Introduction

It was during the cold war that the term ‘THIRD WORLD’ was coined. It came from various sources and thus had various connotations. One of them being-all the countries which were not aligned to either the communists or the capitalist NATO. Thus, it made a common block for all the non aligned countries. However, the second connotation is more baffling. It came from the term ‘third estate’. This term was coined during the Russian revolution to represent all the people who couldn’t be categorized as rich or priests. Thus, it in one sense meant ‘others’. However, with the progression of time the term ‘third world’ has come to be representative of all the under developed countries. According to the term there has been a generalization towards all these countries as having the same kind of economical, social and political conditions. Poor infrastructure, unstable governments, high corruption, starving population, huge destitution-all these and others came to be almost synonymous to the ‘Third World’.

Looking at the current scenario many countries from the third world have grown and moved towards development. This is a diverse group encompassing countries falling in different stages of development-economical, political or social. India is one such country. India since its independence and specially since 1991-when its markets were opened, has taken large strides in development. It has grown at a very high rate. There have been improvements in the infrastructure, the social conditions have changed (though not hugely). Thus, the changes have happened. The country has come to be recognized as a force to reckon with in the world affairs. And thus there has been a call from various parts of the country to shed the tag of the ‘Third World’.

All this seems very rosy, but looked at carefully though, we have made big improvements and deserve to get the tag of the third world removed but the third world attitude has still plagued the populous of the country. The streets are still no different to dust bins at our homes. We still tend to look for ‘chalega’ things rather than looking for the best and the human development index is still staggeringly low. The parents are still scared to let children do anything except securing top ranks in their classes. ‘What work’ is given more importance than ‘work’ itself.

So, where do we go from here? Do we keep blowing the trumpet of economic development or we start looking beyond it? Are we going to still say that we are the best country in the world without any proof to support it or we are going to seriously work towards the best? Would we keep struggling to prove the people of our potential or we would first prove it to ourselves? Come lets join hands to unleash our potential and prove it to ourselves and the world that we don’t aspire to be either the first world or the second, we aspire to be ‘The Greatest World’.