With the head held high

 

 

Ravish Kumar

Senior Journalist

NDTV “We are infested by corruption”. Every other person shoots off this cliché as soon as he is allowed to speak. Then he goes on to list its various avenues – politics, offices, hospitals, armed forces, business and so on. Such people are always willing to topple the government or wedge a struggle against this menace. Nevertheless, they ignore a simple fact that first, it is the Indian society that is corrupt and then come its institutions.

During our fight against colonialism, it was essential for us to praise our country and its aspects in order to clearly identify the India we were fighting for. Notions such as ‘Discovery of India’ and ‘India is the greatest nation’ became part of our national consciousness. We were taught to praise India and its virtues. We were asked to feel proud of our heritage. It was the right thing to do in a sense that every new nation requires a new ‘tagline’. It is precisely because of this notion that whenever we criticise India, we believe that we are actually criticising some of the bad aspects of an otherwise great nation. We never question the fact that how such a corrupt nation can be considered great. The truth is, this so-called ‘greatness’ is just a packaging and marketing gimmick for us.

We never actually question who all benefit at the cost of a corrupt politician or official. It is evident that everyone, right from his kin to his fellow caste-men, enjoys his illegal treasure. Have you ever heard of a corrupt politician who had been disowned by his kin? It is impossible because when it comes to satisfying our own means, we just love corruption.

We can go gaga over our country and its culture but the truth is, we are basically a violent society by nature. So violent that we still believe in caste prejudices. So violent that we still torture brides who do not bring dowry, and immolate them. But when it comes to giving away dowry, we prefer foeticide. This truly signifies how corrupt a society we really are.

To bring a corrupt society back on track, government and non government organisations wedge struggle. But we simply can not purge them all. Money exchanges hand in around 80% of the marriages in India. It is another form of crime and violence. Then how do these people stand by honesty? The same people who criticise institutionalised corruption, go on to provide social reasoning in favour of tax-evasion. In fact, as far as corruption is concerned, we are basically a tolerant society. Here is an example. Around Diwali, a report exposed the adulteration in sweets. In spite of solid evidence, the representative of a sweet makers association vehemently denied the charges. Off the record however, he confirmed that not a single sweet on offer in Delhi is unadulterated. I was shocked. He was telling white lies on TV but was also calling to inform all his relatives that he would be on air. Though many of his colleagues must have known about his deed, they preferred silence. It effectively meant that a large section of the society had given him mute support.

That is precisely why we fear the government but not society when it comes to involvement in corruption. We know corruption in and out. In fact, most of us are involved in some form of corruption. But as I said, we are extremely tolerant about corruption, treating it as inevitable. This is because our holy books talk about penance. They never say sins are unpardonable. Religion lends us a helping hand here.

About two and a half centuries ago, when we came under the British rule, our society was not bounded by a common law. It was tradition that governed our lives. Zamindars, Nawabs and Kings only cared about their taxes and writ. They never provided laws to define honesty or justice.

Therefore, we are deeply rooted to traditions but have irreverence towards law. When British defined law, we insisted on breaking in as a sign of defiance. Even after independence, we ceased to stop and breaking the law became our national pass time. Corruption became a sort of revolution.

Everybody started searching for fresh avenues for corruption in accordance to their status. Premchand’s Namak ka Daroga helps us in decoding this mentality but stops short of providing an alternative. That is why our society rejects this story. It has enjoyed the story thoroughly but fails to learn a lesson from it. It is not yet ready to accept its principle. And that is precisely why we are a corrupt society. Till we make honesty our tradition and start abiding by the law, corruption will rise. Our society is much closer to corruption than our politicians and bureaucrats. It is corrupt and that is why it provides succour to corruption.