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India Quotes by Shashi Tharoor

42 India quotes by Shashi Tharoor

All India quotes Shashi Tharoor’s page

A land that is a glittering jewel of the medieval world, yet today it wrestles with paradoxes. Tharoor points out India’s cultural depth, its rapid educational progress, and the many contradictions that defy simple labels. He also highlights the country’s historic economic strength under past empires.

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I make no bones about the fact that India matters to me, and I would like to matter to India.

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“Human beings, to me, are rather like electrical appliances that need to be charged regularly, and prayer is a way of plugging…

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“India, under Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, accounts for 27 per cent of the world economy.”

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I returned to India after long years of international service, because I had always cherished the desire to make a difference in…

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India has been born and reborn scores of times, and it will be reborn again. India is forever, and India is forever…

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The only possible idea of India is that of a nation greater than the sum of its parts.

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In India we celebrate the commonality of major differences; we are a land of belonging rather than of blood.

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India shaped my mind, anchored my identity, influenced my beliefs, and made me who I am. ... India matters to me and…

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We've gone from the image of India as land of fakirs lying on beds of nails, and snake charmers with the Indian…

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“minorityhood is a state of mind, Mr. Diggs. It is a sense of powerlessness, of being out of the mainstream, of being…

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Education in India has made monumental progress since Independence but continues to face daunting challenges at multiple levels, particularly in terms of…

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India is more than a sum of its contradictions, any truism about India can be contradicted with another truism. There is no…

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The notion of 'world leadership' is a curiously archaic one. The very phrase is redolent of Kipling ballads and James Bondian adventures.…

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As an Indian, and now as a politician and a government minister, I've become rather concerned about the hype we're hearing about…

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There was a time when bright people had few prospects for higher education and good jobs here. But that is changing. India…

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I believe in an India of pluralism and diversity, not of religious bigotry and caste politics. I believe in an India that…

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“Hindu fundamentalism,” because Hinduism is a religion without fundamentals: no organized church, no compulsory beliefs or rites of worship, no single sacred…

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“flaunting the Kohinoor on the Queen Mother’s crown in the Tower of London is a powerful reminder of the injustices perpetrated by…

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“An India that denies itself to some of us could end up being denied to all of us. This would be a…

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“What the hell does this say about India? Appearances are more important than truths. Gossip is more potent than facts. Loyalty is…

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“How do I pray? Not in any organized form, really; I go to temples sometimes with my family, but they leave me…

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“And then, of course, there was the sari itself. What a garment, Randy! There isn’t another outfit in the world that balances…

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“Truth is elusive, subtle, manysided. You know, Priscilla, there’s an old Hindu story about Truth. It seems a brash young warrior sought…

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“Sometimes a rut can be a comfortable place to be, but ours was full of too many differences and resentments to be…

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“The India that the British East India Company conquered was no primitive or barren land, but the glittering jewel of the medieval…

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Whereas China has set about systematically striving for Olympic success since it re-entered global competition after years of isolation, India has remained…

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I am proud to represent the capital of Kerala, a state that in so many ways is a trailblazer for India's progress,…

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Above all, Danny Boyle's 'Slumdog Millionaire' is the work of an artist at the peak of his powers. India is his palette,…

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I returned to India because I believe in an India of honesty and hard work, not of corruption and crookedness. I believe…

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When I grew up in India, telephones were a rarity. In fact, they were so rare that elected members of Parliament had…

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Elections are an enduring spectacle of free India, and have provided foreign journalists with the opportunity to remind the world that India…

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If China wants to build a new six-lane expressway, it can bulldoze its way past any number of villages in its path;…

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In China, national priorities are established by the Government and then funded by the state; in India, priorities emerge from seemingly endless…

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Much of the conventional analysis of India's stature in the world relies on the all-too-familiar economic assumptions. But we are famously a…

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India's national elections are really an aggregate of thirty different state elections, each influenced by its own local considerations, regional political currents,…

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“Mahatma Gandhi was as devout a Rambhakt as you can get — he died from a Hindu assassin’s bullet with the words…

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The roots of India's soft power run deep. India's is a civilization that, over millennia, has offered refuge and, more importantly, religious…

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Because so many voters happen to be illiterate, India invented the party symbol, so that voters who could not read the name…

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If America is a melting pot, then to me India is a thali--a selection of sumptuous dishes in different bowls. Each tastes…

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“Above all, as a Hindu I belong to the only major religion in the world that does not claim to be the…

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More by Shashi Tharoor

“six decades of Independence have wrought significant change, as exposure to British practices has faded and India’s natural boisterousness has reasserted itself. Some of…

“My China Diary and Walking With Lions, were memoirs of his diplomatic and political experiences. The”

The U.N. guards the vital principles entrenched in its charter, notably the sovereign equality of states and the inadmissibility of interference in their internal…

“control. The people’s character is deliberately debased, their mind is denationalized and perpetually kept in ignorance and fed with stories of England’s greatness and…

“The past is not necessarily a guide to the future, but it does partly help explain the present. One cannot, as I have written…

The steep decline in America's image and standing after 9/11 is a direct reflection of global distaste for the instruments of American hard power:…

“On election days, the burdens of poverty and corruption and of a creaky economic system are put aside, and India celebrates. Many voters dress…

“History, in any case, cannot be reduced to some sort of game of comparing misdeeds in different eras; each period must be judged in…

“India is my country, and in that sense my outrage is personal. But I seek nothing from history—only an account of itself.”

I make no bones about the fact that India matters to me, and I would like to matter to India.

“In debate he thought high and aimed low.”

“Jawaharlal Nehru, who wrote in a 1936 letter to an Englishman, Lord Lothian, that British rule is ‘based on an extreme form of widespread…

Much of the conventional analysis of India's stature in the world relies on the all-too-familiar economic assumptions. But we are famously a land of…

Universality of the UN is a worthwhile thing in its own self because it means that every country belongs, feels it has a stake,…

The Chinese, as befits a Communist autocracy, approached the task of dominating the Olympics with top-down military discipline.