It is said that generalizations are generally wrong. That is what I felt after reading " Bribery Culture of India". There is no point in bringing Indian culture and Indian people. Let's see how corruption and black money began in India.
Corruption and black money started during the second world war. The rationing started during this time. Many things like rice, wheat, oil, paper were rationed. This was continued after Independence. Controls became more severe due to partition and is aftermath. Then came the 'permit-license raj' with planing and socialist pattern of society.This gave enormous powers to the ruling politicians and the bureaucracy.Later came prohibition, gold and cement control. This was followed by the highest marginal tax of 97.5 percent.
Now there is no 'permit-license raj' and the taxation has come down to a reasonable level. Now there is a great need for infrastructure ( roads, bridges,telecom,ports, mining etc) and it offers great opportunity to businessmen. The businessmen want to invest/start every thing quickly but politicians and bureaucrats want their cut.So, corruption still flourishes. However, there are impartial authorities to allocate these scarce resources of the country.Ministers overrule these authorities without any protest from the bureaucrats manning them. Where ever the authorized institutions have stood their ground, they have succeeded. The great example is the Election Commission.
Corruption has nothing to do with Indian character but it has everything to do with governance.Our police in inadequate, ill-trained, under-paid. The courts are inundated with cases ranging from petty theft to murder. Today's Mumbai Mirror has this headline : " Man serves 9 yrs for crime that warrants 6 months". Another report in DNA says UP Power Corporation moved the top court in 2003 against the High Court judgement 1983 for a payment of Rs.752 against Narain Prasad who died durig the proceedings. This is the state of ou administration.There are no sufficient number of judges.Our prisons are over-crowded and under-staffed.Primary education and primary health care has not been given the importance that they deserve.Poor people from villages come to the nearest towns and cities in search of work and live in slums. One-third of our population is still live below the poverty line after 60 years of planning economic development.
Rulers of old and the elected rulers of today have let the people down.There are no role models to people today. Elite and the middle class are busy making money. It is the poor who suffer from the bad governance.
Mahatma Gandhi, in his seminal book, Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule written 1908 quotes Colonel Thomas Munroe, who served in India for 32 years under the British, about his view on Indians.
" If a good system of agriculture, unrivaled manufacturing skill, a capacity to produce whatever can contribute to convenience or luxury;schools established in every village, for teaching, reading, writing and arithmetic; general practice of hospitality and charity among each other; and above all, a treatment of the female sex, full of confidence, respect and delicacy, are among the signs which denoted civilized people, then the Hindus are not inferior to the nations of Europe; and if civilization is to become an article of trade between the two countries, I am convinced that this country (England) will gain by the import cargo."
Gandhiji wanted India to be re-built on these lines and he called it Gram Swaraj, Village Republic, almost self-sufficient most of the essentials of life.His idea of Sarvodaya ( everyone's rise) or welfare of all is worth revisiting.He said that there is enough in the world for our needs but not for our greed. How true! Greed brought down the financial system in the capitalist West and the total control brought down the Communist system.
If India today suffering from the ills of corruption and black money, it is because we are following a system which combines the worst of both the capitalist and communist ideologies.
June 21,2011
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Bribery Culture of India - corruption
Corruption and black money started during the second world war. The rationing started during this time. Many things like rice, wheat, oil, paper were rationed. This was continued after Independence. Controls became more severe due to partition and is aftermath. Then came the 'permit-license raj' with planing and socialist pattern of society.This gave enormous powers to the ruling politicians and the bureaucracy.Later came prohibition, gold and cement control. This was followed by the highest marginal tax of 97.5 percent.
Now there is no 'permit-license raj' and the taxation has come down to a reasonable level. Now there is a great need for infrastructure ( roads, bridges,telecom,ports, mining etc) and it offers great opportunity to businessmen. The businessmen want to invest/start every thing quickly but politicians and bureaucrats want their cut.So, corruption still flourishes. However, there are impartial authorities to allocate these scarce resources of the country.Ministers overrule these authorities without any protest from the bureaucrats manning them. Where ever the authorized institutions have stood their ground, they have succeeded. The great example is the Election Commission.
Corruption has nothing to do with Indian character but it has everything to do with governance.Our police in inadequate, ill-trained, under-paid. The courts are inundated with cases ranging from petty theft to murder. Today's Mumbai Mirror has this headline : " Man serves 9 yrs for crime that warrants 6 months". Another report in DNA says UP Power Corporation moved the top court in 2003 against the High Court judgement 1983 for a payment of Rs.752 against Narain Prasad who died durig the proceedings. This is the state of ou administration.There are no sufficient number of judges.Our prisons are over-crowded and under-staffed.Primary education and primary health care has not been given the importance that they deserve.Poor people from villages come to the nearest towns and cities in search of work and live in slums. One-third of our population is still live below the poverty line after 60 years of planning economic development.
Rulers of old and the elected rulers of today have let the people down.There are no role models to people today. Elite and the middle class are busy making money. It is the poor who suffer from the bad governance.
Mahatma Gandhi, in his seminal book, Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule written 1908 quotes Colonel Thomas Munroe, who served in India for 32 years under the British, about his view on Indians.
" If a good system of agriculture, unrivaled manufacturing skill, a capacity to produce whatever can contribute to convenience or luxury;schools established in every village, for teaching, reading, writing and arithmetic; general practice of hospitality and charity among each other; and above all, a treatment of the female sex, full of confidence, respect and delicacy, are among the signs which denoted civilized people, then the Hindus are not inferior to the nations of Europe; and if civilization is to become an article of trade between the two countries, I am convinced that this country (England) will gain by the import cargo."
Gandhiji wanted India to be re-built on these lines and he called it Gram Swaraj, Village Republic, almost self-sufficient most of the essentials of life.His idea of Sarvodaya ( everyone's rise) or welfare of all is worth revisiting.He said that there is enough in the world for our needs but not for our greed. How true! Greed brought down the financial system in the capitalist West and the total control brought down the Communist system.
If India today suffering from the ills of corruption and black money, it is because we are following a system which combines the worst of both the capitalist and communist ideologies.
June 21,2011
******
Bribery Culture of India - corruption
Posted by: "Kiran" drkirankrishnan@yahoo.co.uk drkkishorekumar_1948
Sun Jun 19, 2011 5:19 am (PDT)
----- Original Message -----
From: Dr.M.S. Jayasekhar
Subject: Bribery Culture of India
Indians are Hobbesian.(culture of self interest)
Corruption in India is a cultural aspect. Indians seem to think nothing peculiar about corruption.It is everywhere. Indians tolerate corrupt individuals rather than correct them. No race can be congenitally corrupt.But can a race be corrupted by its culture?
To know why Indians are corrupt, look at their patterns and practices .
First:
Religion is transactional in India. Indians give God cash and anticipate an out-of-turn reward. Such a plea acknowledges that favours are needed for the undeserving. In the world outside the temple walls, such a transaction is named- "bribe". A wealthy Indian gives not cash to temples, but gold crowns and such baubles. His gifts can not feed the poor. His pay-off is for God. He thinks it will be wasted if it goes to a needy man. In June 2009, The Hindu published a report of Karnataka minister G. Janardhan Reddy gifting a crown of gold and diamonds worth Rs 45 crore to Tirupati.
India's temples collect so much that they don't know what to do with it. Billions are gathering dust in temple vaults.
When Europeans came to India they built schools. When Indians go to Europe & USA, they build temples. Indians believe that if God accepts money for his favours, then nothing is wrong in doing the same thing. This is why Indians are so easily corruptible.
Indian culture accommodates such transactions morally. There is no real stigma. An utterly corrupt JayaLalita can make a comeback, just unthinkable in the West.
Second -
Indian moral ambiguity towards corruption is visible in its history. Indian history tells of the capture of cities and kingdoms after guards were paid off to open the gates, and commanders paid off to surrender. This is unique to India.
Indians' corrupt nature has meant limited warfare on the subcontinent.It is striking how little Indians have actually fought compared to ancient Greece and modern Europe. The Turks' battles with Nadir Shah were vicious and fought to the finish. In India fighting wasn't needed, bribing was enough to see off armies.
Any invader willing to spend cash could brush aside India's kings, no matter how many tens of thousands soldiers were in their infantry. Little resistance was given by the Indians at the "Battle" of Plassey. Clive paid off Mir Jaffar and all of Bengal folded to an army of 3,000. There was always a financial exchange to taking Indian forts. Golconda was captured in 1687 after the secret back door was left open. Mughals vanquished Marathas and Rajputs with nothing but bribes. The Raja of Srinagar gave up Dara Shikoh's son Sulaiman to Aurangzeb after receiving a bribe. There are many cases where Indians participated on a large scale in treason due to bribery.
Question is: Why Indians have a transactional culture while other 'civilized' nations don't?
Third -
Indians do not believe in the theory that they all can rise if each of them behaves morally, because that is not the message of their faith. Their caste system separates them. They don't believe that all men are equal.This resulted in their division and migration to other religions . Many Hindus started their own faith like Sikhism, Jainism, Buddhism and many converted to Christianity and Islam. The result is that Indians don't trust one another . There are no Indians in India ,there are Hindus ,Christians, Muslims and what not.
Indians forget that 400 years ago they all belonged to one faith. This division evolved an unhealthy culture. The inequality has resulted in a corrupt society,
In India every one is thus against everyone else, except God and even he must be bribed.
Sonny Varghese
Head of Finance, & Administration
Qatar Aeronautical College
P O box 4050, Doha - Qatar
Tel: +974 44408806 (Off)
+974 44315806 (Direct)
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