India
For better or for worse, India’s rise on the global stage is undeniable. While challenges remain, India continues to be a formidable force—economically, militarily, ideologically, and culturally. Its influence stretches far beyond its borders, shaping regional and global dynamics. Having observed India’s evolution for decades, I have a perspective that traces its journey from independence to its current aspirations. This category consolidates my views on India’s transformations as it navigates the complexities of its growing power and identity in the modern world.
Sub-Categories
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jul 9
Indian Fantasies - GDP
Amoxicillin @__Amoxicillin_ · Jul 9
Shubhankar Mishra exposed the sad reality of ‘Two Indias’ —
7 crore earn less than ₹62 everyday
116 crore earn less than ₹171
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jul 9
Indian Fantasies - Infrastructure
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jul 9
Indian Fantasies - Infrastructure
Mohammed Zubair @zoo_bear · Jul 9
In Gujarat’s Vadodara, the Gambhira Bridge connecting Anand and Vadodara collapsed.
Several vehicles, including a truck, a tanker, and cars, plunged into the rive. Rescue and relief operations are currently underway.
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jul 8
Indian Fantasies - More Tourism
Fiza 🇮🇳 @hoorsheikh_fiza ·Jul 8
Proudly Destroying Tourism.Check out Taj Mahal conditions
In India 2024🇮🇳
foreigners tourists spent $~38 billion
China 2024🇨🇳
international tourists spent ~$145 billion
China, marking a 66% increase from 2023
India,marking a 2% increase from 2022
UNESCO are you alive?
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jul 7
Sino-Indian/Tibetan Relations
On 4 July, in the context of the beginning of celebrations of #DalaiLama's 90th birthday, #China warned India to "choose its words carefully" about him and #Tibet. The hoisting of the Tibetan flag and singing of its Anthem is not unprecedented. However, in these uncertain geopolitical times, this occasion, including his succession, is pregnant with political symbolism. The well-publicised Indian ministerial presence adds to it.
#CCPChina will not take this lying down.
#SinoIndianRelations #IndiaTibetRelations
#DalaiLama90thBirthday
Yusuf Unjhawala 🇮🇳 @YusufDFI · Jul 6
On the Dalai Lama’s 90th birthday celebrations in India, Tibetan national flag hoisted in the presence of union ministers of India, followed by the Tibetan and Indian national anthems.
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jul 6
Indian Fantasies - Clean India
We Dravidians @WeDravidians · Jul 5
₹ 90,000 Crores spent on Swachh Bharat Mission launched in 2014.
With this budget, one might expect India to be as clean as Switzerland but look at the Pathetic condition of Meerut📍Abu Nala
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jul 6
Indian Fantasies - Clean India
Rants&Roasts @Sydusm · Jul 5
Chaliye apko Gurgaon ke sair karate hain. The entire city is full of such beautiful sights along the main roads. Yenjoy!
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jul 6
Not an Indian Fantasy
BJP @BJP4India · Jul 5
While global powers are still catching up, India surges ahead with 99% railway electrification — leaving the US, UK, and even Japan behind. 🚃
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jul 5
The 4th Largest Economy
1. Unwittingly,
@narendramodi
’s BJP Chief Minister of the Indian State of #Uttarakhand has betrayed the reality that is India, almost feudal and undeveloped. He was recording this contrived labour to portray himself as the man of the people for rural votes; some 65% of the Indian population is rural-based.
2. The saving grace of such populist imagery is that it accurately depicts the current state of farming in his state. It also mirrors the fact that if the GDP share of the top 10% of the population is excluded, poverty-stricken India rates below some sub-Saharan countries on a per capita basis.
3. But, hey, there is hope. Take a look at the photo below, which shows how it was all done by India's Space Research Organisation back in the late 1960s. ISRO is now one of the top global space ventures, excelling in the business of launching satellites.
#ISRO #IndiaGDP #IndianAgriculture
Amock_ @Amockx2022 · Jul 5
China 🇨🇳 : Artificial Intelligence in farming, advance machinery for farmers
Japan 🇯🇵 : Robot replacing humans to reduce workload, sensors in farming
India 🇮🇳 : A Chief Minister is using ox to plough farming field 🤦♂️
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jul 4
India-Pakistan - A Quartet at Play
1. If so, then evidently credit must be given to Pakistan for its nimble diplomacy. On one level, it secured
@CCPchina
's cyber intelligence support; on the other, the US #RealEstateorTrump was all praise for Pakistan's #FieldMarshalMunir.
2. Trump hosted Munir for a WH lunch on June 18; it was one-on-one and, unprecedentedly, no civilian officials were present. In several statements since, he has praised Munir as “extremely influential” and “very impressive,” crediting him with de-escalating the 4-day conflict with India and being pivotal in averting a potential nuclear war.
3. Trump (“I love Pakistan”) has also enthused about forging a “mutually beneficial” trade partnership with Pakistan based on “long-term strategic convergence and shared interests,”. Singeing Indian heckles further, he has praised Pakistan for its cooperation in counter-terrorism.
4. In sum, while China’s support was a given, Pakistan has reinserted itself in America’s strategic calculations. Significantly, thanks to Trump’s harping on his role in ending the conflict and to India’s silence on the subject, the India-Pakistan hyphenation, which former PMs Rao and Vajpayee had put to bed, has been revived.
5. Pakistan's nomination of Trump for the Nobel Prize, coming in the wake of the cryptocurrency agreement signed earlier with WLF (60% stake held by the Trump family), was a wily, opportunistic move.
6. This episode has put India's foreign policy on the defensive. Perhaps, it is betting that given the neurodegenerative megalomaniac’s transactional style, which rarely foreshadows abiding policy stances, all this will pass away soon.
@narendramodi
and
@DrSJaishankar
might just be right.
@AusHCIndia
@SenatorWong
#Sino_India #India_Pakistan
News Arena India @NewsArenaIndia · Jul 4
"1 border, two adversaries; Pakistan was front face, China provided all support.
It was live lab for China to test weapons."
- Rahul Singh, Deputy Chief of Army
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jul 2
No Demographic Dividend
This is truly astonishing. Seriously, this confirms that India is now producing half-educated graduates, whether in engineering (right-angled flyovers) or in journalism. The much-touted demographic dividend is a chimera.
#DemographicDividend #India_Education
Maj Gen Harsha Kakar @kakar_harsha · Jul 1
They don’t even know that there is a Wellington in India too..n so Our Field Marshall Sam Manekshaw was laid to rest in New
Zealand according to the @timesofindia .
God save us from our own press.
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jun 27, 2025
Ancient India
Map of ancient India from #ALBasham's "The Wonder that was India".
Fascinating names of the landmarks that exist to this day.
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jun 27, 2025
I wonder how it compares with #ALBasham's classic "The Wonder that was India" (1954)? I will check it out.
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jun 24, 2025
India-Canada Rapprochement?
A gentle Canadian attempt at rapprochement with India, me thinks.
How will the #HindutvaMind respond? With the usual high horse arrogance or...
Mark Carney @MarkJCarney · Jun 24, 2025
40 years ago, Canada faced the deadliest terrorist attack in its history. Today, we mourn the 268 Canadian victims of the Air India bombing and all who have been killed in acts of terrorism — a sombre reminder of our commitment to fight violent extremism and keep Canadians safe.
Prime Minister of Canada @CanadianPM · Jun 23, 2025
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s statement on the National Day of Remembrance for Victims of Terrorism:
https://ow.ly/vUbP50WeVTz
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jun 21, 2025
The #HindutvaCaste mob will never understand the difference between passing style and nailed reality, flair and fact, or between form and substance. Imagine if @narendramodi uses this image of #Nehru to promote yoga, it would add immeasurably to his own initiative for the observance of #InternationalYogaDay, and thus to .
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jun 14, 2025
Indians Not Allowed
Thank you for this
@arjunxxyyz
. Can anyone else confirm this or similar discriminatory practices in #Kasol?
@IsraelinIndia
@press96470
I would appreciate your comment, if you have any.
My interest in this matter stems from discovering, some years ago, that #RussianRestaurants and other establishments around #AnjunaBeach in Goa were not allowing entry to Indians.
Razique Alam @arjunxxyyz · Jun 14
Replying to @DwnlodingMyMind and @_protagonist1
It’s a Jewish restaurant in which Indians are not allowed
https://indiatvnews.com/amp/news/india/indians-not-allowed-in-israeli-restaurant-in-himachal-53815.html
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jun 11
Economic Reforms = Contraception
This aligns with other data from, for example, the National Family Health Surveys, which have documented a steady decline in India’s Total Fertility Rate (#TFR) over the past decade.
2. I believe that the most immediate factor responsible for the declining #IndianTFR has been the #Contraception provided by (my coinage) #Aspirational_Consumption: the Desire for the Good Life.
3. In the Age of Information, every household, regardless of class or region, is now aware of the goods and services that are available to make life more comfortable. Faced by the dilemma of having to match the family’s economic resources with its aspirations, the choice is clear: 2-wheeler, yes; A/C, yes; kid, no.
4. The change in social norms catalysed by galloping urbanisation, whether it be slums or high-rises, is seeping into the rural hinterland. For example, the age-old Indian equation, ‘more children equal more security,’ is fading in the South (Tamil Nadu, Kerala) and the more advanced northern states.
5. PM Rao’s and FM Manmohan Singh’s 1991 Economic Reforms provided the best contraception for Family Planning in India. Far, far more effective than the Indian Government's 1967 family planning slogan, "Hum do, Hamare Do" (We two, Our Two).
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jun 5, 2025
Such hypocrisy matches the behaviour of @narendramodi's #HindutvaCaste (right wing) immigrants into the West, who vituprously call for throwing out "illegal" immigrants from India. This, despite some having been in India for years, if not for a generation or two. Also, their calls for coercive measures against long, long resident minorities in India, particularly Muslims, are often laced with expectations that this will force them to emigrate back to their "natural countries".
Mario @PawlowskiMario · Jun 5
Polish immigrants in America voting for far-right scum in Poland, hating the EU, hating immigrants, while living as immigrants in a foreign country.
That’s not just hypocrisy.
That’s the Immigrant Hyparadox in its final form.
You fled your country, benefit from being foreign here,
and now want to deport immigrants over there?
You’re not patriots.
You’re a parasites screaming NAZionalism in English, with a Polish accent that sounds like a Ursus tractor.
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Jun 1, 2025
Replying to
@IndianTechGuide
I am not aware of the source, but this aligns with other data from, for example, the National Family Health Surveys, which have documented a steady decline in India’s Total Fertility Rate (#TFR) over the past decade.
I believe that the most immediate factor responsible for the declining TFR has been the #Contraception provided by (my coinage) #Aspirational_Consumption: the Desire for the Good Life. In the Age of Information, every household, regardless of class or region, is now aware of the goods and services available to make life more comfortable. Faced by the dilemma of having to match the family’s economic resources with its aspirations, the choice is clear: 2-wheeler, yes; A/C, yes; kid, no.
The change in social norms catalysed by galloping urbanisation, whether it be slums or high-rises, is seeping into the rural hinterland. For example, the age-old Indian equation, ‘more children equal more security,’ is fading in the South (Tamil Nadu, Kerala) and the more advanced northern states.
PM Rao’s and FM Manmohan Singh’s 1991 Economic Reforms provided the best contraception for Family Planning in India. Far, far more effective than the Indian Government's 1967 family planning slogan, "Hum do, Hamare Do" (We two, Our Two).
(Incidentally, the #HindutvaCaste lobby is calling for birthing more Hindu kids because Indian TFR below the 2.1 replacement level will make the country’s approximately 1 billion Hindus more “vulnerable” to the "faster growth" of 240 million Muslims!) Go figure.
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · June 20, 2025
Digital Food Supplement
Unfortunately, Comrade
@rishibagree
, millions of malnourished and stunted Indians cannot eat digital transactions. Therefore, the real accomplishment of
@narendramodi
's Government is that, after 11 years in power, it is now able to provide 800 million Indians with subsidised rations to stave off their hunger. Good on you, fellas.
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · May 27
This thin veneer of commemoration, bordering on insult and sarcasm, hardly conceals @narendramodi 's contempt for #Nehru. He matches by spades #RealEstateorTrump's pettiness, disrespect and loathing for people who built the two nations, flaws and all, that both have inherited.
Narendra Modi @narendramodi · May 27
Tributes to our former PM, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on his death anniversary.
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · May 27, 2025
Sensible points. Chinese academics find it invariably amusing when Indian commentators hyphenate India with China on the economic front. Just as no one seeks to 'compare' India with the United States, there is no realistic prospect of India ever matching China on any economic index. This is particularly mirthful given that China is fast overtaking the US anyway.
Incidentally, a little perspective on the #HindutvaCaste's tiresome boasting about India becoming the 4th largest economy:
https://downloadingmymind.com/cq-india-values-the-song-of-the-hindu/
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · May 26, 2025
Dr B R #Ambedkar at Columbia University, 1916, got it right (as usual):
“Hindu society as such does not exist. It is only a collection of castes. Each caste is conscious of its existence. Its survival is the be-all and end-all of its existence. Castes do not even form a federation. A caste has no feeling that it is affiliated to other castes, except when there is a Hindu-Muslim riot. On all other occasions, each caste endeavours to segregate itself and to distinguish itself from other castes.”
Of course, the irony is that the Caste system is one common denominator in the Hindu way of life throughout the Indian peninsular mainland.
The #HindutvaCaste zealots have only a perverted understanding of #Hinduism, its essence described in the #SongoftheHindu:
https://downloadingmymind.com/cq-india-values-the-song-of-the-hindu/
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · May 21, 2025
One notable analogy: Many adherents of Hinduism complain today that @narendramodi 's #HindutvaCaste's religious and political ideology is destroying Hinduism. Incidentally, it is no accident that so many of the #HindutvaCaste right wing pursuasion readily identify with Ashkenazi @netanyahu 's genocidic policies in Gaza.
Ⓥmegans heart @meganshead · May 20
I have to qualify my Jewishness now by saying I am an anti-Zionist. Zionism has destroyed Judaism.
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · May 11, 2025
The India - Pakistan hyphenation is now truly back with
@DeveloperTrump
, in effect, 're-internationalising' the Kashmir dispute. Prime Ministers Rao
and Vajpayee had assiduously sought to and succeeded in 'bilateralising'
the issue.
Suhasini Haidar @suhasinih ·
As @the_hindu reported first on Friday, govt firms up multi-party delegations to travel abroad and make India's case on terrorism, previous govts have done. x.com/KirenRijiju/st…
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Apr 26, 2025
Who was the intelligent Babu, who lent her the black coat? ( I find it difficult
to believe that the black coat was part of the original ensemble with the
blue sari.)
Incidentally, America's #DeveloperTrump was the only other foreign
dignitary not to wear black. Like the Indian President, he also wore blue
which was highly disrespectful.
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Apr 20, 2025
the #Hindutva mob actually consider the stock market as an indicator of a country's development. If you remove the GDP share of the top 10% of the population, poverty stricken India rates below some sub-Saharan countries. And this guy wants to compare 4th World India with 2nd World China!!
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Apr 20, 2025
CQ_India: The #HinduMind is utterly enchanted and bewitched by
rituals however meaningless they might be. For it, a person's value lies in his
observing a ritual, not what he might or might not do for humanity in
another public or private context. India will remain a 4th World country as
long as it remains mired in style not substance, in form not action.
Rishi Bagree @rishibagree · Apr 20
Vice President of India touched the feet of his school teacher in Kerala.
The same man is being abused and mocked by the opposition just for discharging his constitutional duty
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Apr 17, 2025
Welcomed by
@narendramodi
's #HindutvaCaste zealots upon release.
@AusHCIndia
@SenatorWong
@dfat
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Apr 9, 2025
Again and again, the #HindutvaCaste mob mixes blurs the line between
State and Religion. It is the perfect concoction to undermine the
Constitution of the Republic of India.
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Mar 20, 2025
So right. The #HindutvaCaste's readily appropriates an Indian-origin foreign citizen if it fits its purpose, but ignores or accuses him as antinational if he is critical of the #Hindutva ideology and practices.
Indian media are equally guilty. For example, #Dhankar, a BJP functionary in Australia and a convicted (40 years) serial rapist, was widely described only as a "person of Indian origin". The BJP propaganda machine -
@amitmalviya
@MrSinha_
etc. - ignored him totally despite
@narendramodi
's accolades to him in 2014. No one, not even Indian representatives here, expressed regret to the victims.
https://x.com/TruthNo_7/stat/TruthNo_7/status/1902280916879147505/
Nick Sortor @nicksortor · Mar 7
🚨 PRESIDENT TRUMP: “Look, our country has been ripped off by everybody, and that stops NOW!”
“Canada, Mexico, the EU and even INDIA are terrible abusers of our country. But not with me in charge.”
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Mar 10, 2025
#UglyIndiansAtHome
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Mar 8, 2025
So what sayeth
@narendramodi
's #HindutvaCaste lobby in America (which
strongly supported @DealerTrump in 2024)?
Nick Sortor @nicksortor · Mar 7
🚨 PRESIDENT TRUMP: “Look, our country has been ripped off by everybody, and that stops NOW!”
“Canada, Mexico, the EU and even INDIA are terrible abusers of our country. But not with me in charge.”
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Mar 1, 2025
This is so so like #HindutvaCaste Indian Ministers tweeting sycophantically about this or that action by @narendramodi .
Secretary Marco Rubio @SecRubio · Mar 1
Thank you @POTUS for standing up for America in a way that no President has ever had the courage to do before. Thank you for putting America First. America is with you!
Rakesh Ahuja @DwnlodingMyMind · Mar 1, 2025
Four "thank you[s]" presumably to counter Vance's accusation that he has not thanked the United States. Sarcasm intended, I think.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський @ZelenskyyUa · Mar 1
Thank you America, thank you for your support, thank you for this visit. Thank you @POTUS, Congress, and the American people. Ukraine needs just and lasting peace, and we are working exactly for that.