You can get out of being poor. You cannot get out of being dalit[0].
> While their struggles are real they do not see themselves as losers but rather see themselves as strugglers who will eventually make it some day.
Only about 20% of Indians can afford to have even aspirations. About 66% cannot. 18% struggle to even survive. Newspaper? They would eat it. [1] (data from 2016)
> They then propose that government must help them. Guess what, other than a small fraction of poor people most DO NOT want that help.
The relationship between the government and the people in India is very different from what you are probably used to. It's true that many people in India don't want the government's "help", but that's because this "help" is usually exploitation. They'd be lucky to be left alone. [2]
> If people are angry and fed up and willing to risk their lives
You have to pass a certain threshold of awareness to be categorized as "willing". Most of these people have no idea what the consequences of their actions are. Almost a third(!) of the women in India cannot even read or write. [3]
> What we need is some humility to recognize that just because someone else has less money than we do, that does not reduce their self worth or gives us the right to know "what they need".
Should the same litmus test apply to your post about the Indian condition?
None of that you have stated is even remotely relevant to the discussion at hand but appears like a bait for some kind of flamewar. I will not take this bait.
> Should the same litmus test apply to your post about the Indian condition?
Obviously. But my post is about not making assumptions about what poor people want and rather trust that they have an agency.
India is not even close to having a government that represents the people's interests. However, it does have a true "representative democracy" in the sense that the votes are real. The voters sure have been coerced and bribed, but at least the counting machinery works and is respected.
You can get out of being poor. You cannot get out of being dalit[0].
> While their struggles are real they do not see themselves as losers but rather see themselves as strugglers who will eventually make it some day.
Only about 20% of Indians can afford to have even aspirations. About 66% cannot. 18% struggle to even survive. Newspaper? They would eat it. [1] (data from 2016)
> They then propose that government must help them. Guess what, other than a small fraction of poor people most DO NOT want that help.
The relationship between the government and the people in India is very different from what you are probably used to. It's true that many people in India don't want the government's "help", but that's because this "help" is usually exploitation. They'd be lucky to be left alone. [2]
> If people are angry and fed up and willing to risk their lives
You have to pass a certain threshold of awareness to be categorized as "willing". Most of these people have no idea what the consequences of their actions are. Almost a third(!) of the women in India cannot even read or write. [3]
> What we need is some humility to recognize that just because someone else has less money than we do, that does not reduce their self worth or gives us the right to know "what they need".
Should the same litmus test apply to your post about the Indian condition?
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalit#Discrimination [1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/482584/india-households-... [2] https://www.downtoearth.org.in/blog/governance/why-india-s-p... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_in_India