By Lata Tauro
For the longest time we have been fed the idea that India is something special because it has managed to encompass so many differences in language, culture, religion etc. and continue to remain in one piece. True, it is something of an aberration when you compare it to Europe for example, which is the closest in many ways to what India is.
So, what is the magic glue that has kept us together for seven decades? Is it that famed trait called tolerance? Haven’t the recent lynching related to cow theft and other such hate crimes put paid to the very idea of tolerance in India? So, what then?
My gut feeling is, it is inertia and sheer indifference more than anything else that has contributed to the phenomenon by and large. Nobody really cares enough one way or another about anything, to do much of something about anything. And this includes the need for separate states. What could be at the heart of this indifference ? Could it be the idea of Karma?
What is worse is that this indifference pervades everything extending EVEN to the attitude to one’s personal misery. With this chameleon like ability we simply adjust ourselves to bad conditions rather than seek to change those conditions for ourselves.
The roads and general infrastructure of our towns and cities are a testament to this. And it extends to situations like floods and other natural calamities where we rouse ourselves just enough to deal with the immediacy of things and then sink back into total apathy only to rise again when tragedy strikes. This has often been touted as the resilience of citizens.
Similarly, when there have been landslides or stampedes during pilgrimages, people are agitated briefly and then, again, they simply shrug and move on. There is a sense of karma about it all that what happens will happen, no matter what we do, and that relieves us of the duty to even try.
The sense of outrage that might have been there never translates to anything more. The system is never truly held accountable for letting us down.
One among the reasons for this could be that Indian cities and towns do not have what their counterparts in the West have. We do not have the concept of civil society and local organizations that can swing into action when they are needed most.
Instead each of us sits in splendid isolation and wrings our hands in despair and then goes back to the grind with a sad shake of our heads, thinking there is no solution to the problem. When we talk to our friends and neighbors the tone is one of resignation about the fact that things will never change no matter what we do.
But we have to survive and that’s where another major Indian trait comes in…JUGAAD ! The special Indian trait that is a cure-all for all ills. From finding ways around paying our taxes, to getting past an oily bureaucrat we will use it to make our immediate vicinity in time and space bearable, never mind the long-term damage to the system and to ourselves. And we are mighty proud of this too !
Ethics and legalities are the least of our worries. As long as we can get by each day with our quick fixes, that is all that matters. Ethics, if it ever is a concern for many of us, is what the other person should abide by, but not something that one should concern oneself with. The resultant India we see is exactly what these traits have helped create.
But when the chicken come home to roost as they have a dirty habit of doing, we wake up and say it is the corrupt government that has done all of this to us. We give up one corrupt government for another that has blood on its hands but what the heck. This new government might change things for us. How does the blood on its hands matter ? When did ethics ever get in our way?
And now as this venal government bares its fangs, and it begins to dawn on us as to how little it really knows about the business of governance, we wonder what we did wrong to deserve any of this.
We, the wonderful, tolerant, spiritual people of India.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. AlignIndia does not take any responsibility for the content of the article.