Category — Communication across Cultures

Earlier this week, India announced that the French built Rafale had beat out the runner-up Typhoon in a $10 billion fighter aircraft contract. The Typhoon, built by the Cassidian unit of EADS would have sustained thousands of jobs in Germany and the United Kingdom. Instead the work and jobs will go to Dassault Aviation, Safran/Snecma and others located outside UK/Germany.

In a shallow complaint, British Conservative  Member of Parliament, David Davis  is quoted as exhorting British Prime Minister Cameron to  “to pull his full weight to get India to change its mind” pointing out that “we give aid to India many times more than what France gives.”

Davis is sometimes touted as a possible future Prime Minister and should know better than to make such absurd statements. First of all, a UK company BAE won an earlier order to deliver 66  Hawk Trainer aircraft to India, valued at 700 million pounds. Second, since India became Independent in 1947, it has bought much British hardware. Third, a billion dollars of aid does not “buy” you ten billion dollars of sales. In fact most people would find such an equation repugnant. Fourth, if Davis checked his own BBC, he would find that India is among the largest inbound investors into the United Kingdom, including such icons as Land Rover, Jaguar and the former British Steel. And finally, some of the richest Brits are actually hard-working people of Indian origin, such as Laxmi Mittal,  Swaraj Paul, and Anil Aggarwal.

A few Indians might further add that if Davis wants to talk about history and aid, his calculations should include the wealth plundered by royal fiat over 200 years as first the British East India Company and then the Royal Crown reduced India from contributing about 20% of the world’s GDP down to about 2%. That’s probably hundreds of billions — maybe trillions – of dollars in today’s money.

What this means

I am an Anglophile and I love English culture, literature and all the good things things the British gave to India, most of all the English language. But MPs like Davis seem to pander to short term political needs and harm the greater interests of alignment between the British and Indian cultures and economies.

Davis’s outburst will probably soon be forgotten by all, and that would be for the best.

Most people know that talking a bath was not a common practice in Europe during the middle ages. For example Queen Elizabeth I  bathed no more  than once a month.

If you were to ask most Americans where the concept of bathing originated, people would say the Greek or the Romans, around 2000 years ago.  However they acquired the practice from the residents of the Indian subcontinent a thousand years earlier. The practice must have been carried back with the vibrant spice trade or other cultural interchange. Here is what a European Cosmetics website says, ” The word hygiene comes from the Greek goddess of health, Hygie. The Ancient Greeks adopted the idea of bathing from the Hindus—the people of the Indian subcontinent were familiar with the beneficial effects of bathing 3,000 years ago.”

Changing mindsets and somewhat friendlier courts in New Delhi have created business possibilities for travel operators, who are now portraying India as an emerging gay-friendly destination. The Toronto Sun reports on a U.S. survey that ranked India as the second most desired cultural or adventure destination for gay couples, just behind Thailand.

When economist Qing Wu visited North India with his partner, he said he “never felt uncomfortable” as a couple. “In India, it is fairly common to see boys holding hands,” said Wu, who lives in San Francisco, via email. “I personally feel pretty safe.”

The special packages provided by LGBT tour companies in India also ensure clients can be completely uninhibited during their visit. The entire staff, if not gay, is gay-friendly. “It is my duty that no taxi driver or guide says anything offensive,” said Abhinav Goel, owner of Out Journeys in New Delhi.

What this means

Homosexuality is still illegal in India, despite what the newspaper article implies, and this law was first enacted by British rulers in 1861. In 2009, a court in Delhi decriminalized homosexual acts but the ruling applies only in the national capital territory and not in the rest of India. Homophobia continues to be practiced widely, such as when India’s current health minister blamed AIDS on aberrant lifestyles.

If you are GLBT person planning a business or recreational trip to India, I encourage you to go. Holding hands with a person of the same gender won’t attract unwanted attention in India but that’s because this practice is accepted among heterosexuals. But don’t flaunt other physical behavior and think before making public statements of your sexual orientation.

India celebrated its 63rd Republic Day on January  showing off its latest weapons at a military parade in the capital, Delhi. According to the BBC, thousands of people turned up at Rajpath (King’s Avenue) to watch the parade amid tight security. More than 25,000 policemen and paramilitary forces guarded the streets of Delhi and snipers were deployed on high-rise buildings.

The president, Pratibha Patil and the Prime Minster Dr. Manmohan Singh attended the show with the chief guest, Thailand’s  Prime Minister Ms. Yingluck Shinawatra.  Security was tight across India and thousands of policemen have been deployed in major cities and towns.

Yingluck Shinawatra, Thailand's Prime Minister (on left, in skirt) with Pratibha Patil, India's President (on right)

Today in California,  I am attending a celebration of Republic Day in San Francisco, hosted by Consul General Parthasarthi and his wife.

More photos from the parade in Delhi, hot off the press courtesy of India’s information bureau

ALH or Advanced Light Helicopters operated by India's Army

India's BSF or Border Security Force, shows off their motorbike skills

India's Defense R&D lab has designed and built this Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, Rustom 1

According to the annual review of the news of 2011, Foreign Policy, ranked India at #1 in its list of Top Ten Stories you may have missed.

Comparing to China, the magazine said, India isn’t the only Asian giant investing heavily in new military hardware. India has kept pace with its neighbor to the north and, in some areas, is actually exceeding it — a development that, though much less noted, is a sign of the growing militarization of the region as a new generation of emerging powers with global ambitions jockeys for regional supremacy.

The publication chose to highlight India’s maritime power push. “India is focusing on sea power, a crucial new area of competition. The country is planning to spend almost $45 billion over the next 20 years on 103 new warships, including destroyers and nuclear submarines. By comparison, China’s investment over the same period is projected to be around $25 billion for 135 vessels.”  And it went to point out to its readers that for now, the United States seems much more comfortable with India’s military ambitions than China’s.

What this means

Even among the readership of an elite international publication, the awareness of India’s changing role in both the global strategic arena and the defense procurement landscape is not fully appreciated.