The idea of progress: to what extent can we say that India became like North America?

Hello. The notion I’m going to deal with today is The idea of progress. First of all, let me give you a little definition of this notion. It can be defined as an improvement, a development, an advance : social, technical or scientist. It contributes to makes of the world a better place and to improve humans conditions even if the progress can have negative side too. The subject of my oral presentation will be India which is a country on the move and I will attempt to answer this question : « To what extent can we say that India become like North America? »

So, in order to answer this question and to illustrate the notion, I will use three documents : the photography « country of contradiction », the video « Kingdom of dream » and the text « Changing India ». To begin with, I am going to talk about the fact that India modernize herself. Then, I am going to show that even if the country wants concilie modern and traditional sides to attract tourist it doesn’t work well and to finish I will show that in despite of this, it is nowadays a country attractive.

First of all, the photography shows the two different side of the country. Indeed, the foreground represents the traditional aspect of India whereas the background represents the modern aspect. Beside this modern aspect looks like a little Manhattan. Therefore, we can deduce that the country would develops herself and in order to do it, she takes example on New-York and in America in general. Nevertheless, the country is not completely develop because there is still the old tradition and usages like the port of saris.

However, the video Kingdom of Dreams uses theses unique traditions to attract tourists. In fact, the goal of the video is to advertise the westerners rich enough that India has managed to reconcile its development and its ancestral culture because despite everything the inhabitants of India stay rooted to their tradition. Furthermore, we can see Indians dancing in the clip in saris, it shows us the Bollywood aspect of India similarly as Hollywood in the United States of America. Then, in the video the Indians’ traditions are exaggerated and we don’t see the poor side of the country with all the bidonvilles. We only clichés.

As regard the text « Changing India », the extract focused on the industrialization of the land but also on the fact that women become breadwinners and that children get diplomas. It points too the fact that students prefer stay in India to continue theirs studies and to find a job later. They don’t go to America anymore in order to live the American dream, they prefer live the Indian dream. Consequently, we can also deduce that the United States serves as a model for India who wants to match them.

On the whole, it could be said that even if India still attached to its culture and that too many people are always in need, the country is gradually developing and the inhabitant are more open minded then before. They are also very proud of their country and they want to shows it to the foreigners and it can be compared to the USA because they are doing the same. Moreover, the country did many efforts to industrialize and modernize herself and it is not finish so we can say that India is becoming like North America step by step.

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