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Comment by quadrifoliate | Hacker News Reader

The less widely known and palatable truth is that jugaad is simply a way of adapting to a few hundred years of colonial exploitation [1]. Indians have built precisely engineered monuments like the Taj Mahal [2] and the Konark Sun Temple [3] in eras before India was engineered to be a vast source of raw material for the British Empire, designed for optimum extraction.

Bygones are bygones, and we need to move on. However, I would urge all people who identify as Indian to reject this sense of "jugaad" as a uniquely Indian thing – it unnecessarily paints a picture of us as consistently turning out shoddy and half-baked work that will fall apart eventually.

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[1] http://www.nilejournal.net/politics/britain-exploited-india

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taj_Mahal

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konark_Sun_Temple

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Jugaad does not necessarily paint a shoddy or half-baked picture. May be look at it in terms of a solution to a problem in unique ways by using material and resources available at one's disposal intelligently and more environmentally friendly.

May be instead of Taj Mahal or Konark Temple (beautiful and aesthetic still vanity projects) look at living root bridge [1], a solution to a problem in environmentally friendly way. Some will call it Jugaad and some may call it innovation.

On exploitation it may sound harsh but the biggest exploiters of Indians are Indian. If you go by present circumstances situation is dire with no player left in telecom but one, no player left in banking but few, no player left in retail but one, soon no player will be left in energy with the sale of assets to specific private individuals and the list can go on. It will be nice to follow Kabir's "बुरा जो देखन में चला!" before blaming outsiders do introspection.

India's caste system and discriminatory practices are to blame for its exploitation by its own people and outsiders.

Look at India's financial reforms all back pedaled and thriving banking sector is now marred by non performing assets (NPA) and loans restructured out to make balance sheet look good. Strike of demonetization took away the oxygen out of everyone especially small to medium guys and pumped it into selected few large corporates. Draconian laws of FCRA, use of ED for personal vendetta, non thoughtful reforms and taxes on foreign investment sucked the remaining oxygen.

India's strength is it's unity in diversity and tolerance and whenever it's attacked like it is now by its own people it will suffer.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Living_root_bridge

Oh come on, half of the world (US included) was colonized and optimized for resource extraction, mostly because of how far ahead British manufacturing was at the time.

India as been independent for a while now, just own the half-bakedness already.

...and isn't jugaad more a reaction to Gandhi-era command economy/license Raj, when imports were heavily restricted, shoddy goods had no competition and getting anything done through official channels took forever?

Out of curiosity, what period of Indian history do you think Gandhi was alive in?

Surely he means Indira Ghandi?

Gandhi, not "Ghandi" (I blame the early installments of the Civilization game series for this misconception).

Oh right - I think I was thrown by the "Gandhi era" (usually used in reference to the twenties/early thirties)

I would posit that the level of exploitation of the Indian population paled in comparison to the colonies. [citation needed] But, you are right in a sense.

Everything south of United States had the same or if not worse level of exploitation as a European colony.

I sort of agree with parent poster, specially because most of these countries are independent for a bit longer and maybe because of that they tend to blame less the colonization (but blame still), but also because keep blaming the past (even when it is true) holds you to look forward.

> Everything south of United States had the same or if not worse level of exploitation as a European colony.

Every large country south of the United States (certainly anything approaching the size of India) has been independent for at least 100 more years than India [1]. India gained independence in 1947. There are plenty of people alive in India today who were born as British subjects. You did refer to this in the sense of "...most of these countries are independent for a bit longer"; I happen to think the difference is significant.

That being said, I did say "we should let bygones be bygones" in my comment, and share your attitude about moving forward.

But part of moving forward is defining your own identity. The point I want to make is that jugaad has causes and not very pleasant ones; and that Indians should not embrace the stereotype thrust upon them by breathless news articles that just discovered a word for "hack" in a new language. This...should not be controversial.

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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decolonization_of_the_Americas...

Interestingly, don't most poor parts of the world have some such stereotype? Like, if you Google any of the following you'll get exactly what you expect from any of these (they clearly espouse identical beliefs):

* https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&as_q=jugaad%20enginee...

* https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&as_q=hillbilly%20engi...

* https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&as_q=mexican%20engine...

Though I couldn't find an equivalent 'Brazilian' or 'Somali' so I wonder what the terms are in those places or if they have no such terms, what they do instead.

I think it's just what you get when you constrain resources but tooling gives you a great boost and safety is less costly.

There are kludges everywhere, but few companies make kludges part of their core values, except Jugaad apparently.

India has only been independent since 1943.

Close, 1947. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Day_(India)

Ah sorry, typo

Are you talking about Bose's government? Ceremionally and legally, it's 1947, surely.

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