ABSTRACT
The United States arid the several large Third World countries are now in the early stages of a major change in their relations. While India has become a middle power with respect to many issues of importance to the United States, the public image of poverty and incapacity continues to make it difficult for policy to change, even when the policy establishment recognizes the need. The image of India in the United States, developed and reinforced by school textbooks, the press, and the academic literature, remains one of poverty and helplessness. The Asia Society, in a review of some 300 school textbooks in use in 1974-1975, found that the presentation on India was the most negative of all Asian countries treated.3 According to a recent State Department analysis, American attitudes focused on disease, death, and illiteracy more than for any other country.
