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Comment by jojobas | Hacker News Reader

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.

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...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?

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

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

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.

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.

> 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...

India has only been independent since 1943.

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

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

Ah sorry, typo

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