Arthshastra

This posting is in response to an article in Today’s TOI

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1093110.cms

I am not sure whether to call it irony or paradox – but it sure is confusing to me. As a culture and religion – Indians puts a lot of emphasis on collectivism. Society is much more important compared to an individual. Western culture – particularly capitalism on the other hand is much more individualistic. One is expected to be ambitious, work towards goals that lead to self-fulfillment and so on and so forth.

Why is it then that Indians find it terribly difficult to contribute to and serve the society? If you look at politics in schools and colleges – bright students will always avoid it and student organizations are most often filled with goons. You would find people follow a linear path. A good student is expected to get good marks in 10^th standard, take up either biology or math to get into either a good med school or an engineering college. Preferably do an MBA from a good school and then get a good job. There is no deviation from the path – and if there is any it is met with raised eyebrows. Taking time out in school life for volunteer work, sports or politics is simply considered a waste of time.

I am not aware of how it goes in the UK – but I’ve discovered that the US is a society built on volunteers. People go out and do all kinds of volunteer work. Students volunteer for pet societies, working people volunteer for public radio, the list is virtually endless. This social interaction is just the first step towards taking bigger leadership role in society – the culmination of which is of course running for an elected office.

But even in the US – one does not find too many Indians going out and doing any kind of social volunteer work. We come here on H1B visas, get green card if we are lucky, do our jobs, raise our kids hoping them to imbibe with “Indian” values always worried that they should not become like “American kids”, expect them to follow the same one dimensional path that we took in our life. But that is not always the case. I have read about and seen lots of 2^nd generation Indians not willing to follow the path that their parents followed. They are willing to run for elected offices in schools, do volunteer work and in general take up leadership roles in the society. The first generation Indians might call them ABCD (American Born Confused Desis) but I feel that the first generation is a lot more confused than the second one. Hopefully things will change with time and we will realize that the time and money that we give to society benefits everyone.

It is amazing to see uncanny similarities between the Hindu religious right in India and the Christian religious right in the US. Just like the cow belt in India – there is a Bible belt in the US. I had a ringside view of the rise of Hindu religious right during Babri Masjid – Ram Janmabhoomi movement in India and now I am having a ringside view of the rise and rise of Christian religious right in the US. Here are some strikingly uncanny similarities:

1. There was a flood of TV serials based on Hindu mythologies during 1990s starting with “The Passion of the Christ” something similar has been happening in the US. NBC has a major mini-series called Revelations based on the book of Revelation. A major motion picture on Da-Vinci code is under production.

2. There was a lot of talk in India in the 1990s that the predominant culture of India is guided by Hinduism and secularism has done irreparable harm to underlying ethos and culture of the country. In the US – there is a lot of talk nowadays that the country has been founded on Judeo-Christian values and how courts and secular press is diluting that culture of the country.

3. Politicians in India used wedge issues revolving around religion in the 1990s to get votes. Of course the prime example was Babri Masjid – Ram Janmabhoomi issue. Apart from that there were a variety of other issues like the Shah Bano case, Uniform Civil Code etc. that were used to fire up people and get votes. In the US, there are issues like installing ten commandments in courts, Terry Schiavo case, abortions and gay rights that are being used to fire up people to get votes.

I am sure that someone far more analytical than me who majors in these kind of things can take these two time periods in the history of two greatest democracies in the world and just bring out these striking similarities more than I have and point out how religion without reason can lead to colossal mistakes.

Times of India is reporting that Mumbai will have 100 closed circuit TVs to monitor crime across city. Reminds me of something that Chicago has done too and has been extremely successful at it. Will it succeed in Mumbai. Couple it with the fact that just this very week a girl was raped by a policeman inside a police-chowki and you don’t really need an answer from me, do you? For all you know – you might have policemen ogling at girls through these closed circuit TVs.

And then of course you have Shiv Sena proclaiming that women get raped because of the clothes they wear. So much for making Bombay like Singapore or Honk Kong or whatever.

An anonymous person posted a comment on my blog ( treat all spelling mistakes as sic). I guess a point by point rebuttal is in order.

Without defending we uncouth Indians and without pandering to the white-skin ethos of deiscipline- may I ask you to look around and look deply and u wl find that beneath that veneer of civility and discipline, lies a crude human being doing exactly the same things once the external constrictions and rstrictions are removed.
Oh that age old argument – the one argument on which communism survived and the one which Ayn Rand would have called, “the dictatorship of the ordinary, the victory of the lowest common denominator.” That after all we are all in some way or the other uncivilized so why even bother.

The behaviour of Americans when the great black-out of New York is the ample testimony to that. remove them cops and u will find over-speeding, jumping red light s and so on.
You might not have noticed but during the great black out – the behavior of New Yorkers – by and large was exemplary. There were no riots on the streets, a huge mass of people walked miles back without complaining much and there was no organized looting. Of course there were some stray incidents but considering the size and population of that city those incidents can very well be ignored.

So let us not be overly moralistic and judgemantal- americans have been getting all those benefits n infrastructre and so can afford to be high n mighty. In India, with those scarcities, population pressure and competition for survival- let us be happpy that we still live reasonably decently and not kill each other for water, electricity and food.
Probably you did not read my entire posting and jumped to conclusion without having the patience to finish it. I have clearly said that with all the peer pressure it is still understandable that we behave the way we do in India. What explains our behavior in other developed countries? Our true civil values are not visible in India because everyone else is spitting his paan peek on the wall but in Chicago – Devon avenue sticks out like a sore thumb – just two miles or so from beautiful Lake Shore drive but could have very well been hundreds of miles away.

It is common in India to see paan residue being spit all over the place or people throwing out their garbage in the open. Of course – one cannot do such things in the US, at least not in places where there are enough American around. But leave us alone in the secure company of other Indians and our civic sense takes a free fall. When everyone around us is a desi then why bother with niceties like keeping the area clean. Glaring and blaring example is Devon Avenue in Chicago.

Here are some more examples of how we lack even the basic civic courtesies. I rent DVDs from Netflix – but invariably, DVDs of Hindi movies even new ones are dirty or scratched; sometimes on the verge of being unplayable. Why? Because when we get them we probably think that it is just a rental DVD and do not take good care of it.

When I rent a tape of Hindi movie from the local grocery store, tapes are never ever rewound. They are always at the end of the movie.

You might say that these are small things and I am nit picking – but these small things show our national character which simply speaking is just pathetic.