Maybe its just that we have the creme of the crop coming here, Im not sure.
Not really. Hindus in general are very fond of accumalating wealth or wealth oriented,in this day and age. If you look at the list of World's Top 10 Richest Persons, there are 4 Hindus.
http://top--10.blogspot.com/2008/03/top-10-richest-person-in-world-2008.html4) Steel giant Lakshmi Mittal placed fourth with 45 billion dollars
5) Petrochemicals tycoon Mukesh Ambani placed fifth with 43 billion dollars
6) Anil Ambani at sixth position with 42 billion dollars
8.) Property magnate K.P. Singh came in eighth on the list, with a fortune estimated at 30 billion dollars.
All 4 have Indian passports.
Although India is known as a poor country in some western nation, at various times in History, we have had lot of wealth, Most of which got lost due to repeated onslaught from the Greeks,Muslims,British,Portugese,French..etc.
Lord McCauley in his speech of Feb 2, 1835, British Parliament:
"I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen
one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. Such wealth I have seen in
this country, such high moral values, people of such calibre, that I do not
think we would ever conquer this country,
unless we break the very backbone of this nation,
which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I
propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her
culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good
and greater than their own, they will lose their self-esteem, their native
self-culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated
nation".
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I think this is also the reason why Jews and Israel has had a lot of enemies. Everybody is after the goods.
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Here is a link which includes a detailed breakdown of the GDP from AD 0 to 1998. http://www.theworldeconomy.org/publications/worldeconomy/MaddisontableB-18.pdfHighlights:
* India was No. 1 in world GDP from 0 AD - 1500 AD. And by a large margin. So much for the story peddled by the Evangelists, Muslims, and EVR's thugs that the caste system had doomed and rotted India.
* Given the population of India, the per-capita GDP of India was No. 1 in the world, comparable to China, until 1000 AD.
* From 1000 AD to 1600 AD, the per-capita GDP of India and China declined, until it was roughly half of Western Europe. However, because of the large population, China took over the No. 1 spot in the world in terms of total GDP, with India a close second. Incidentally, this is when the Muslim invasions of India were at their peak, which is logical. After all looters are going to go where there is loot, not to Papua New Guinea or some such place.
* From 1700-present, Europe had a big surge in GDP, and in terms of per-capita GDP, it was more than 4 times that of China or India. This also coincided with the Industrial revolution in England and northern Europe, since their colonies served as large captive markets, spurring a huge demand for their products and hence increased prosperity.
* England's GDP grew by almost 8 times from 1820-1950!! Far more than any other northern European country. India was truly the jewel of the crown, a large slave population, and also a large captive market, forbidden from starting its own industries. England needs to thank India to this day.
* From 1870-1998, it has truly been an American century. The GDP of America grew in this period by an astonishing 15 times! No other country comes even close, at any period of time. America was a colossus by any measure, per-capita GDP or total GDP.
Of course, India and China, now called developing countries, should really be called re-developing countries. If only all these caste-based hatreds were not whipped up by the politicians, India would have been on a steep trajectory to regain its former glory.
So, when all those EVR'ists complain about Hindus having destroyed India, one can point them to the above study, conducted by an international group of economists, who can rubbish these idiotic claims. Hindus should never, ever, be apologetic of their past. As thought leaders, intellectuals, writers, they had a role in nearly 2000 years of prosperity for India as a whole! While there are going to be some bad elements in every group who may have led to a deterioration in the values and perception of the group, no one should be apologetic.
I must emphasize, that no society has ever enjoyed such a long reign at the top as India, and if the Hindus are mistreated and extinguished from India, it would be a sad commentary on how to destroy a society through short-sightedness.