Coronavirus in India vs Europe: What India Can Learn
COVID-19 has left the world in a lurch but how is this being perceived in Europe and India? Hilal Ahmed explains.
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The coronavirus pandemic has left the world in a lurch but how is the outbreak being perceived in Europe and India?
Author and CSDS Associate Professor Hilal Ahmed analyses the current situation and and creates three bases on which he can differentiate the perspective of Europe and India.
How Are People Viewing COVID-19?
Ahmed argues that in Europe people saw this as disease as a humanitarian crisis. As a result whichever country is coming forward with national priorities is being heavily criticised.
On the other hand, India is looking at it as a problem for the nation. We are not looking at it just as a crisis for the nation but as a crisis for nationalism.
We are ignoring the complications that could be seen if we looked at it from the perspective of humanitarian crisis.
Who is Responsible For This?
According to Hilal, the general debate in Europe is holding globalisation and lack of arrangements responsible for this outbreak. It is being said the belief that 'modernism' is the solution to everything doesn't stand proven and hence it should be reconsidered.
In comparison to this, if we look at India, we are still looking for a specific community who we can blame so that we can divide the communities and continue with the kind of politics that is practiced here.
We are not in a position to have a strong debate on what are the responsibilities of the State.
What Are the Concerns for the Future?
The CSDS assistant professor says that in Europe, the questions raised are related to healthcare. There are questions on rich and poor and on the appropriateness of politics.
While in India we are not raising any question about the future. Our analysis revolves around what will Congress or BJP do. We are still not raising the basic question.
We uncritically accepted globalisation. There is no question on whether or not there should be debates on economic crises that arose with it and which has now become more prominent due to this pandemic.
We should remember that we don't have to blindly follow Europe because we consider it as a leader in modernism. This is not true. We should rather look inside and think if we are raising the basic questions or not.
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