Part - IV

Putting the Comparison in Larger Perspective

The stark contrast that we see in the organizing and the being of these two events also contributes to a larger debate of China v/s India. While comparing the two economies, the Chinese economy is much superior to India's in just about every measure. In 2008 China’s GDP was US$4.327 Trillion, almost three times of India’s US$ 1.159 Trillion; and still was growing at 9% as compared to India’s 6.1%. These figures even though, draw attention to China’s superior economy explicitly, but implicitly they also lead us to the reason behind it. These are the same reasons which make Beijing Olympics-2008 better organized than Delhi Commonwealth Games-2010.

China's fast-acting government implements new policies with blinding speed, making India's fractured political system appear sluggish and chaotic. It was evident in the efficient and organized way Beijing was prepared, and the lackluster way Delhi was going about it. Moreover, infrastructure and infrastructure development remains a big issue with India. Compared to India, China has a much well developed infrastructure. Some of the important factors that have created a stark difference between the economies of the two countries are manpower and labor development, water management, health care facilities and services, communication, civic amenities and so on. All these aspects are well developed in China which has put a positive impact in its economy to make it one of the best in the world. Although India has become much developed than before, it is still plagued by problems such as poverty, unemployment, lack of civic amenities and so on. In fact unlike India, China is still investing in huge amounts towards manpower development and strengthening of infrastructure.

Most importantly beyond the physical aspects of this contrast, somewhere deep down, in the mindset of Chinese and Indian people, lately has developed a contrast: which reflects in the balance of power shifting towards the Chinese side. Originally, China and India have been culturally not very different and have had a great influence on each other’s way of life. They both have been agrarian cultures with fatalistic and collectivistic outlook towards the life. Though with the world moving from agrarianism to industrialism, which later translated into capitalism, both the countries have moved from their fatalistic and collectivistic self to more ambitious and individualistic way of living. However, when compared to an all western culture like United States or the countries from the European Union, we can still see aplenty cobwebs of fatalistic attitudes and collectivistic values being prevalent in India and China. However the different being and reality of both the sports events, exhibit the paradigm shift the Chinese nation is going through, while India still struggle with the said cobwebs. The association and disassociation of the people of these two nations respectively, with the Games highlight it. Not taking away the efforts of many, like the school children in Delhi who came out to clean the construction debris from the road, it is going to take many more such efforts, much often and in situations related to day today affairs of even lesser significance, for India to take on the Chinese Dragon.