India has a population of 1250 million, but it is denied a permanent seat in the U.N.Security Council, France with a population of 66 million, and U.K. with 64 million, have permanent seats. How does one explain this apparent absurdity and incongruity ?
It is explained by the fact that India is poor, while France and U.K. are not.
The truth is that Indians are ordinarily not respected by the peopl of the developed nations, not because the colour of their skin is black or brown but because our country is largely poor.
Nobody respects the poor. Unfortunately that is the way of the world. The truth is that poor countries are kicked around by the developed ones.
When China and Japan were poor countries they were called ' yellow races' by the Western countries, and kicked around ( read their modern histories ). Today China and Japan are modern, industrialized countries, and nobody dares to call them ' yellow races' now.
So if we Indians want to be respected in the comity of nations we must make our country prosperous, and for that we must make it highly industrialized, with its people enjoying a high standard of living.
The worst thing in life is poverty. Poverty degrades a person and often makes him almost a sub human, cut off from culture and education. It often drives a man to crime and a woman to prostitution.
In Victor Hugo's great novel ' Les Miserables' a central character, Jean Valjean, is a poor man who steals a loaf of bread to feed the family of his widowed sister, and consequently he is sent to the galleys, and later, when he escapes, is pursued relentlessly by Inspector Javert throughout his life.
In Dostoevsky's great novel ' Crime and Punishment', we come across a great character, Sonia Marmaledova, who becomes a prostitute to feed her impoverished family.
In Dickens' 'Oliver Twist', Nancy says " You adapt, or you die ".
This does not mean that poor people are bad people. In fact in Sharad Chandra Chattopadhyaya's stories we come across several characters ( particularly women ) who were poor, and yet retained a high character. Similarly, in Maxim Gorki's stories many tramps and other poor persons are shown as people of good character. In Les Miserables, the street urchin Gavroche, though poor, has high character.
However, the truth is that poverty ordinarily compels one to leave all higher and nobler pursuits for sheer survival, and for that one often loses all sense of morality and is driven to crime and other anti-social behaviour.
