世界上有哪三大宗教？

印度网友在问答网站Quora上问道：中国和印度同样有着十多亿人口，广袤的土地和悠久的文化传统，为什么中国要比印度发展得快得多？美国经济学家认为这不是自然条件的原因，而是人的因素，发长文回答了他的问题。

为什么中国发展得要比印度快的多？

India's backwardness began not in the 1980s, but in 1949.

印度的落后不是从上世纪80年代开始的，而是从1949年开始的。

I often use a metaphor to describe the differences in the development of the two countries: in 1949, China and India were still noisy kittens. The difference is that China has transformed into a tiger in the first 30 years, while India is still a fat cat. When people are still exploring the differences in "size" between the two countries, they are completely unaware of the essential differences between China and India.

我常常用一个比喻来描述两国发展的差异：1949年，中国和印度都还是嘤嘤作声的小猫，不同的是，中国在最初的30年里已经蜕变成了老虎，而印度却仍一只肥猫。可人们却一直探究两国“大小”的差异，完全没有意识到中印两国内在本质的区别。

Before 1949, China's economic situation and social development level could not be worse. Years of war made this ancient civilization extremely weak. You can look at the research of Angus Madison. He is the author of the book world economy: Millennium outlook. He is recognized as a leading scholar in Macroeconomic History. According to his calculation, all indicators of China, whether cultural or economic, were worse than the average level of black Africa (the region between Sahara and South Africa).

1949年之前中国的经济状况和社会发展水平已经不能再差了，连年征战让这个文明古国变得极度虚弱。你可以看看安格斯·麦迪森的研究，他是《世界经济：千年展望》一书的作者，被公认为宏观经济史上的领先学者，经过他的测算，当时中国的所有指标，无论是人文还是经济，都比黑非洲（撒哈拉和南非之间的地区）的平均水平还要差。

Compared with India, in 1950, the number of Railways in India was three times that of China, and the life expectancy of Indians was 5-6 years longer than that of Chinese. India was several times ahead of China in terms of major industrial output such as steel, chemical fertilizer, coal, cement and electricity.

和印度相比，1950年，印度的铁路数量是中国的3倍，印度人的预期寿命比中国人多5-6岁，在钢铁、化肥、煤炭、水泥、电力等主要工业产出方面，印度在数量级上数倍领先于中国。

Data show that China's rapid economic growth did not begin in the late 1970s, but in 1950. Despite some disastrous mistakes in policies and routes, China's economy successfully grew by 7.2% in the first 30 years, and the annualized growth rate of agricultural and industrial output exceeded 7%. From the data, China's economic scale was twice smaller than that of India in 1949, but the two countries were almost flat by 1980. However, because India has not really achieved profound cultural modernization, China's growth is always much faster. This "faster" phenomenon has only emerged in the last 20 years. In fact, it has existed from the beginning. What makes the difference?

可数据证明，中国经济的高速增长并非始于20世纪70年代末，而是始于1950年。尽管有一些政策和路线上的错误，中国经济还是在最初的30年里成功般地增长了7.2%，农业和工业产出的年化增长率也超过了7%。从数据上看，1949年中国的经济规模比印度小了两倍，但到1980年两国已经几乎持平了。可由于印度并没有真正实现文化上的深刻现代化，中国的增长总是快得多。这种“更快”的现象在最近20年才显现出来，其实它从一开始就存在了。那具体是什么造成这样的差别呢？

The answer is that China has made a comprehensive and profound cultural transformation, but India has not. This cultural transformation covers the following aspects:

答案是中国进行了全面深刻的文化转型，但印度没有，这场文化转型涵盖如下几个方面：

China has carried out a nationwide literacy campaign for 33 years. Today, I am still deeply moved by the Chinese people's desire for knowledge.

中国在全国范围内进行了长达33年的扫盲运动，时至今日，我仍然深深为中国人这种对知识的渴望而感动。

戏剧扫盲

From the simplified application to the working method of "teaching the people by the people", China has formulated flexible and diverse learning policies. This learning movement spread all over factories, rural troops and streets, greatly improving the quality of workers and liberating production efficiency.

从简体字地运用到“以民教民”的工作方法，中国制定了灵活多样的学习政策，这场学习运动遍布工厂、农村部队和街道，使工人的素质得到了很大提升，生产效率也得到了解放。

Does such a literacy campaign bring great benefits to the government? On the contrary, it brings huge expenses to the Chinese government. For a country full of illiteracy, the cost of education is very high. What's worse, there will be no return on education expenditure for at least a decade. However, there is an old saying in China that "those who do not seek immortality are not enough for a while", which also shows that Chinese leaders have great foresight.

这样的扫盲运动给政府带来巨大的利好吗？相反，这为中国政府带来巨额的开支，对于一个遍地是文盲的国家来说，教育成本非常高，更糟糕的是，至少在十年内，教育支出将是没有回报的。但是中国有句古话，叫：“不谋万世者，不足谋一时”，这也说明中国领导人有着极大的远见。

Have you ever heard of "educated youth"? They sacrificed their good living conditions and, at the call of the state, went to the most remote, backward and remote rural areas in China, where they ignited the spark of knowledge enlightenment.

你们听说过“知识青年”吗? 他们牺牲优渥的生活条件，在国家的号召下，到中国最偏远、最落后和最偏远的农村地区，在那里点燃了知识启蒙的火花。

You can't imagine how many "educated youth" devote themselves to work, bring knowledge and start selfless construction on the barren land. So it's not hard to imagine why Indian farmers have much better water, heat and soil conditions than Chinese farmers, while Chinese farmers' output is twice as high.

你难以想象有多少“知识青年”在贫瘠的土地上献身工作，带来知识，开始忘我地建设。所以不难想象为什么印度农民的水、热和土壤条件要比中国农民好得多，而中国农民的产量却要高出一倍。

赤脚医生在看病

Literacy is only one aspect of China's early social reconstruction, and health care is equally important. In the era when ambulances and hospitals were rare, these amateur doctors with small medicine boxes were the main force to double China's population and life expectancy and eliminate several epidemics. Under the background that medicine, equipment and other materials were blocked by western countries, with their hard work, they made people in remote areas get medical treatment.

扫盲只是中国早期社会重建工作的一个方面，医疗卫生同样重要。在救护车和医院都鲜有的年代，这些带着小药箱的赤脚医生是中国人口和预期寿命翻番并消灭了数种流行病的主要力量，在医药、设备等物资被西方国家封锁的背景下，凭借他们的艰辛付出，让边远地区的人病有所医。

You Indians may never really understand the great efforts made by the Chinese government in implementing compulsory education. China can now achieve the popularization of Putonghua and simplified characters, and more than 99% of the literacy rate is due to this policy. However, many Indians in India still can not understand each other's languages, even if a quarter of the population still can't read or write.

你们印度人或许也从来没有真正了解过中国政府在实施义务教育方面所做的巨大努力。中国现在可以实现普通话和简体字的普及和99%以上的识字率都要归功于这一政策，而印度的许多印度人仍然不能相互理解彼此的语言，即使现在四分之一的人口仍旧不能阅读或书写。

Many foreigners do not understand how China gives women the right to economic independence. I can tell you about it. Through the 1954 Constitution, the state guarantees women's equal civil rights and encourages them to organize and fight for their rights against any act that dares to arbitrarily erase women's rights and interests. So you know why women in China today can get equal pay with men for equal work, even if some jobs are considered male in most countries.

同样，许多外国人并不了解中国是如何赋予妇女经济独立的权利的，我可以向你们科普一下。通过1954年《宪法》，国家保障女性平等的公民权利，鼓励她们组织起来，为争取自己的权利与任何敢于专横抹杀女性权益的行为作斗争。所以你知道为什么今天中国的女性可以和男性同工同酬，即使一些工作在大多数国家被认为是男性的事。

Therefore, there is no doubt that Chinese women are the most independent and equal group of women in Asia. Only 70 years ago, they suffered from the severe oppression of "patriarchy" and "husband's power" left over by the feudal society. Today, two-thirds of the world's self-made female billionaires are Chinese citizens, while in India, domestic women are still accessories to men, and rape violence against women can be seen everywhere. In this regard, the gap between the two countries is very different.

因此，毫无疑问，中国女性是亚洲最独立、最平等的女性群体。仅仅70多年前，她们还遭受着封建社会遗留下“父权”和“夫权”的严重压迫，如今，全球白手起家的女性亿万富翁中已经有有2/3是中国公民，而印度时至今日，国内女性依旧是男人的附属品，针对女性强奸暴力更是随处可见，在这一方面，两国的差距真是天壤之别。

Through the vigorous cultural enlightenment in China, the profound transformation of culture and society has been realized, but India has missed it in ignorance. If you ignore this, how can you understand the difference between the economic performance of China and India?

通过在中国大地上掀起的轰轰烈烈的文化启蒙运动，实现了文化与社会的深刻转型，而印度却在浑浑噩噩中错过了，如果忽视这一点，你怎么能理解中国和印度经济表现之间的差异呢？

In this era, the Chinese people have changed from division, contempt, backwardness, feudalism, ignorance, violence and ignorance to a new generation of citizens who are united, confident, progressive, enterprising, self-discipline, conscious, equal, enlightened and healthy under the background of the transformation from agricultural civilization to industrial civilization, and adapted to the emerging industrial civilization.

在这个时代，中国人民从分裂、轻蔑、落后、封建主义、无知、暴力、愚昧，在农业文明向工业文明转型的时代背景下，转变为团结、自信、进步、进取、自律、自觉、平等、开明、健康的新时代公民，适应了新兴的工业文明。

When 400 million farmers are no longer the private tenants of landlords, when 50 million addicts recover, when women are no longer the appendages of men, when doctors and teachers expel superstition and spread science, and when the democratically elected government takes over the grass-roots government from local tribes and gangs... People become healthier, more energetic and more independent, so their work efficiency becomes higher.

当4亿农民不再是地主的私人佃农，当5000万成瘾者身体康复，当妇女不再是男人的附属品，当医生和老师驱逐迷信，传播科学，当民选政府从地方部族和帮派手中接管基层政府时……人民变得更健康、更有活力、更独立，因此他们的工作效率也变得更高。

Liberation has enabled a large number of people to participate in economic activities and to work more effectively than ever before. China has made unprecedented progress in human history. It will naturally bring miraculous economic growth.

解放使大量的人参与经济活动，也使他们比以往任何时候都更有效地工作。中国在人类历史上取得了前所未有的进步，它自然会带来奇迹般的经济增长。

With the victory of the revolution, China can deeply realize modernization while minimizing internal obstacles. With such strong organizational capacity, the Chinese government can handle such a complex reform movement (industrial revolution in economy + enlightenment in society) and put the people and society on the right track of rapid development. With such a battle tested team, China can defeat anyone and stop its attempts at modernization.

随着近代革命的胜利，中国可以在深刻实现现代化的同时尽量减少内部障碍。凭借如此强大的组织能力，中国政府能够处理如此复杂的改革运动（经济中的工业革命+社会中的启蒙运动），使人民和社会走上快速发展的正轨。有了这样一支经过战斗考验的队伍，中国可以击败任何人阻止其现代化的企图。

Although India was lucky to avoid the death of millions of people due to the revolution. However, this is a bit like karma. India has also missed the opportunity to completely modernize after transformation. You can also review the contemporary history of India and compare China's actions to see what your government has done for this country?

印度虽然幸运地避免了数百万人因革命而死亡，然而，这有点像因果报应，印度也错过了经过改造彻底实现现代化的机会。你也可以回顾一下印度的当代史，对照中国的作为，看看你们的政府究竟为这个国家做了什么？