By Syed Akbar Ali
Since the 1960s, we have become familiar with a string of labels describing the various countries of the world. “The Third World”, “Developing Countries”, “Least Developed Countries” or LDCs, “Newly Industrialising” Countries or NICS, the “First World”, the West, the countries of the South, the “Islamic Countries” (why are there no such terms as ‘Christian Countries’ or ‘Buddhist Countries’?) are names or phrases that have been coined to capture in a snapshot of just a few words the entirety of a nation.
There have been many definitions and redefinitions of most of the terms quoted above.
The term ‘Third World’ is attributed to Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India to describe nations that were aligned neither to the West nor the Communists during the Cold War (Wikipedia). Here is one redefinition of ‘Third World’: “the technologically less advanced, or developing nations of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, generally characterized as poor, having economies distorted by their dependence on the export of primary products to the developed countries in return for finished products. These nations also tend to have high rates of illiteracy, disease, and population growth and unstable governments. The term Third World was originally intended to distinguish the nonaligned nations that gained independence from colonial rule beginning after World War II” ( Columbia Encyclopaedia).
http://newageislam.com/on-muslim--failed-states-/islamic-society/d/1809
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