As a former computer professional with interest in other cultures, I have had a lot of exposure to the Indian culture. It appears that there are two Indias. One is wise, noble and highly spiritual. The other is brutal, misogynistic and corrupt.
I have a friend from India who has always been a loving and responsible husband and father who has always been good to his wife and children and wouldn't think of being anything else. I have another friend from India, a yoga master, who responded to a story I've written about a severely abusive man, "I would murder this man." And yet much of India remains terrible to women.
I have a friend, a lady from India, whose family, upon her turning 18, took away her IDs and kept her as a slave inside the house - no phone, no friends, no TV - until they broke her down enough that she would accept being married off to a man from lower caste as punishment for not being a virgin. There are many people in India who want women to be slaves throughout their whole lives - in childhood to their parents, in adulthood to their husbands, and in old age to their sons. Many women from India have horror stories to tell, and they are horror stories that exceed even the worst in America. So how can this discrepancy be resolved?
India has produced some of the greatest wisdom that ever was produced in the world. The people who hold true to this wisdom are all amazing individuals. The same is not the case for an average Indian man. The higher-level people go into spirituality; the society remains dominated by scumbags.
The wise people in India need to do more to change the way in which the average people live. It shouldn't be just about overcoming samsara. More attention needs to be paid to the real world, especially the lot of women. Indian women have many great qualities, and it is wrong that these great qualities be taken for granted or abused. The average Indian man, not just the spiritual master, needs to understand these things and act accordingly.
There is the wise India, and there is the stupid India. The wise India focuses on enlightenment and noble ideals; the stupid India focuses on controlling and abusing women. There needs to be more influence for the wise India in the Indian society. It is wrong that the best minds and the best hearts in the place focus on getting out of the world, while leaving the world under control of people who are in every way their inferiors.
India has the chance to become in every way a great country; and this will require the efforts of India's best minds to that effect. The brutal and degrading treatment of women there has to cease. Indian men must learn to respect women and to treat them rightfully. That's what the women in India deserve; and that is what India needs to do in order to achieve its rightful place in the world.