Articles
The Gap Widens
Opinion | Articles | Chhotebhai | 05-Oct-2026
Two recent events have occasioned this piece. The first was the recently concluded Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan, and the other was the recent visit of an acquaintance to China. Both are indices of the growing gap between China and India, like the backlog of cases in our courts.
I am a sports enthusiast and enjoy watching live events on TV. Far better than silly debates or the violence unleashed by war mongers. Let’s begin with the bare facts for Nagoya.
We are patting ourselves on the back for another under-whelming performance with even the PM congratulating some random athletes for winning bronze medals. Our final tally was 85 medals, of which 21 were gold, giving us a fourth place behind the Asian giants – China, Japan and South Korea. China won 169 gold, 8 times more than us. Also compare this with the last games in 2023. We had then won 28 gold and 106 overall. Our gold tally dropped 25% and overall 20%. In shooting, that was our forte, we dropped from 7 to just 1.
Of our 21 gold, six were in cricket, kabaddi and hockey that are not played by many countries in Asia. Of the 85 medals 9 were from mixed team events of both men and women. Of the 76 gender specific events they were divided equally, 38 each for men and women. Of the individual gold medals the women won half as many as the men. Read the writing on the wall. Let alone becoming a vishwaguru we are far from being an Asian tiger.
It is also worth recalling that Japan, Korea and to a lesser extent China were reduced to rubble when World War II ended in 1945. India gained Independence in 1947 from war weary Britain. China became a republic later in 1949. Yet these countries have outstripped India in economic growth and social stability. Even Bangladesh’s GDP is reportedly better than ours. Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam attract far more tourists than we do, even though they have nothing comparable to the Taj Mahal.
Why is India lagging behind? Let’s take the easiest sector first – tourism. I have visited almost every State in India and have been on three foreign trips – the Holy Land (1980), Austria and England (1994) and Italy (2017). The Holy Land was a pilgrimage, not for tourism. It was a police state with citizens living under the shadow the gun. Austria was beautiful, orderly and clean, except for the pet dogs on the pavements. There were several beautiful, but empty, churches and monasteries.
Like Austria, the English countryside was beautiful, but the Asian dominated urban areas like Wembley were dirty. All of Italy was defaced with graffiti. I was not impressed by the fabled Italian cuisine, though the wine and cheese were good. I also found that, even without purchasing power parity, food and beverages were cheaper than in India. So why would anybody want to visit India?
If I were a foreign tourist looking for a holiday destination, India would not be on my bucket list. Why? Firstly, the filth. Even in Agra, the Taj city, as the train rolls into Agra Fort station early in the morning, one is greeted with a 21 bum salute, of people defecating on the railway tracks. My hometown Kanpur is now considered the Pan Masala capital. It is no sobriquet. It’s disgusting to see people spitting everywhere in public. Common toilets, despite the Swachch Bharat rhetoric, are few and far between. Mounds of garbage are an eyesore in every town and village. Traffic is chaotic and urban roads are indistinguishable from the pot holes. What use are accident prone expressways if urban roads are nonexistent and traffic engineering is abysmal?
I wonder if we see every tourist as the progeny of the white colonialists, so we need to get back at them. Is that why we cheat and fleece them? The government is the biggest culprit. If an Indian tourist visits the Taj the ticket may be about Rs 20/-. For a foreigner the entry fee could be as much as Rs 500/-. Is this how we welcome them? Then there is the ogling by male chauvinist pigs (MCPs).It is sickening. I also find that other than street food, eating out in an ordinary restaurant that is far from 5-Star is much too expensive. It’s a rip off. So why should foreign tourists visit India?
Now to the tougher question, the comparison with China. My acquaintance had just returned from his visit with a group. His experiences were an eye-opener. However, there is a caveat. Visitors to China must travel in groups accompanied by a guide to designated places. Hence it is possible that visitors will be showcased only the best parts. Here are his observations.
The country was spotlessly clean. It was well disciplined. The poor were housed in 50 storey apartment buildings. The bullet train was travelling at over 400 kmph but there was no vibration noticeable in his cup of coffee. Another train based on magnetic levitation travelled at 600 kmph, the speed of a commercial jet liner. Amazingly there were no billboards of President Xi Jingping or any other Chinese leader. He felt that China was 100 years ahead of India in technology and at least 25 years ahead of the USA. Small wonder then that Jingping looks suitably bored and expressionless when he visits other countries; unlike our guffawing bear-hugging leader.
Here we go gaga about Vande Bharat trains running at 125 kmph, a shade faster than what Rajdhanis and Shatabdis were running at. We talk of atmanirbhar Bharat but import everything from toys to idols from China. Our trade deals are largely defense procurement contracts, especially from the USA, France and Israel. Even in foreign affairs we have ceded space to our bête noir, Pakistan. Here every municipal councilor or village head has a poster campaign splurging on self-aggrandizement that is conspicuously absent in China.
There is one more glaring difference. China is a professedly atheist country. Here people of all religions are constantly beseeching the gods. Religious processions jam our roads. Blaring loudspeakers drive us mad. We boast of what we euphemistically call “religious tourism”, a thin veneer for State propagation of religions of their choice. Are we suffering from religious diarrhea? I am inclined to believe so. This contrast is also visible in Europe and the Americas. Northern Europe, that is less “religious”, has a higher happy life index and less corruption than Eastern or Southern Europe that are dominated by the Orthodox or Catholic Churches. The same goes for the Americas.
The north is far more developed than the south where dictators and drug lords rule the roost. It is again no coincidence that the south is more Catholic than the north. Has this acted as an opiate for the masses as alleged by Marx?
Coming back to India, if we want to become atmanirbhar and vishwaguru then we need to jettison excessive religiosity. Rats and other rodents destroy one third of our food stocks. We can’t exterminate them because they are “sacred”. Brazil and Texas have the best cattle breeds for both meat and hides. They are of Indian origin – Ongole/ Nelore or American Brahman breeds from the Zebuine strain. Have we missed the boat because of our religious beliefs? The same goes for monkeys that destroy our fruit orchards and standing crops, besides attacking tourists. Do we have the courage to bite the bullet and not allow religion to override good governance?
I do not belong to any political party, though I am left leaning in my social praxis. But I see in hindsight what Jawaharlal Nehru saw with foresight - that organized and militant religion is a major cause of economic and social regression. Corruption and gender disparity also bask in the shadow of religion. The Asian Games results are not an isolated instance.
This article may raise the hackles of some of my “religious” friends. I am not anti-religious. I pray and meditate every day and trust in God’s providence. I also respect all religions. But I believe that we humans are harbingers of our own destiny. We get the leaders that we deserve and reap what we sow. Till then, the gap will keep widening like a yawning chasm.
(The writer is the Convenor of the Indian Catholic Forum)