top misconceptions about india

what is the one ball, that india doesnt deserve to have in her court, but somehow still does (maybe thanks to the media) ?

OR

what, in your opinion, is the biggest wrongly held perception about india ?


i (we) are interested to know, in particular, of those notion(s) that changed or vanished, after you visited india in person, and saw and experienced everything for yourself.

ofcourse, others who haven't yet visted india, are also most welcome to chip in, with what they THINK is the most widely held misconception - or ball thats most inaccurately put in india's court.

i am not a foreigner myself, so i wouldn't know, but i have a feeling, that those few (if any) foreigners, who visit india "in fear" - believing that india is sort of anti-west, go back, with that notion dented considerably.

and now, can we please have your opinions trickling (preferably pouring) in ?

The stereo typical view of my friends of india (when I said i was going) was

Everyone eats curry.....
Its very poor (half right or maybe three quarters),
That there is no infastructure such as big buisness , IT , expensive goods,
That india (and indians) are dirty (hygine wise, but gandhi said this as well),
you will get ill if you eat teh food,
That is in general a unbalanced/dangerous place pollitically,

Apart from that I dont think they gave it much thought, apart from its another poor 3rd world country.

My own I have to be honest are hard to recall correctly (especially since in the last year I have spent three months in india), I hadnt really given india much thought.
I knew it exsisted and I knew India people living in england but I think if someone said india in my mind I used to see/feel (some of its more of a feeling eg if someone says west indies I see beaches but i feel the sun and hear the sea and distant sound of steel drums...)

Taj mahal,
Elephants,
slums,
overcrowded,
and a feel of poverty and desperation about the place.

Now when I think of it there is to many images/feelings, the chaos of dehli, the peace of mcleod ganj, the spiritual harmony of the golden temple, the boredom of train journeys, the thousands of faces, the hassles, I could go on and on and on but u get the idea

I remember when i first landed I was hanging onto my bag like it was a lifering,
i was convinced someone was going to grab it off me. After a couple of days i realised if i left it somewhere, chances are someone would run after me to give it back. I guess when most westerners think of extremely poor places in their own countries they associate that with high crime levels. The same doesn't apply to India at all (or at least the parts i've been)

In the West we hear so much about overpopulation and crowding in India that we think there must be 10 people jammed into every square meter! I think a lot of people who have never been to India have no concept of how much open space and rural land there actually is, even very close to the big cities (which DO often feel overcrowded!)

The #1 misconception in my experience: "Isn't it dangerous?" "Aren't you afraid to walk around alone?" "WHY would you want to go there?"

These people should get out and go somewhere instead of judging the world from the couch in front of their television sets!

lol guess i'd guessed correctly (read last bit of post #1)

I was taking an evening walk with two canadian freinds here in Chennai the other day. They were saying how, In South America, this would have been a continual battle to outwit the pickpockets. They were delighted to find how safe it is on the streets here.

most Indians speak English

Hi Skell!

That admonition is perfect! I printed it out and stuck it on the refrigerator door so I can reformulate it fast if one more person asks me what there is to see in India!

A lot of people will never visit India and will have there own stereo typical views on india. A lot of which has been posted here as misconceptions etc.
Its a shame they will never visit the place to see it for themseleves

I think you're off base here. India's overpopulation is indeed drastic. It has one third the area of the US and three times as many people. About 75% of India's wildly unsustainable population lives in rural areas, not cities. Population density in India is 11 times that of the United States. Population is everything.

While agreeing that India has far more people than it needs or can sustainably feed, I would also say the US of A has far less than it can safely deal with.

We can go on arguing on what is an ideal sustainable Pop density and whether it should be based on climate/water/resource availability.

Now, if somebody thinks "three times three makes eleven in the US", -- that wouldn't be a misconception about the United States, would it?

Regardless of rounding off for the "one third the size, three times as many people" generalization, India's population density is 940 sq/mi while the US is 85/sq mi, so it's 11 times more.

Both USA and India are severely overpopulated. The US population has expanded at the expense of nature, with more than 90% of the original forest, prairies, and wetlands gone. Most of the original top predators are also gone. Both countries are unsustainable.

Sustainability is "what is sustainable for the entire community of living things (millions of species)" - not - "what do humans (one species out of millions) need to be able to carry on as they currently are."

My top 3:

India is non-violent
India is tolerant
India is poor