Passengers Packed Tightly on Old Train in Indo
Comparison with Comfortable High-Speed Train in China
Indian Politicians Criticize as "Mocking India"
Indian senior officials have voiced complaints over a German media cartoon depicting India surpassing China as the world's most populous country. The cartoon was criticized for portraying India in a 'racist' manner.
On the 25th (local time), according to the British media outlet The Guardian, the recent German current affairs magazine Der Spiegel published a cartoon about India rising to become the world's largest population country.
The cartoon depicted Indian citizens packed tightly into an old train. It showed people precariously hanging onto the outside sides of the train and sitting on the roof.
Meanwhile, next to it, there is an image of a Chinese engineer riding a state-of-the-art high-speed train. The Chinese-made high-speed train is portrayed as gradually overtaking the Indian train.
The Der Spiegel cartoon appears to compare China’s economy, which has achieved a relatively high level of development but is gradually losing dynamism due to low birth rates and aging population, with India, which, although smaller in economic scale compared to China, has a young working population.
According to population projections released earlier by the United Nations (UN), India’s population is expected to reach 1.428 billion by the end of this month, surpassing China’s population of 1.425 billion and becoming the world’s largest.
However, India’s per capita gross domestic product (GDP) level lags far behind China’s. As of last year, China’s nominal GDP per capita was $12,814, while India’s was only $2,301.
On the morning of the 23rd (local time), a train in India during the commute. [Image source=AFP Yonhap News]
Despite the cartoon portraying India’s outlook relatively positively considering these facts, Indian senior officials expressed dissatisfaction. They pointed out that the depiction of India in the cartoon was racist.
Kantan Gupta, senior advisor to India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, wrote on his Twitter account, "This cartoon is too shocking and racist," adding, "Der Spiegel’s portrayal of India in this way is detached from reality. The purpose (of the cartoon) is to belittle India and curry favor with China."
Rajiv Chandrasekhar, former Minister of Electronics and Information Technology of India, also remarked, "Even if Der Spiegel tries to mock India, betting against the India led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not a smart move," and added, "In a few years, India’s economy will be larger than Germany’s."
This is not the first time Indian politics has clashed with Western media. Earlier this year, the British public broadcaster BBC released a documentary titled "India: The Modi Question."
The documentary critically examined the 2002 Muslim massacre that occurred when Modi was Chief Minister of Gujarat in western India. However, the Indian government immediately protested against the negative portrayal of its Prime Minister in the film.
The government blocked the online distribution of the documentary, arrested university students attempting to watch the video, and launched a high-intensity tax investigation into the BBC’s India office.
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