Why are Indians so smart and Americans so stupid

On the 7th of Nov, 2009, I typed, "Why are Indians" on the Google search bar and on top of the list of suggestions (433,000 of them) was - "Why are Indians so smart". On the same lines Google threw up the top suggestions for "Why are Americans" as "Why are Americans so stupid" with 7,610,000 almost 15 times as many suggestions as the former. The world seems to be awestruck by the smartness of Indians and the stupidity of Americans. These search suggestions are definitely counter intuitive and do force one to think as to what makes America a world leader despite its so called stupid people and what is it that makes India a developing country despite its so called smart people. Here's an attempt to answer the question.

The direct implication of the search suggestions is that an average Indian is smarter than an average American. But then this disparity exists at the individual level alone. Collective smartness is certainly not an aggregate of individual smartness. For collective smartness to benefit society, an individual's smartness must compliment another's smartness, for which, every individual must be aware of the larger picture and the objective. In the USA, the establishment takes the onus of service to the people. The people in turn are aware of their rights and can get justice for the issues they raise. The average guy in the US does not need to wade through the system to meet his basic needs and hence an average American need not be as smart. The little smartness that he has is well respected and utilised for his own well being and that of the nation.

In India, an average individual is at the mercy of the system. To get a gas connection he has to bribe the agent; to get continuous power supply, he has to bribe the linesman; to get a ration card he has to work his way around multiple in-trays and out-tray; schools do not have teachers or classrooms; colleges are not centres of learning, but are places to fight elections with the support of political parties; a position in the civil services is not to serve the nation, but to extract hefty sums in dowry; employment in the private sector is not meant to contribute to the growth of the company by innovation, but to take home a hefty pay for listening to the lousy remarks of the employer; a driving license can cost you a fortune; crossing a road is a nightmare and the list goes on and on... Every other guy on the street is smart enough to realise that he is out there to outsmart the rest of the guys he encounters. We as a society are a dumb society with smart people. Individual smartness is not made use of to contribute to the nation's well being, but to the well being of the individuals. So an outsider would be plain astonished by the fact that Indians are smart despite the nation being not so great.

The world unfortunately does not work in the ways of Math that is taught in schools. 2+2 need not be 4 in the real world. Five intellectuals in separate compartments might be doing pioneering work at the individual level, whereas collectively they might all be opposing each other. The result is akin to a large number chefs spoiling the broth. Whereas five not so intelligent guys working together helping each other, sharing each others knowledge can accomplish more than what those five smart people can achieve. A quote from none other than Swami Vivekananda goes thus, "A few heart-whole, sincere, and energetic men and women can do more in a year than a mob in a century". Imagine what would happen if all these smart people aligned themselves to attain a goal collectively. It will result in a force unstoppable. Imagine what will become of India if every Indian who is smart thought and acted in the direction of the progress of the nation. This is the challenge for India - to learn from the West to organise and align its masses and use what is inherently ours to the betterment of the nation.

One might ask how was it that India with a similar social fabric was the richest nation in the world a few centuries ago? Well, the answer is pretty simple. Society then was divided on caste lines. Castes were mainly based on occupation. A member of every caste religiously practised his occupation to the best of his ability contributing to the society and benefiting from the services he provided. The outsiders who came to India were smart enough to use these classes of society to raise feuds amongst castes for their own sake. One negative that the caste system had(has) is that a member from one caste could in no way move to another caste. A Brahmin who wanted to become a blacksmith was not allowed to become a blacksmith. He had to be engaged in learning. Similarly a blacksmith's son was born a blacksmith and had to die a blacksmith despite possessing all the abilities to become a Brahmin. There was no way in society then to deal with such square pegs in round holes. This led to a large number of people who were dissatisfied and these people fell prey to the designs of the colonisers. The British rule left the Indian society in complete disarray. However, it did a good in that the oppressed classes got a voice of their own. Thousands of years of oppression and suppression began to be questioned and foundations for a new social order were laid. A Dalit need not seek the permission of the Brahmin to learn today, nor does a Brahmin have to go through hell to choose a profession of his choice. Times have changed and the Indian society seems to be realigning itself into a new social order. Lets wait for the time when this process of change undergoes completion and individual smartness of the average Indian begins to add up into collective smartness. I am very optimistic about a bright future!!