What can we do? What will you do?- by Silent Change

What can we do? What will you do?

Yesterday I was in conversation with a couple of friends. I asked them how we can contribute towards hastening the development of India. What can we do?

One of my friend’s pointed out that change has to come from the top. However, I contested that countries having dictatorships would be developed nations. She objected that dictatorship was a poor example. She never explained why. I assumed that she did not advocate a completely enforced set of rules that should be followed, rather, she probably implied that good policies and their proper enforcement is the key. I agreed to what she said. Indeed policies have greater impact on how a nation grows. In fact, it’s the government policy of liberalizing the market that has paid benefits to section of Indians in recent years. I did not ask her to explain the kind of policies she would like to see changed in order to hasten the development of India. I should have, however, I assumed we were talking about corruption, ineffective and frustrating public services, and the law and order system. But, how will it happen? She said it won’t happen because she doesn’t trust politicians. She is of the view that even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is in the chair because of his need for power. I recalled that she did not hold regard for India’s first Prime Minister, Pt. Nehru as well. So, I noted that it was his vision of creating world class institutions in India (i.e. IITs) and stressed on how well it has paid India back. However, she argued that Nehru’s other policies of government control over electricity, license Raj etc impeded India’s development for last 60 years. At that moment I was not able to counter her point, however, recently, I understood what Prime Minister Manmohan Singh mentioned in an interview with Charlie Rose, that the government should act as a facilitator rather than a controller. Dr. Singh also mentioned that the policies of the past were perhaps needed at the time and that India has moved on with the policy changes that have been introduced since 1991 to date.

She continued that she thinks that for humans there is always a right thing to do and a right thing that benefits them, and we pick the thing that is right for us. So, for example, if we could bribe someone to by-pass a queue and bribe the person in charge to get a work done, we will do it, because it is right (convenient) for us, although it may not be the right thing to do. I tried to give a generative scenario from a book I had read some time back, that there is a herd of buffaloes in a swamp and one of the buffaloes wants to come out of it, but she accepts how everyone else is happy in the swamp and remains there. My friends interrupted that my example was flawed because buffaloes are there for the reason -swamps cool them in hot sun. I could never complete my example and I gave another one that how fish are in water but don’t know about the world outside it. However, now I think I should have completed my earlier example because that was much more relevant. So, when buffaloes are in the swamp, the herdsman tries to get them out of the water. Even if one of them wants to , she still doesn’t come out since all others are just sitting there. So the herdsman has to go to each-one and coax them out of it. I agree that buffaloes have a valid reason to stay in, however, buffaloes (in this sense) are dumb, a herdsman knows it (and of course does have his vested objective to reach home in time too). However, the herdsman also knows that if they do not come out of the swamp during day time, they are not going to be able to feed themselves in time and they are hence violating a greater need. In that sense, by doing the right thing for ourselves, we are definitely acting dumb when we are bribing. We are creating a corrupt society. I recall a quote from Nipun Bhai —“Be selfish. But first understand what's in your self interest”.

Now, I understood that there is this frustration that the top order doesn’t do its job well. So, I asked “What can we do, since, we elect this top order.” My friend laughingly remarked that we fight out all the gundaas that politicians have who prevent you to vote. I understood this frustration as well. It doesn’t seem to be an easy solution. Of course, it is not easy to fight them..

So, I asked what else can we do to develop India. I told them that one of my friends is going to go to slums the next time he visits India and spend a week educating people in slums about cleanliness. She argued that people in slums already know that they live in bad conditions, however, after working an entire day, striving to earn a living, they do not have time or energy to clean I would like to note here that not all people who live in slums live in unclean environments, however, I did not use this in the argument. I did not completely agree to it, so I asked her that if we educate them that living in unhygienic conditions leads to disease, would they not understand and clean their environment? My friend argued that educating them doesn’t help. Again, I did not understand why it does not help, so I asked her why she thought so? She replied that her mom had been trying to tell her neighbor not to throw garbage on the street throughout her life but the neighbor never paid any heed to it. She continued by saying that the neighbor is not an illiterate but an educated person. Her mom even got the neighbors garbage cleaned, but the neighbor never cleaned it. I was surprised at the behavior of the neighbor. But then, I suggested that in America, the societies adopt streets and keep them clean. So, if 3-4 people in her mom’s neighborhood could adopt their street, the ill-educated neighbor would probably not matter any more. To this my other friend retorted that he cannot imagine 3-4 people taking responsibility of their street. Why? Because cleaning their own street would be considered shameful by everyone else. So, I asked why is it that it’s not shameful in US, but shameful in India? My friend said that until we have cheap labor available in India it will continue to be like this. What I understood from this is that cleaning is a menial job, for which our Indian society has no regard. So, if cheap labor is the problem, if the wage of the workers is increased, will it lead people to adopt street cleaning as well? My friend did not think it will help, since he said we will always have someone else who could clean it for lesser money. So, I see that streets can surely be cleaned if not by people living on that street then by cheap labor. If you have lived in India you would realize that despite cheap labor and knowledge of disease and cleanliness, even city streets are not clean—and we talk about cleanliness in slums!

Just to put things in perspective, when I asked my friends “What is the one thing you would do for India?”—one said that she would plant trees and improve ecology (and I know she already donates toward animal protection agencies) and the other mentioned that he already supports a child’s education in India every year. I was humbled that although they sound pretty negative, they are still contributing. And I still have good friends!

Even though this is only a part of the complete conversation, I have had similar conversations with lots of other friends and have not written about them. This conversation, and others, gives me two impressions about our Indian society. First, we do not believe in our leadership—to me it seems like we have even decided not to believe in them. Second, our society has a sad outlook about development—perhaps to most of us clean streets are not a part of our development—to me it is the reflection of our society.

As it is, this conversation did not give me the answers I look for. May be I even raised my friends’ blood pressure by questioning their impression of their own home, their own county. However, it has a soul to it by which I expect us to communicate and more than that, connect. I am sure answers lie in synergistic efforts and do not lie far away. We had stopped looking for them, now it is the time when India is empowering herself that we start looking for them, again. We can start by reading about the synergistic efforts by the government, industry and people of Jharkhand to build a new state. Also, I think we need to move on from just reading about Gandhi ji and our history, and bring forth the good work of our leaders in the past sixty years. We choose our leaders, they have to justify their actions to us. If we expect them to be good they will become good. If we define a politician as a corrupt person, no good person would like to take the job.

A very interesting conversation. A very striking contrast in how we live and believe and to that matter expect from our leadership.
Formulas implemented in our country cannot be applied to every country in its entirety. The thought has to be given a local flavor. Even democracy cannot be forced, it has to be earned. I remember one of the beginning lines from our civics (social science) books - "With rights come responsibilities".