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Comment by sidcool | Hacker News Reader

India and USSR had deep ties during the cold war. The US was pro Pakistan, which naturally pushed India to ally with Soviet. This cultural exchange is obvious.

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I wouldn't say there were deep ties, but there certainly were some. Only older people remember those ties now. You will find comments by such people on Youtube clips of old Hindustani songs. Not just Russia, they come from other ex-Soviet states as well. I've talked to some younger Russians, and they can sometimes recognize these tunes, but have no idea about their origin.

[1955] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW72kDrJvwA

[1955] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wjGc1zGWBc

[1955] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXxR1Fj-BQ0

[1955] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXLzfldeDcM

[1956] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwZVFw7bhos

[1975] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGYjHQbV1KE

[1982] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUdJQSUcK_Y

the cultural exchange is actually non-existent - indians know next to nothing about Russia. the deep-ties you speak of were/are mostly restricted to state, party and intellectual capture by the KGB (and the CIA).

indian elites, on the other hand, despite there announced loyalties, have always been and will remain anglo-saxon vassals - and so will the indian state and people. indeed, even after 70 odd years of so-called independence, one is still forbidden from using Indian languages in the higher Indian courts, manned by the elite brown "anglo" feudals.

Indian elites have evolved over the millennia so categorizing them as forever being Anglo Saxon vessels seems to be both improbable and a useless assertion to make.

You sure the reason they still use English is due to being "Anglo-Saxon vassals". And not, y'know, the lack of a common Indian language that everyone is happy to use? For example:

"The Indian constitution, in 1950, declared Hindi in Devanagari script to be the official language of the union. Unless Parliament decided otherwise, the use of English for official purposes was to cease 15 years after the constitution came into effect, i.e., on 26 January 1965. The prospect of the changeover, however, led to much alarm in the non-Hindi-speaking areas of India, especially Dravidian-speaking states whose languages were not related to Hindi at all. As a result, Parliament enacted the Official Languages Act, 1963, which provided for the continued use of English for official purposes along with Hindi, even after 1965."[1]

Moreover you aren't even right that all higher courts in India operate in English.

"in many high courts, there is, with consent from the president, allowance of the optional use of Hindi. Such proposals have been successful in the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar."[2]

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_with_official_status...

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_with_official_status...

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