Which event had the biggest impact on everyday life in modern India?

steven_ber

I decided to post this poll after reading an 'India Today' special issue.

Which event had the biggest impact on everyday life in modern India?

You can select more than one answer.

IainC

The Government of India Act 1935. This Act led to independence and partition.

MadnoMad

I would go for the Nehru/Gandhi Dynasty......and they had the most NEGATIVE impact on india.....all the problmes that india faces today are nothing but products and byproducts of the dirty politics and downright corrupt practices implanted in the indian social system by this family.....here are a few examples of how what they did directly relate to india's present day problem...

Nehru asking Vallabh bhai Patel to leave Kashmir alone when they didnt want to join the indian union and give up their kingdom status ( because it was nehru's native place) - Kashmir terrorism is a result of this, because even today kashmiris dont feel like they are a part of India henc epakistan take advantage of the predominantly muslim population and claims kashmir to belong to them

Indhra Gandhi sending trrops into the Holy Golden Temple in Amritsar,Punjab to arrest Bhindranwale (Operation Bluestar) a politician whom Indhra Gandhi herself had ut in place to keep the congress control over Pujab - Punjab Terrorism was a result of this because the Sikh community was enraged by the sacrilege committed by the soldiers when they entered the Amritsar Golden Temple, the holiest of the sikh shrines, and treated it like their own backyard

Indhra Gandhi arranging for the initial LTTE cadets to be tained by the Indian Army in India - LTTE causing terrorsim and related problems in the state of Tamilnadu, Indhra Gandhi gave the LTTE training and arms but her son opposed it and sent the Indian peace keeping forces into Srilanka who instead of keeping the peace raped the women and destroyed and displaced a million ethnic tamil people's lives...this is fact reported by Time magazine.

Rajiv Gandhi looting the nation by his brilliant Bofors Scam and thereby compromising the Defence and security of the country by buying useless army equipment at deliberately inflated prices..

Sonia Gandhi a woman who has no idea of the indian political system or any political experience whatsoever and moreover a person who has not even lived in India for 25 yrs wanting to become the PM just because she happened to have slept with the erstwhile PM rajiv Gandhi.....she just might split india into plots and put it up for sale on the international real estate market...

MadnoMad

__________________
One world, One man, One plan....Travel...unfortunately just one life!

Inity & Iditation

Those are some damning points against the Nehru family Dynasty, I'm sure the British Colonial rule did nothing but loot the riches of the land and people too.

I wonder what the future might hold in store for India, with all the states that wish to become independent, or at least gain more autonomy. (as they were before the British came). maybe a United States of Bharatiya?

I'd like to hear more of your political opinion, but don't want to hijack this thread. maybe there is a politics forum somewhere here i am missing

Alan D

It was interesting to see the results of the poll after I had voted.

Firstly I thought that Partition has had a lasting effect on the economies of the countries of the old India. Massive amounts of money spent on armies and armaments that would have been better spent on infrastructure. Also there was the violence of the event which created great bitterness that lingers on and affects political life in the three sovereign states. I forgot that I could tick more than one box and I should have ticked this one also.

The one that I actually ticked was "modern farming techniques". I did this because the question actually asked about " the biggest impact on everyday life". When I first visited India in 1966 there were some tractors in the Punjab but they were a very rare sight elsewhere. There were also large expanses of uncultivated land. In the intervening 37 years most of that land has been cultivated and tractors are everywhere. India has changed from a country that relied on imports of food to a country that now exports food. As the vast majority of people in India live in villages and farm the land I think the "Green Revolution" has been the major factor in changing people's lives for the better.

But there have been downsides to this also which are now becoming apparent such as the levels of pesticides in ground water all over India and the fact that many landless villagers have not shared in the new wealth created. Whether the "Green Revolution" can be sustained indefinitely is up for discussion in India these days.

I'm not sure how much impact cable and satellite TV has had - it's certainly everywhere but I wonder how much it has changed peoples basic beliefs and attitudes.

Two definite non-runners in this poll I think are family planning and tourism.

bijapuri

the biggest current ones IMHO aren't posted
1. The internal combustion engine- the choking of India
2. Mobile phones- yadahai yadahai yadahai!

__________________
Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. Because it's only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.
Barack Obama

lookit me!!!: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bijapuri/

Utube fuzzy logic:
http://youtube.com/profile_videos?user=bijapuri&p =r

Apana

There is a problem here. The only two events are the assationation of Gandhi and the tests at Pokhran (and the tests were spread over two days). The other 'events' are spread over a period of time.

I would suggest and pick British rule in India for five reasons:

unifying the country,
for the legacy of the non-political army,
for the Indian railways,
for the ICS/IAS,
for beginning the network of irrigation canals.

The last three reasons make this country ruleable. We also have a free press and a viable opposition for which we need to thank our Constituent Assembly.

Apana

(If anybody is visiting Hyderabad, visit Tank Bund, where amongst the legion of Telugu heros, stands a statue of Sir Arthur Cotton, without whose efforts in irrigation there would be very little money in Andhra Pradesh. I particularly like this statue as it must be one of the few instances where modern India has raised a statue to commemorate a former white ruler).

Rowan

For me, it would have to be partition, because when you think about it, this has affected every part of life in India.

How? Well, think of the vast defence budgefts that both India and Pakistan spend because of Partition & the Kashmir problem which neither can really afford.

Now imagine how different India & Pakistan would be today if that money could have been spent on development?

__________________
[url=http://www.rowan-castle.com]Rowan's Adventure Travel Home Page[/url]

Apana

Not really, the really big threat is seen as being China. Defence spending would still be high, and even if there was no Pakistan, the porous North West Frontier Province and the North East, would still make huge defence budgets a necessity.

Apana

Paagla Dashu

I think one of the most significant events in modern Indian History is not one of the choices.

In 1990, an economist was sworn in as the Finance Minister of India. His name was Dr Manmohan Singh.

The rest is history.

guerik

How on earth did Satellite TV win this poll?
It's certainly changed SRK's life, but I wouldn't have thought it changed things much for the average Indian

lonelyaztec

Partition.
If the partition did not happen, then, there would be no tension between the two countries.

We would spend all the money for productive purposes rather than getting more arms..

__________________
Aztec

My photoblog

shanthi

Which event had the biggest impact on everyday life in modern India? why....the abolitiion of the caste system, of course.....................:ro lleyes:

kiranlal

who said cast system is abolished , itis only in papers
every indian state has its influance, either caste or relegion.
still there is a lot of cases reported every day , about the atrocites of theheigher cast to lower caste , and at the same time the reservation issues faced by the higher caste on the other side

__________________
A big world and small people

shanthi

kiranlal, this was, of course, said with a sad smile. and to comment further in this thread would not be appropriate.