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With the end of colonialism during the rebellion of 1857, India was finally freed from the shackles of outright oppression. Unfortunately, the economic damage done to it was, to pardon the terminology, royal. As a country, India seemed to be at the brink of ruin. Fortunately, since the nation took on free market attributes in the early 1990s, India has found several early niches that need to be filled by her people. Unfortunately, to an extent these different professions have become almost cliché insults against a people whose skill sets are as varied as those from any other nation where education is valued as high as anything else.
Indians are known in the United States as three things: tech support workers who run on rigid scripts, engineers and doctors. Do the Indian people have nothing more to provide the world with than medical practitioners, engineers and cheap, friendly laborers? Some people think so, and they have ideas for where India can begin to shine as something other than a debt consolidation service call center. Unfortunately, these people would prefer to work in the shadows, where they are neither seen nor heard by the world at large. And because of this, the stereotypes continue to play out among a great people.
Will India become “just another country” on the global stage? Will its rise to prominence and economic power be overshadowed by a lack of interest in specializing in anything, the way the French specialize in wine and the Americans specialize in weapons? It is the duty of the Indian people to overcome the stereotypes and to embrace the fact that there are valid professions which do not involve computer programming or CAD usage. Real progress happens when the arts are practiced more freely by the people (and are displayed in the galleries which have yet to open), and when non-technical majors are respected by Indian parents.
