Anthropologists are wont to emphasize that all cultures are ethnocentric, perceiving themselves as superior to other cultures. In the opening paragraphs I have made it clear by example that Muslims in Bangladesh, the third-largest Muslim country, never regard themselves as superior to Indian, or any other society. In fact, I have found little evidence in other non-western societies to support the view either. On the contrary, there is ample evidence that other societies suffer from a consistent feeling of inferiority to western civilization. In Bangladesh, there is a slave-like adoration for western institutions and ways of life. Parents are proud of their children settling in western countries. This is also the case in India, where recognition for the director Satyajit Ray first came from the west before he received an Indian award.
The South Asian elite are in a parlous state. Spare a thought for Martin Kampchen, who wrote from Santiniketan: "Several daily newspapers of Calcutta flashed the news of Jhumpa Lahiri's wedding in Calcutta as their first-page leader, complete with a colourful photo of the happy couple. First I thought: O happy Bengal! You still honour your poets as the ancient civilisations used to do. And for a moment I remained in this innocent bliss of satisfaction. Then it dawned on me that not any writer's marriage is accorded such flattering coverage. Only expatriates who have "made it good' abroad, who have "done the country proud', are subjected to such exaggerated honours (The Daily Star, 27th January, 2001)". Jhumpa Lahiri had just won the Pulitzer for her collection of short stories, The Interpreter of Maladies .
The Iranian middle-class, despite a civilization that is highly respected and a literature that is universally admired, find in western civilization an object of adoration. When McDonalds emigrated to Beijing and Moscow, it was regarded as the arrival of a superior lifestyle, not the mass consumer commodity it in fact was back home.
Certain historians, like Niall Ferguson, consider British colonialism a force for good. An experience that robs people of all self-respect must be a curios source of benefit. I conclude this essay with Alexis de Tocqueville's observation, made while discussing the plight of Negroes and Indians, from the first book of his 'Democracy in America'.
"If we reasoned from what passes in the world, we should almost say that the European is to the other races of mankind, what man is to the lower animals;--he makes them subservient to his use; and when he cannot subdue, he destroys them."
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