C U L T U R E

The Virtues and Vices of being an Indian
Vinod Anand

EVERY country is unique in its character, and so is India. Such uniqueness provides a strong binding force of togetherness to its varied heterogeneity, which can best be summed up in the concept of Indian ness.

This is the brighter side of the picture- the non-toxic side. These are limited, they are refined, civil, and polished, and hence unique, and have no parallel any where in the world, whereas toxic vices are very many, they are unrefined, uncivil, unpolished and uncalled for, and most of them have many parallels in other parts of the world.  Indian ness is, thus, a mixed basket of non-toxic virtues and toxic vices, but the unfortunate thing is that the latter, because of their varied character and intensity, completely overshadow the former. The Indians are, thus, known more by the toxic vices rather than by their limited non-toxic virtues. It was not like this in the past; say even in the first half of the last century. In fact, there has been a paradigm shift in the concept of Indian ness over the last many decades from the age-old flowering culture to autumn like decline and decay of values.  There are many reasons for this shift.

The virtues are in fact cardinal in the sense that they are basic values of life on which depend many other things. No matter what their religion is, majority of Indians are sincerely religious, god fearing and reverent in their own ways. They are tolerant; they endure no matter what it is without protest, they tolerate opinions, beliefs, customs, behaviour etc., different from their own that make the country secular in the sense that Indians exhibit the practice of allowing religious freedom. They value self-esteem in the sense that they value their own worth, no matter what it is. They have faith in their own opinion of their own worth. They try to live within their own means. All these are reflections of the precepts of the various religions in the country. The ultimate destination of the various religions is the same.

These virtues can best be seen, especially amongst the poor (the deserving poor) stratum of India. The virtues are almost extinct in the case of rich (basically the undeserving rich) segments, because of their distorted materialistic attitude.

In order to exemplify the first part of this statement, we know that, like in many other countries, the poor in India are highly marginalized, disgraced, isolated, and excluded socially by the richer sections of the society, and are looked down upon with disgust and hatred. This leads to the emergence of ‘concealed’ or ‘disguised’ poverty through various legitimate, though immoral means (like, self-borrowing in the sense of mortgaging one’s future income on a long term basis), and also through illegitimate, unethical, immoral, and dihonourable means (like, crime and other illegal activities: theft, larceny, plunder, loot, and mugging) with the result that poor do not appear to be poor, at least in public life. If poverty is at all visible, it is in the dwellings and the households of the poor. The dynamics of this process works like this: poverty, amongst other things, leads to the loss of self-esteem in the eyes of the richer class, and the poor are highly marginalised. This, in turn, motivates the poor to protect this loss through borrowing and crime-related activities.

It is, therefore, concluded that there is a critical link between poverty, inequality, unemployment, exclusion, and violence that stems from the pursuit of fast monetary success through effective illegal means.

Despite all this, it is heartening to see that the poor in India, of course with few exceptions, save whatever they can by living frugally, go for discretionary rather than contractual savings, do not mortgage their assets or future income, and above all, do not, in any way, try artificially or illegitimately, to make their poverty ‘concealed’ or ‘disguised’. Being highly tolerant and God-fearing, they accept their fate and the given circumstances, and maintain their self-respect to live with honour in their own ways.

After having talked of the virtues of Indians, and exemplifying these at length in the context of ‘concealed’ poverty, let us briefly look at the vices that continue inhibiting the country with increasing intensity in a way that they have almost overshadowed and overpowered our cultural heritage and the inbuilt virtues.

These vices are very many and are linked essentially with individual behaviour, which eventually gets aggregated and aggravated in different shapes and shadows, and adversely affects both the household and public ethos.

• have no value for time, and neglect the present moments either in pondering over what has gone by, or in blindly thinking about what is going to happen tomorrow;

• are not Pareto optimal in the sense that they  completely ignore the after effects of their decisions on other people, including their family members;

• are oblivious of the tenets of comparative advantage and the theory of family decisions in household behaviour in terms of family welfare;

• are inhibited by male superiority, and are highly biased in favour of male dominance;

• are only users in the sense that they only make friends as long as they can use them for some vested interest;

• are promise breakers on whom one can never rely upon;

• are gossip mongers and have an addiction to gossip;

• are highly self-centered, and are busy thinking  only about themselves;

• have lack of self confidence, and lack of confidence in others;

• are jealous of others, and do not share the happiness of others;

• lead a routine life without having long-term vision, and hence mission; they lack creativity and innovation;

• are flatterers and sycophants, and greedy, and cling to others all the time for  unwarranted favours;

• are competitors and rivals even to their own people;

• are not aware of their rights and have no sense of responsibility essentially in public life;

• are full of self pity, and  largely depend on mercy;

• unhygienic essentially in public life;

• look for easy, fast and unearned money through nefarious and immoral activities without adding anything to national income;

• strongly infatuated with unwarranted status symbols in order to make a show-off to others; they normally talk too proudly about themselves, their possessions, connections, and contacts;

• are often violently coward and cowardly violent;

• have contempt for anyone who has less money and resources and is lower in the caste ladder, implying that they are deeply racist towards others both institutionally and individually implying that they are still colonial and landlords of yesteryears.

[The author is former Professor and Head of Economics at the University of Allahabad and University of North West in the Republic of South Africa.]

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