The revolution that the West is imagining
An author argues that Western media outlets have mischaracterized the political climate in India by predicting a revolution that is not supported by ground-level observations. The piece suggests that foreign observers are projecting their own narratives onto Indian society.
Why it matters
It highlights the disconnect between international media reporting and local realities, raising questions about journalistic integrity and bias in foreign coverage.
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India has deeply disappointed some of my Indian intellectual friends in America, as well as the western media, by failing to produce the revolution they had been predicting.
When I posted on X about the October 10 protests, saying that everything seemed normal apart from the traffic jams, they attacked me; when the Tiranga protest on October 16 failed to deliver the promised uprising, they merely redoubled their opinions. Apparently, their predictions require less scrutiny than my factual description of what I see.
There’s a large gap between the India I am visiting and the India that I read about in America. I have been here for nearly three weeks, mostly staying at IIT Delhi and IIT Kharagpur, spending time with students and faculty, and talking to people on the streets, in markets, and in hostels.
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