call. Chennai is bursting at the seams with shopping malls and expatriate population, so is Bangalore, the original software Mecca. Gurgaon and NOIDA in the North are fast developing into intellectual hubs for finance and software. So the growth is Pan-India, and not in select pockets.

5. The poor have got poorer in India

The fact is that India has the biggest middle class in the world, and almost on a daily basis, people from lower economic strata are joining it. The rich have become richer no doubt, but everyone who took up an opportunity that the booming service industry provided, has joined the bandwagon of success.

And on a more social note:

6. Hinduism is a religion

No, No, NO. Hinduism is not a religion in the sense of the term. It is a philosophy, a way of living. It does not have one God that the faithful are required to believe in and have blind faith in. Even people with no faith in any God can be Hindus. It’s a thought process…and no, it does not need any guidance by a pandit or Brahmin. Hinduism guides its faithful, just indicates the road to the right path, but no more…each has to carry the burden of his wrongs himself, even Gods in the scriptures are bound by natural laws, and the laws of human nature.

7. Indians live in wooden shanty houses , ride on elephants and camels, and eat snakes and rats.

To an outsider, the chasm between the rich and poor in India may appear huge, but the fact remains that even though for every rich man’s mansion there is a whole settlement of servicing folk, and their social bond is unique. Their complete interdependence is what keeps this unique social system running.

As for wild animals being a part of daily life, well, one can enjoy riding a camel in some tourist spots in Rajasthan, and even see the Great Bengal Tiger if traveling to the Eastern jungles, but that’s where it stops. India has almost all the best car brands in the world and a Chevrolet can not be replaced by a camel, any day.

Rats are not eaten in India simply because Hindus do not kill them, so eating is out of question. About snakes, being the most mysterious of all animals, the snake hold unique power over Indians and Hindus. It is a representative of God, so never killed, just chased away. Eating a snake is exactly that…an Indianan Jones Myth

8. All Indian marriages are arranged and usually a terrible experience

Marriages in India are not just two individuals deciding on spending their life with each other. Even today, a marriage is a relationship between two families, each member playing a specified role, as demanded by social norms. It is arranged, but is increasingly being arranged by the youngsters themselves. It would be wrong to say that any one influence is driving this. A higher level of exposure to the world practices, other cultures, increasing intellectual capacity and of course, increasing economic independence is taking its toll on the concept of the Great Hindu Undivided Family. Now that everyone prefers a small family, choosing a wife is an individual decision in most cases.

9. All Indians are Hindu.

India has only about 82% Hindus. The largest minority community in India is Muslims, at 12%. Then there is Sikhism, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism, and Zoroastrianism. Not many people know that in terms of numbers, India’s Muslim population equals the sum of the populations of Islamic countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh. Besides, India has the world’s highest Muslim population outside any Islamic country. How’s that for secularism?

Within the 1 billion population that India boasts of, 22% is urban and a huge 88% rural, yet that has not hampered the development.

And Now the BIGGEST Myth of all:

10. India is ONE country with a single culture.

India is ONE big country, with 28 states, each with a special different ethnicity, and many languages and dialects. It has more than a dozen religions being practiced, peacefully co-existing, and many more dozen political ideologies. India has 72% Indo-Aryan races, 25% Dravidian races and 3 % Mongoloid and others. It’s a cultural and racial melting pot.

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—About our writer:

Kanika says, "Words are my hobby and writing my biggest interest in life, while talking comes a close second. With two hyperactive kids and a Chef husband, life is a constant party."