Why Indians need to look within than look for a Lokpal
Posted By Aravind Chandrasekaran on February 21, 2012
“Our politicians are just a microcosm of the general population. It is not that they are just the bunch of us who are the most corrupt, ignorant, unethical and abusive. Just that their position, power and public scrutiny amplifies everything. So what am saying is we are as sick as our nation and our nation is sick because of us. Let’s come to terms with it. (And create a cultural revolution in the country being the change ourselves in every small way possible)”
That was my observation a few months ago as a status message on Facebook. And to me it seems more appropriate now than ever with such anarchy in administration of this country. Though a few friends liked it then, I have had vehement opposition to this ideology by some who hold their nation so close to their hearts that calling it sick is very taboo. To them and all who may have a similar feeling a good answer is my friend’s comment then, who said:
“Good thought Aravind. until we realize, accept and improve our own moral standards and principles we shouldn’t talk (bad) about politicians. Indeed they just reflect our own culture in a magnified way as you rightly said.
I think it is very evident the nation is sick. Calling it sick and feeling sick are entirely different. It is feeling sick or the health of the nation that we are talking about and definitely our nation is sick because of each one of us.”
I feel it is high time we the educated and the elite come to terms that our ethics and culture have degraded. Our sense of apathy is alarming. Ignoring everything except what is self-fulfilling has become a staple of our modern Indian society. Mutual respect, regard for rules and a value for even another life seems non-existent. Just stepping outside our homes, we litter the roads with right, violate traffic rules without regard and pass obliviously open drainages and popping power cables that take young lives away.
This is not the case in just my city but every city, town and village across India. As an educated individual reading this you may never want to associate yourself with the culture that am talking about taking shape in India and may probably want to advise me to look at myself before complaining. You may take it too personally and loose perspective as has happened with my friends. But all you can do in your support is throw in irrelevant examples from history and mythology to show how great a culture we are for just another fallacy of argument. And this is the worst you can do given the ground reality.
Just look outside right now and why is it that your road is littered while your home is clean? Why is that somewhere in your city an open drainage is over flowing while vehicles and buses full of people pass right by it? Why is that in every traffic signal you see someone jumping the red light and scores of others following? Why do you see people drunk, diseased or probably dead lying on the streets while people just pass by? Why do whole communities of poor people seem to live in extremely unhygienic conditions by a river side which is more of a very polluted drainage? Why do you see kids working at grocery shops, mechanic shops and restaurants if you and everyone you know never does business with such establishments?
I have seen this all. You know you have. So why do such conditions prevail and continue to get worse by the day? The answer is it is not because there are just a few of us who are unethical, culture-less and flout laws that we are seeing such a society. It is not because just the Govt. is apathetic and corrupt we have such chaos. And it is not that people are so poor and powerless in this democracy that they have no option but to live in such conditions. It is just that we are all the same, without strong ethics, flouting rules to varying extents and turning a blind eye to the anarchy and underdevelopment around us being too lazy to do something about anything. Apathy, ignorance and laziness have become the fabric of our culture.
If you see some common man litter the road today just know that tomorrow the same person when in power will have no hesitation to let an industry pollute an entire river. Especially when he can get a kickback for not enforcing effluent treatment. And the industry pollutes because it doesn’t have the ethics and not one employee in the entire company cares about the health of his society. The people who are affected don’t care because they are ignorant and most importantly indifferent to what the pollution can do to them and their children over time. All they care is the freebies thrown by the Govt. during elections who they blindly vote to be corrupt and keep them in a state of ignorance and underdevelopment. The judiciary and law enforcement (Police) is silent because it is made of the same fabric the Govt. is and the society is.
Our society urgently needs to be rid of this cultural disease. It is not the Anna Hazare or Ramdev revolution that is going to help. They are only spreading more anarchy in the already weak democracy and republic our country has become. Such activism rising in itself is a symptom of a wasting disease our nation has acquired. If X and Y with a few lakh followers can stage mass protests against our own democratically elected Govt. and we support it, we are only making a mockery of our own parliamentary and judiciary systems. Instead of strengthening our democracy we are spreading antipathy towards it creating and feeding forces outside the parliamentary democracy.
Change can happen only when common people like us come to terms with the degraded culture and morality of our society and choose to change ourselves in every small way for common good and take action spreading the revolution. The cultural and moral fabric of our society needs to be cleansed at an individual level. We can have a Lokpal bill to empower everyone to take action but before that we need enlightenment in everyone that we really don’t need a Lok Pala, an ombudsman, an overseer. What we need is a culture where each individual oversees himself to high standards of integrity, accountability and morality. Every individual, the “I”, the Indian, needs to be a Pala, a protector – of himself, his country and its people.
Omar is a Pakistani-American with an interest in history. He also moderates the Asiapeace discussion group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/asiapeace/
Great post Aravind.
For other readers I’ve asked Aravind to join as a guest writer; he spends his time between his native Chennai (Madras) and Singapore and is a personal friend.
As I’m quite keen to a holistic Brown perspective to Brown Pundits from diaspora to also intra-regional perspectives so its a good initative (much fun as I have discussing the Holy Grail of TNT).
Aravind also has setup a fledging social media hub site for Indians abroad and domestically; http://younews.in/
Thanks Zach. Pleasure to write here.
@Zachary Latif
Let me know if you want to fill the seats, Mirpuris have been doing it for last fifty years, don’t worry they won’t make noise about the fact they’re Mirpuris. They good at that.
What do people make of the “low IQ” answer.
I’m not sure, b/c low IQ *could* be the cause, but it could also be an effect.
It is just that we are all the same, without strong ethics, flouting rules to varying extents and turning a blind eye to the anarchy and underdevelopment around us being too lazy to do something about anything. Apathy, ignorance and laziness have become the fabric of our culture.
Exhorting ppl to be “ethical” might not yield much results. I can understand the sentiment behind it, the only other appeal which might work (and Anna has been accused of it) is religion. But then again seeing the filth around even in front of temples, maybe not.
So what might work? In my opinion, it would be something gradual with the growing economy and literacy (at least in cities) making people adopt strategies which are an improvement over every man for himself, then his family then his caste etc.
Literacy without learning to live for others and the community will not help. In my opinion an educational revolution will help. This revolution will target children in schools and teach them other important things in life such as ethics and etiquette which should be taught by their parents and their culture but quite often not. And this should be taught by teachers with high values in life themselves.
Sure, but then again where will such teachers with high ideals manufactured? My argument is that things are not as bleak as they are painted to be. Most of the obnoxious behaviors that you see in India can be explained as a reaction to the peculiar conditions. I faced a similar experience in Rome, and most mediterannean has the so-called “low trust” culture.
Thats fine, lets accept it and move on. Rather than imposing western ideals (which definitely make life in the West a great deal comfortable in certain dimensions), pre-existing ideals and existing institutions should lead the way. Gandhi, with his ideal village life, and Nehru with his Fabian Socialism did have something. They knew India, its people, its history, and its mood much more than most. Slowly but surely seems to be what work in India and not a revolution! Even foreign ideas have to thoroughly germinate in the soil!
you have missed the basic reason for falling ethical standards of our society. It is not the politicians who are to be blamed. Why do we land up voting lowest scum of the society as our political leaders? The initiator of the crime is neither the society or the politicians. It is our bureaucracy and bunch of rules that need bending – nee breaking for basic survival. Corrupt politicians and much lesser corruption in the society is a gift of our rules and a bureaucracy that cannot be fired.
What I am trying to convey is there’s no use pointing to high places like bureaucrats and politicians. There seems to be a fundamental problem with each and every citizen which is only manifesting itself in a magnified way at such high places.
Even if you want to blame the bureaucracy squarely, which of course seems on par with the politicos in terms of low standards, it is important to realize they are again formed by ordinary citizens. In fact by citizens with high IQ and literacy.
What a way to commence your blogging here. Welcome to BP! “Cultural revolution” sounds a bit too Maoist but if you’ll allow me to flog Robert Putnam again, the very low level of social trust in South Asia, to me, seems to enable this self-perpetuating cycle of “I don’t care.” It’s actually quite hard to answer the question of whether it is intrinsic to brown people, because the population abroad is not representative of those in the Desh, and controlling for wealth/caste/class etc wouldn’t leave you with enough for a sample. Here, in the US, the ‘hot’ Progressive publication is called “The Jacobin.” I fear that is all South Asia has–either the Jacobins calling for the heads of politicians or some combination of corporatist elites and religious chauvinists tossing the masses a minority bone to gnaw while the house falls down all around their ears.
Nandala, thanks for welcoming me. That’s a good way to see it – a small number of Jacobins, a class of elites and chauvinists and the rest are all dogs who don’t care but for the bone.
Government is the problem not the solution
http://www.edge.org/q2006/q06_11.html#ridley
To say, the best line for me was “Apathy, ignorance and laziness have become the fabric of our culture.”.
And I too have similar thoughts about ‘who is the culprit for the present condition of country?”. Yes, it is We, the people of India.
But somewhere, I come to terms with supporting movements like that of Anna Hazare. You have made your point regarding the need for change in individual, the need to oversee ourselves, the need to bring a change at society level, and the need to spread the revolution.
But in a country as vast as ours, with diversity as vast as ours, with moods as variable as ours, we can’t expect people to, just think , and, just like that, change themselves for the good.
First, they need to be reminded about what is a right ethic. and secondly they need to be enthused with lively spirit to douse off the laziness and march together for the betterment. I say, March together, it may not be the whole the nation, but atleast start with one society, one locality.
But who do you think will provide that spark? We need people like Anna-Hazare to spread the goodness. We might not want a noisy movement, movement with self-interests, but we surely need a few Anna Hazare’s in each of our society leading a quiet campaign, just serving the purpose of shooing away the lazy and repressed mind. Repressed because, people nowadays are least motivated to help themselves, forget they will help others. Everybody is a sufferer in this cat & mouse competition. Happiness Index is too low.
If I can say what we need is a bright dynamic leader who can inspire people, who can lead people, who can bring the confidence back in people, show some real goodness to people, like a KING in this democracy. I am sure having a good parenting helps. And I am sure such a leader will help…