...outside of India...
I see you grasp Fowles' quote's point as well. Although nowhere in the passage (or in the rest of "Daniel Martin" ) does Fowles accuse the American politico/economic system for this, he ascribes it instead to a historical quirk in American culture and history. Still, I don't mean to harp on this, this is not a political novel, it is a novel about love, growing old, family, sense of place, personal philosophy and the ghosts of the past. To be fair, the Brits have their execrable class system too, regardless of the exemplary civil and political freedoms they have always enjoyed as a people. Fowles has quite a bit to say about this as well.