During Jon Stewart's interview of New York Times and International Herald Tribune writer Anand Giridharadas on last night's Daily Show, Giridharadas discussed his decision to leave his country of birth, America, and move back to India, the land his parents left for his benefit. His new book, "India Calling," details the changes taking place in India.
Giridharadas, who was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio, admitted that he used to think India was a "stagnant, dead, stifling country." When he entered college, he realized how much the country had changed, and decided to move to India.
Stewart quipped, "If I had told [my parents] I was going back to the place they had worked so damn hard to get out of, passive aggression would have been on the menu."
Stewart ended the interview with the question on many Americans' minds: "Do you think America can still kick [India's] ass?"
Giridharadas had quite the disheartening answer. He admitted that he doesn't think America poses the threat that it once did. Though Americans currently fear India and China as solely an economic threat, he suggested that the countries "pose a challenge of culture and spirit."
He said, in America, "we are creating a culture of destruction and pulling each other down."
He believes that "India and China, for all the work that lies ahead for them, are starting to create cultures of hope and cultures of creation." He thinks that this is what America will have to worry about.
Lightening the mood, Stewart ended with a rousing chorus of, "United We Stand, Divided We Fall." Watch the entire interview below: