ISAS Insights

A blog, “Reflections on India”, written by Sean Paul Kelley, an investment banker-turned travel writer, went viral on the internet. Posted on 7 August 2012, Kelley warned: “If you are Indian or of Indian descent I must preface this post with a clear warning: You are not going to like what I have to say”. Then he went on to write about “filth, squalor and all around pollution” he saw on his most recent travel to the country. Observing this and much more, he went on to suggest that there was “lack of respect for India by Indians”. It is the last observation that is worth some attention since it points to a feature of the South Asian culture which stands in the way of this region’s sustained economic development and social improvement. This paper attempts to shift the development discourse back to the impact of culture on economic growth and modernisation.