Arguing is a waste of time. People here are just way too political correct. Chinese are the most superior race on earth and India in their 4000 years of existence never done anything worthy of admire. They will never catchup. Hinduism is a curse, and Southeast Asia which are influenced heavily by Indian culture will remain poor for the same reason.
No need to go that far. We do have to thank India (if thats the proper name since the current form of it is a British invention) for stuff like the number zero as well as other stuff that was supposedly invented during the BCE era.
But as I was discussing with some other guy a while back, what's needed today to succeed is different from back then. We live in a modern fast-paced global knowledge-based capitalist environment. In order to remain competitive, what needed is everyone to play their part in working hard to contribute to the nation in producing value. Quality not quantity. People seem to have a hard time thinking China is about quality now due to its high population which is a real scary thing when people are working towards their potential.
This isn't even about just India. Why is Singapore, a tiny dot considered more than its Neighbour Malaysia? According to LKY, is it coz its full of genetically superior Chinese? According to him, what he is concerned about is Sino-culture is hard. How did Yu the great start the first dynasty? He was a flood engineer who managed to resolve the constant problem of yellow river floods. There's no God coming down from heaven to help you. Rather the heavens say you figure out how to resolve this problems and we might be with you. China has dealt with floods, famines, managing large population, fighting nomads, maintaining order during civil strife etc. In comparison SEA culture simply doesn't have so many disasters and stuff grows a lot more easily like a coconut from a tree. Therefore they don't need to be on their feet so much.
A tough environment brings tough and competitive culture. Sino-like cultures have it that everyone must work their ass off efficiently to produce value to the country. Both men and women. There is no wasting 3 hours each day to pray to Mecca on a country-wide scale. Nor is there any ban on Women reading and working. There is simply no time or room for religious stuff that actively impedes getting stuff done properly. There is only results that does the talking. Even Muslims in China realize religion alone ain't gonna put food on their table so they have to go out to work, sell, earn a living etc. Thats why places like Latin America or non-east asians so far haven't really caught up because such a lax or rather inefficient attitude is not competitive. Even in the middle east, some place like Iran seems to understand the need to be competitive so I think despite the sanctions they have, they know what it means to work hard to achieve results unlike their heavily oil-reliant neighbours which aren't going to have those high GDP figures forever.
But for China the battle may have not even began. So just like before it must find a way to resolve significant problems. If birth rates are low, they find a way to increase them or alternatively find a solution that people have not thought of like cloning or utilizing robots etc. Sometimes people spend so much time thinking about assumptions from yesterday they fail to realize the assumptions may have changed tomorrow.
Btw this applies to the west too. They think they got it all figured it out coz their ancestors conquered others. No thats just a kid with a silver spoon not knowing what his parents had to go through so he could be born with one. The only thing they have left really is war so far. Without it, people will realize they are not really that competitive and there's no need to take what they say seriously. The USA for all people hate about it, is still more competitive than most places especially Europe because it still has people who are hungry who want to do something.
