Why is there so much suffering in India?

Recently, a friend of mine and I were chatting online about religion. Out of the blue, my friend asked me, "India is the land where Buddha was born. Why then is there so much suffering in India still?"

Of course my friend is a buddhist himself but the question surely isn't about buddhism only. I got interested in "Why, despite the high religiosity in India, are people unhappy?". I started to ponder upon the subject seriously. Why do some Indians(in India) seem so unhappy?

Well, I think there are a few fundamental problems in India. The two main problems that strike me instantly are 1)Corruption, 2)Internal division

1)Corruption

Politics in India is in a state of mess. Corruption exists at every turn. Right from the head to the clerks. For example, whenever a road contract is given to a private company, everyone tries to get a bite of the money. The government will allocate some funds for the project. So this is how the corruption starts. Firstly, the company that is able to give the best proposal wins the project. However, this is of course done unethically. The minister will eat some money and award the contract to the company that feeds him the most. Once the contract is given to the company, the company tries to eat. They charge an insanely high fee for the gravel, rock and etc. And even after overcharging, they deliver a poor quality road. The workers who eventually lay down the road are the only ones who are not able to get a share of the money(as such, they remain poor) as they do not command any authority. I am not sure if this still happens but the fact that other scandals are in existence do not reflect favorably upon the present situation. You can read online about the recent 2G spectrum scam as well as the 2010 Commonwealth Games scandal. 

As a result of all this corruption, the infrastructure in India is still ahem-fill-in-the-blank. Transportation is improving however, it is still in a rather dilapidated state. You will take eons to reach from one end of the city to the other. And you will find that the jams are not real "jams". They are caused because the traffic is forced to slowed down when they meet a pothole (there are umpteen potholes on Indian roads and they never get filled) and as such, a bottleneck occurs. For someone who has to live through this daily, he has drained out half his life and energy and optimism in the traffic itself. 

I could go on forever about the list of things that increase the pressure on the Indian's temple...you get the point. In summation, all these small "pressures" add up(if not multiply) and give the perception of "suffering" that my friend mention. The cracked roads, the pathetic sanitation, the daily rumble in the news and etc create an illusion of "suffering". In reality, most Indians are used to such things and have chosen to close their eyes and to live their own lives peacefully. 

Here is a simple anti-corruption ad. Hopefully you like it:

2) Internal Division

You can tell this easily if you travel in and out of India often and are friends with some NRIs. If you ask an Indian living in India for his identity, he will say "I am a Gujrati or Punjabi or etc..." but if you ask an NRI the same question, he will answer "I am an Indian". See the difference? Within India itself, people are divided.

There are naxalites who claim that the Western India once belonged to them and are willing to shed blood to overtake their long lost lands(you can confirm from other sources as my understanding on this subject is not very clear). As such, many farmers in those areas lose their lands easily. Given that many of them have more than 4 children, it becomes tough to manage the family (and especially so when the minimum wage law is not enforced strictly). Again, the "suffering" takes reign. 

Well, these are my two cents about "suffering" in India (or more like progress in India) and I apologize if it seems a bit disorganized as I wrote this in a rush. I will try and post more often but I am a wee bit busy these few days. Once I am done with my work, I will try and update weekly.