Who are "these people"?

I recently had the chance to visit Pune on a short trip. Between gobfuls of sumptuous comfort food I caught up 
with lots of family and friends. During these conversations one common theme started to emerge that I cant stop 
thinking about. But before I go any further a quick tangent….

….On this trip I threw caution to the wind and ate what could be the Mt Rushmore of desserts. Puran Poli, 
Basundi, Jilbi (aka Jalebi) and Motichur Ladoo. That led me to the conclusion that this is the best lineup of 
desserts in the world and they all come from a relatively small geographical region. You add stalwarts like 
Shrikhand, Aamras and Kaju katli to this list and we have a true All Star team! I challenge any region in the 
world to come up with a better line up. But anyway, enough about that.

Everytime I engaged in a conversation and the subject veered even close to the Indian State of the Union there 
would be this common theme; XYZ is great but ‘these people’ dont want to change or ‘these people’ dont want 
to learn and so on. Everything that ails us got blamed on these beings that are working actively to destroy the 
very fabric of whatever is great about our country. My wife calls this the duniya badi kharab hai syndrome. 
Even I got carried away and took a few obligatory pot shots at these people.  

Somebody I respect greatly said to me, “You know Harshad, I have traveled all over the world and can honestly 
say India is the greatest country in the world. But these people of India dont want it to be that way. I was so 
stunned by the contradiction in that statement that I had nothing to add. Now when I think back to that 
statement I wonder what makes a country? Isn't the single most contributing factor to the greatness of a country, 
its people? If the people are wretched then how can a country be great?

I asked someone else how is Prime Minister Modi doing? His response, “Modi is really trying hard and has 
great ideas. But these people don’t want to learn or let him succeed?”

So what is the underlying notion behind the these people doctrine?

...is this a racist thing? Where Brahmins, Marathas, Dalits are all pointing fingers at each other?

...is this a religion thing? Where Hindus, Muslims and Christians are all pointing fingers at each other?

...is this a political thing? Where those who identify with the BJP Congress or Communists are all pointing fingers at each other?

...is this a regional thing? People from the more well to do states pointing fingers to the lesser ones and vice 
versa?

I am definitely not attuned enough to know so would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.