Out of India: From Wretchedness to Capitalism

Abstract

Growing up in India, I realized that the lack of trust, irrationality, magical thinking, absence of creativity, tyranny, immorality, and economic backwardness are connected. You cannot change any of these in isolation, which is why changing society is virtually impossible. The British colonizers and Christian missionaries tried to infuse certain values into Indian culture. The minimal success they achieved has got frittered away with time. Building civilization is a long process. The values that Westerners often take for granted as universal are often conspicuous by their absence outside the West. Once these values have slipped away, it could take a few millennia to build back a civilization.