What are the main problems facing India today?
The main problem of India then, and now, is extreme poverty. Except for the United States, I’ve been throughout the world. You don’t see this kind of poverty and squalor anywhere, not even in Africa. I felt that there would be a terrific social revolution where all these archaic customs would be cast off. That education would be free and people would be encouraged to take advantage of it. Besides, we have no civic sense at all. And we have an omnipotent caste system. We have been taught, from childhood, that the dirt we make will be cleaned up by somebody else. We have been told that we are too superior to touch the dirt that we ourselves have created. I see this happening every day outside my clinic in Kanpur. Though I have people to do this kind of work, I personally clean the place in front of my dispensary. Even that does not prevent my neighbours from littering the place. When the poor municipal worker comes there every morning, the place is like a pig sty. Even before she moves o
