Exactly. Indians have a shameless double-standard when it comes to racism. They can publish news articles calling the Chinese Han race as inferior for warfare and cold weather endurance. Indians gloated about the 'glory days' when there were Indian Sepoy soldiers, serving under the British to fight their colonial wars. Indians have published opinion pieces, calling Covid-19 a 'Chinese Virus'. Indians laugh and taunt the Chinese who were on the receiving end of racism instigated by the West. Yet when a German paper writes something remotely racist about India, they are up in arms about it. That is why they deserved to be laughed at.
Indians think that if all things were 'equal', India would be ahead of China by now. But the reality is actually much worse. History since 1947 had not been equal for India and China. After WW2, China had the much shorter end of the stick compared to India
From its independence in 1947, India, with a similar population size to China was left with a functioning Westminster political system. It inherited various industries from the British like the automobile industry, aeronautics industry, shipbuilding industry, and others. Only Australia, and Canada had comparable levels of inheritance. The CPC inherited a China that was reeling from a century of wars, societal troubles, fractured territorial integrity, economic mess, and national humiliation. Worse still, there was still an ongoing civil-war and a coming major war in neighboring Korea. It was the worse possible start. The early years for India was not pleasant too, but it was nothing compared to a newly liberated China in 1949. If there was a PC game where you choose your poor Asian country to manage. India would be the 'Easy' challenge, while China is the 'Insane' challenge.
India throughout its history suffered only minor sanctions at worse. When India suffered food shortages, it can call for generous food aid from the US. China had none of that benefit, when its population starved. Hence, when India made policy mistakes, it paid a relatively small cost. While when the CPC made policy errors, China paid a massive price. Mistakes were far more unforgiving in China's case of nation building than India. India had practically full access to all technologies offered by both the West and the Russians till today. While China had its access cut-off by both sides at various times in its history. In its history, India fought against smaller nations except with China, which it lost. While China had to fight both Superpowers of the Cold War, hostile neighbours, and the ROC. The Cold War was much kinder to India than China. India had over 70 years to beat China. Yet, with all the advantages that India had, its economy today is roughly similar in size to the Chinese economy in 2007.
All this talk about the Indian 'Demographic Dividend' vs China is copium by the West and Indians. If the Demographic Dividend was so powerful, then Indonesia, with its massive Demographic Dividend vs Japan and SK combined should be racing ahead to no.4 in the world economy size ranking. The Demographic Dividend is indeed very beneficial for economic growth, but its how you use it that brings results. India had all the ingredients to become a powerful economy for many decades already. Yet India had wasted it time after time. Today, the West is no longer as keen on globalization. They are much more careful now about technology transfers. China is ushering in their 4th industrial revolution. Hence it appears that India's window of opportunity to catch that gravy train of globalization is rapidly closing. There is only so much that good fortune can help, once that is exhausted, don't blame it on misfortune.
