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‘If poverty is so painful, why do the poor remain poor? The poor are not lazy, stupid, or corrupt—why, then, is poverty so persistent?’
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“In India, the sapling was planted by the nation’s founders, who lived long enough (and worked hard enough) to nurture it to adulthood. Those who came afterwards could disturb and degrade the tree of democracy but, try as they might, could not uproot or destroy it.”
― India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy
― India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy

“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool. So you have to be very careful about that. After you’ve not fooled yourself, it’s easy not to fool other scientists. You just have to be honest in a conventional way after that.”
― Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Adventures of a Curious Character
― Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Adventures of a Curious Character

“in India, Bhakti or what may be called the path of devotion or hero-worship, plays a part in its politics unequalled in magnitude by the part it plays in the politics of any other country in the world. Bhakti in religion may be the road to the salvation of a soul. But in politics, Bhakti or hero-worship is a sure road to degradation and to eventual dictatorship.”
― India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy
― India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy

“a mere five years after the last maharaja had signed away his land, Indians had ‘come to take integrated India so much for granted that it requires amental effort today even to imagine that it could be different’.”
― India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy
― India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy
Prateek’s 2024 Year in Books
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