Indians are Hypocrites

If Leader Page article in 'The Hindu'(Tuesday, December 11) - "India in the World - How we see ourself" has to be believed, we, the Indians are hypocrites and that too the worst. According to the survey, on which the article was based, 93 percent of Indians agree that our culture was superior to others (we topped the list). But still... we believe we need special protection against foreign influence. [Since it is the rule of the game that inferior product or service wins the battle against superior product or service... :D]. Until here, the author - Meera Nanda was doing o.k., then she started jumping to show figures to substantiate her own hypothesis rather than talking about the trends from the survey.

For example, according to the author, Materialism = Free markets . (Meera, Can you show me a economy book that explains this?] Also according to the author, the separation between religion and state means the political leaders should never bow before sadhus or saints or there should not be any idols in government buildings. Sorry, until now i was thinking that separation between religion and state means that religion plays no role in the decision of the state. (Though i would prefer any government property to be free of idols or pictures of gods or goddess as a mark of a secularity)

But the worst part of the article was that the author never points that the sample size was just 2043 people(who represent a billion!!!) and that it was disproportionately urban(as stated in the report). Also because of the cultural differences, different terms would mean different things to different people. For example, free market would mean liberalization in India, while it may mean free market in health sector for Americans. An article that shows that writer bent on shouting/deriding India does not need a reason to do so.

P.S: Last Sentence - Exaggerated
If you want to read the report - read 47 Nation Pew Global Attitude Survey & Trends Topline.