India is not, as people keep calling it, an underdeveloped country, but rather, in the context of its history and cultural heritage, a highly developed one in an advanced state of decay.
Interpretation
The quote highlights India's historical and cultural richness while critiquing its current state of degeneration.
Shashi Tharoor's quote challenges the conventional perception of India as an underdeveloped country by emphasizing its profound historical and cultural achievements. Instead of defining the nation solely by its contemporary struggles, Tharoor suggests that it embodies a complex narrative of advancement marred by decay, urging a deeper understanding of its identity beyond superficial labels.
In practice
During a discussion on global development, one might use this quote to underline the importance of considering historical context.
Foreigners have a complex set of associations in their minds when they think of America - from Iraq to 9/11, certainly, but also from Coke to jeans. It is entirely possible for people around the world to love American products, American books, American movies, American music, and dislike the policies of the government of America.
The roots of India's soft power run deep. India's is a civilization that, over millennia, has offered refuge and, more importantly, religious and cultural freedom, to Jews, Parsis, several varieties of Christians, and Muslims.
Much of the conventional analysis of India's stature in the world relies on the all-too-familiar economic assumptions. But we are famously a land of paradoxes, and one of those paradoxes is that so many speak about India as a great power of the 21st century when we are not yet able to feed, educate and employ all our people.
I believe in an India of pluralism and diversity, not of religious bigotry and caste politics. I believe in an India that is secure in itself and confident of its place in the world, an India that is a proud example of tolerance, freedom and hope for the downtrodden.
I returned to India because I believe in an India of honesty and hard work, not of corruption and crookedness. I believe in an India of openness and straightforwardness, not of hypocrisy and double-dealing. I believe in an India where opportunities are available to all, and not just to a chosen few.
The steep decline in America's image and standing after 9/11 is a direct reflection of global distaste for the instruments of American hard power: the Iraq invasion, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, torture, rendition, Blackwater's killings of Iraqi civilians.
It is better to put on the brakes sooner, for some fine day you begin to understand — to pardon everything — and then where is the charm of life, if you cannot love or hate any more?
The rationality of the ruled is always the weapon of the rulers.
Most people are prisoners, thinking only about the future or living in the past. They are not in the present, and the present is where everything begins.
Boredom is your window on the properties of time that one tends to ignore to the likely peril of one's mental equilibrium. It is your window on time's infinity. Once this window opens, don't try to shut it; on the contrary, throw it wide open.
I am one who has been acquainted with the night
Lord, if I thought you were listening, I'd pray for this above all: that any church set up in your name should remain poor, and powerless, and modest. That it should wield no authority except that of love. That it should never cast anyone out. That it should own no property and make no laws. That it should not condemn, but only forgive.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.