A few years ago I was returning to India on a flight from Amsterdam. The flight landed late at night in Delhi and I got into a cab for going home after picking up my bags. On the way I got a call from my house. Someone had called from the airport saying that they had found my portfolio in a luggage trolley. It contained my passport, traveler's cheques and a fair bit of cash. Apparently, I had dropped it while boarding the cab and it had been found by an airline employee. He had found my contact number from my passport and had called home. I called his mobile phone to thank him and to tell him that I would turn back and pick up the portfolio from him. He said that he had already left the airport to come to my house. Finally, he did just that. He came over home at 3 am and returned the portfolio with all its contents intact to me. I was overwhelmed by his honesty and tried to offer him a reward. He refused to accept anything and left me with a warm glow about the innate goodness of human nature.
This is not an isolated instance. Yesterday a similar incident occurred while we were on tour in Lucknow. My colleague lost his briefcase while we were working in the market. Again, a good Samaritan found the bag and returned it himself later in the evening.
I am sure that a lot of us have had similar experiences. What I wonder about is whether there is an underlying truth about such events. Are Indians fundamentally honest? It would certainly not appear so if we were to see the level of corruption, fraud and cheating that occurs in our country. Is it mere probability that we were lucky to have come across two examples of honest people in a sea of crooks? I doubt it. Do Indians behave differently when faced with individuals as opposed to an organisation, specifically the Government? Does their behaviour pattern change? Perhaps we can discern the germ of an explanation in that last thought.
Many Indians do not think twice about evading taxes. It's quite OK to cheat the government. In fact it almost feels like a pleasurable game and there is certainly no guilt attached to it. The 'government' is faceless and amorphous and somewhat hostile. Of course it's OK to avoid pernicious taxation! It's almost a duty! However, to cheat an individual is different. The same tax evader may feel morally uplifted if he returns a bag that he found on the street.
An interesting parallel could also be drawn with Indian attitudes towards hygiene In most cases, Indian houses would be clean and well kept on the inside but the residents would have no concern about dumping their garbage right outside. After all that is not 'their' land. It is government property and the government has to figure out how to keep it clean!
So, all in all, the Indian public has an adversarial relationship with the Government. The government makes progressively more complex rules to govern an unruly public while the public comes up with increasingly inventive ways to beat the system. While all this is going on, at the individual level Indians are fairly honest and helpful to others. A strange cocktail indeed!
Check out my book - Journey to the Hills and other Stories.
This is not an isolated instance. Yesterday a similar incident occurred while we were on tour in Lucknow. My colleague lost his briefcase while we were working in the market. Again, a good Samaritan found the bag and returned it himself later in the evening.
I am sure that a lot of us have had similar experiences. What I wonder about is whether there is an underlying truth about such events. Are Indians fundamentally honest? It would certainly not appear so if we were to see the level of corruption, fraud and cheating that occurs in our country. Is it mere probability that we were lucky to have come across two examples of honest people in a sea of crooks? I doubt it. Do Indians behave differently when faced with individuals as opposed to an organisation, specifically the Government? Does their behaviour pattern change? Perhaps we can discern the germ of an explanation in that last thought.
Many Indians do not think twice about evading taxes. It's quite OK to cheat the government. In fact it almost feels like a pleasurable game and there is certainly no guilt attached to it. The 'government' is faceless and amorphous and somewhat hostile. Of course it's OK to avoid pernicious taxation! It's almost a duty! However, to cheat an individual is different. The same tax evader may feel morally uplifted if he returns a bag that he found on the street.
An interesting parallel could also be drawn with Indian attitudes towards hygiene In most cases, Indian houses would be clean and well kept on the inside but the residents would have no concern about dumping their garbage right outside. After all that is not 'their' land. It is government property and the government has to figure out how to keep it clean!
So, all in all, the Indian public has an adversarial relationship with the Government. The government makes progressively more complex rules to govern an unruly public while the public comes up with increasingly inventive ways to beat the system. While all this is going on, at the individual level Indians are fairly honest and helpful to others. A strange cocktail indeed!
Check out my book - Journey to the Hills and other Stories.
“Beautiful depiction of Hills & life
in North India in the ‘60s” – Chandra Srivastava
“The story flow was as smooth as silk and
the narration so vivid, real and engrossing that I couldn't put it down....I
finished the book in one sitting” – KK Sridhar
No comments:
Post a Comment