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India Quotes

“To hold the same views at forty as we held at twenty is to have been stupefied for a score of years, and take rank, not as a prophet, but as an unteachable brat, well birched and none the wiser. It is as if a ship captain should sail to India from the Port of London; and having brought a chart of the Thames on deck at his first setting out, should obstinately use no other for the whole voyage.”

IfsShouldYearsFirstsWellsHas BeensWholeUseViewsIndiaTwentiesLondonSettingShipsSettingsProphetScoreFortySailCaptainsWiserVoyagesPortDeckBratThames
Book:The Lantern-Bearers and Other Essays
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“For the first time, I wasn't embarrassed by the look of beauty, of elegance, because when you see someone who has only one rag as their property, but it happens to be beautiful and pink and silk, beauty doesn't have to be separated... I have always said that you shouldn't have biases, you shouldn't have prejudices. But before that [before his trip to India, circa 1975] I'd never been able to use purple, because it was too beautiful.”

FirstsLooksSaidUseHappensAbleBeautifulFirst TimeIndiaPrejudicePropertyEmbarrassedPurpleEleganceSilkRags
Author:Robert Rauschenberg
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“The reality is that there are half a billion kids in India, in villages, who have a pre-determined life. If they're very lucky and they're a gifted athlete, maybe they can compete for the Olympics, or maybe they can get into the military. But if you're not a gifted athlete, then you're going to end up working for your family and you're going to perpetuate what your family is. It's gotten to the point, in villages, where there's no hope. And the first spark of hope is when you ask yourself the question,"What gift did God give me that I can develop and use to better my life?"”

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Author:J. B. Bernstein
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“Government has only one religion - India first! Government has one holy book - the Constitution. The Government must be immersed in only one Bhakti- Bharat Bhakti! The Government's only strength is Jan Shakti! Government's only ritual is the well being of the 125 crore Indians! The only code of conduct of the Government should be 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas!”

ShouldFirstsWellsBookGovernmentPoliticsHolyIndiaConstitutionWell BeingCodeRitualHoly BooksBhaktiShaktiBharat
Author:Narendra Modi
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“Gujarat's e-governance projects have been recognized in the country and abroad. To give a few examples- Gujarat has the largest Wide Area Network in the Asia Pacific. It is the first State to provide broadband connectivity in all schools and villages. It makes maximum use of video-conferencing including trial of the prisoners. Gujarat's ICT based Grievance Redressal System called SWAGAT has got the United Nation's Public Service Award. In addition, it has received eleven national awards for our various e-services.”

GivingFirstsHas BeensCountryStatesUseSchoolNationsUnitedExampleProjectsAreasIndiaIncludingVariousWideTrialsVideoVillageAwardsPrisonerAsiaUnited NationsGovernanceMaximumElevenPublic ServicePacificGrievanceBroadbandGujaratIct
Author:Narendra Modi
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“Small acts can drive reforms. What appears minor can actually be vital and fundamental. Generating 20,000 MW of power attracts a lot of attention. That is important. At the same time, 20,000 MW of power can be saved through a people's movement for energy efficiency. The second is more difficult but is as important as the first. Small indeed, is beautiful.”

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Author:Narendra Modi
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“Homoeopathic treatment is my first choice not only for me but also for my family. Homoeopathy should be developed as full- fledged alternative system of medicine. More research and more development are essential to make Homoeopathy more popular and useful Homoeopath treats their patients in more compassionate way. Homoeopathy is second largest system of medicine being practiced in India.”

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Author:K. R. Narayanan
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“The first thing, the very very first thing, "Find out what your greatest characteristic is, your greatest undoing, your central characteristic of unconsciousness." Each one's is different. Somebody is sex-obsessed. In a country like India, where for centuries sex has been repressed, that has become almost a universal characteristic; everybody is obsessed with sex. Somebody is obsessed with anger, and somebody else is obsessed with greed. You have to watch which is your basic obsession.”

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Author:G. I. Gurdjieff
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“Thinking of this University [Ambedkar University] today, we are reminded of Mahatma Gandhi because if there was anyone who fought for the weak in India, the first one to raise his voice for Scheduled Castes, that was Gandhiji. There were social workers before him but not any people who raised this matter in the political arena as he did.”

PeopleIfsThinkingFirstsMatterTodayPoliticalSocialVoiceWeakIndiaRaisesRaisedWorkersUniversityArenaSocial WorkerCastesGandhiji
Book:Selected Speeches and Writings: January 1989 to November 1989
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“Our task today is to bring India to the threshold of the twenty-first century, free of burden of poverty, legacy of our colonial past, and capable of meeting the rising aspirations of our people.”

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Book:Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi: statements on foreign policy, May-August 1985
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“My first experience of that was with my first movie which I did in India. And it was so different from other people. I find that "Oh my God." Every time the music is slow I feel that people are going to get up and go out. You get this nervousness. But, to my surprise, people starting singing the song even before it came in. They started singing along a week later, after release, which was very cool.”

PeopleFeelsFirstsDifferentSongWeekMusic IsSingingIndiaSurpriseStartingGet UpReleaseNervousnessVery Cool
Author:A. R. Rahman
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“Because of these new car models there is suddenly on the streets of Delhi a new intolerance by the motorists for both the cows and the cyclists. So for the first time the sacred cow in India, which used to be such a wonderful speed-breaker, is now seen as a nuisance. For the first time, IÂ’ve seen cows being hit and hurt. These guys just go right past, and if the cow is sitting on the road, they donÂ’t care. We canÂ’t afford to have a sacred car rather than a sacred cow.”

IfsFirstsCarePastUsedGuyHurtWonderfulStreetsCarModelsSittingFirst TimeIndiaSacredDon't CareSpeedUsed To BeCowsIntoleranceNuisanceNew CarDelhiCyclistsSacred Cows
Author:Vandana Shiva
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“When I first decided to be a writer, that meant dealing with preoccupations and concerns that took little account of Indian traditions. I saw India's past as part of an antiquity rendered irrelevant by modernity, which with its science, nation states, free enterprises, and consumer societies was supposed to have solved all problems.”

FirstsLittlesStatesProblemPastNationsSawsConcernTraditionDecidedAccountsIndiaConsumersIndianEnterpriseIrrelevantModernityAntiquityPreoccupationFree Enterprise
Author:Pankaj Mishra
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“When I came to Delhi first and said, "This is not India. And then I was taken to Varanasi and there I loved, loved the culture. It was a beautiful journey. The way the people dressed - even the poorest people, and the fabrics! With vegetable dyes, and I was fascinated by the color. But in the end I loved the men - all in white - so many shades of white. And I said, "What am I going to do? A color collection or a white collection?" I finally did a neutral white collection.”

PeopleMenWayFirstsSaidEndsBeautifulCultureWhiteTakenJourneyColorHe ManIndiaCollectionsShadeVegetablesFascinatedFabricPoorestDelhiVaranasi
Author:Donna Karan
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“I started out in nuclear physics. But after I became more sensitized to the environmental and health implications of the nuclear system - I was being trained to be the first women in the fast-breeder reactor in India (and was in it when it first went critical) - I didn't feel comfortable with it. So I went into theoretical physics.”

FeelsFirstsComfortableIndiaEnvironmentalCriticalNuclearPhysicsTheoreticalImplicationsTheoretical PhysicsBreedersNuclear Physics
Author:Vandana Shiva
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“The first issue that compelled me was a very strange split between India being highly development scientifically (we were the third biggest scientific manpower in the world then) and yet at the same time struggling with amazing poverty. The linear equation that says that modern science equals progress and the reduction of poverty did not apply to India. It wasn't working.”

WorldFirstsPovertyStruggleIssuesProgressModernStrangeDevelopmentThirdsIndiaSplitsCompelledEquationsReductionLinearModern ScienceManpowerLinear Equations
Author:Vandana Shiva
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“India went through a dramatic revolution after the '90s when our economy started opening up for the first time and Indians were now experiencing the Western life, if you will. Drugs and sex and a lot of those influences came in as the economy stabilized, and we were growing up and experiencing that. The Indian writing market was very small at that time. Our literature was very attuned to what Western audiences were interested in, so everybody was writing about the slums in India and magic realism or stories about Hindus and Muslims and partition.”

IfsWritingFirstsStoriesLiteratureSexAudienceEconomyGrowing UpGrowingMagicInfluenceRevolutionDrugFirst TimeIndiaWesternOpeningIndianDramaticRealismOpening UpSlumsPartitionMagic Realism
Author:Karan Bajaj
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“The reality that we were growing up in was very young and vibrant, and nobody was capturing that part of India. I started to backpack after getting out of college. I hiked and did a lot of things nobody was capturing in art at all in India, so I wrote my first novel. It was a very, trippy, experience-filled novel, and it ended up doing very well in India because nobody was writing about that at that point.”

WritingFirstsWellsArtRealityYoungNovelGrowing UpGrowingCollegeIndiaFilledTrippy
Author:Karan Bajaj
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“The first time I went to West Virginia I was surprised by how poor it was. It was like north India, there's kids running around in bare feet. The white working class has been disenfranchised as well. It's been disenfranchised by the liberal-left as well as the conservative-right. You really have to get people right across America and Britain and Europe and the world as a whole concentrating on the economic issues that affect them, because when you don't have that, you have all these phony, racist and cultural wars, and sexist wars.”

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Author:Irvine Welsh
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“I'm a radical pro-immigration advocate. I'm not saying we just look at the Muslim world or we just look at China, we just look at India as a source of our talent. But, one thing we know... first or second generation or new immigrants or children of immigrants have started about 40% of the Fortune 500 companies. For me it's always been a really very important issue that I want America to be open to the most energetic and talented people from around the world.”

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Author:Thomas Friedman
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“The rich and powerful countries are trying to wreck as much as possible. You know, go off the cliff as soon as you can. Extract every drop of hydrocarbons off the ground and destroy the environment. At the opposite extreme are countries like Bolivia and Ecuador, indigenous people around the world, and first nations in Canada and tribal people in India, campesinos in Colombia... They're trying to save the commons.”

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Author:Noam Chomsky
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“I am a red man. If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man he would have made me so in the first place.”

IfsMenFirstsMadeSpiritWhiteRedIndiaIndianNativeNative AmericanWhite ManAmerican IndianGreat AmericanNative American WisdomGreat SpiritNative AmericaNative American IndianRed LipsGreat Native AmericanNative American EarthIndian WisdomNative WisdomAmerican SpiritNative American Indian InspirationalNative American DreamLakotaOnly In AmericaNative Place
Author:Sitting Bull
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