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.

Culturally, not a fan, for many reasons others have mentioned - and the whole caste system thing tends to sour a lot of the otherwise positive aspects.

That said, the food is EXCELLENT, and that must not be overlooked.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

It’s one of the World’s Great Civilizations, rather than just a country like Ireland is, it’s got more historical importance and influence.

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.

Since no one else mentioned it, The Baha’i Lotus Temple in New Delhi is on my bucket list to visit. Absolutely gorgeous architecture.

An architect that was based in London when it was built said of the project, “such a building would be extremely difficult to build in London. In India it will prove impossible.” Not only did you guys build it, but there were 0 workplace fatalities in the process of building it.

I have nothing wrong with it, my parents are from off the mainland.

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.

I like Ram V and his comics, I don’t like all the bhenchods calling my phone.