Corruption in India: Excuse for Uncaring Middle Class
I was talking to a colleague of mine and within a few minutes the subject turned to corruption in general and the corrupt Indian politicians. Corruption is one of the most popular topics of conversation in India today and rightly so. Corruption is rampant in India compared to Western Europe and North America. Indians love to rant about corrupt politicians and business leaders.
When Indians voice their anger through the media including blogs like this, it is normally the voice of educated middle class and upper middle class Indians that you hear. There is dead silence when it comes to the 500 million or so Indians who live below the poverty line. Who speaks for them and their issues?
When Indians talk about corruption today one might get the impression that corruption is a new disease that must be quickly eradicated. This is not true. Corruption in the Indian society goes way back. In fact corruption might not be the best term to describe what is going on. In the United States one must pay a tip at a restaurant (normally 15%). Technically the customers do not have to but most customers pay anyway. In India you not only have to pay a tip at a restaurant but you also have to pay a “tip” to get a drivers license.
Most Indians happily pay the standard (but unofficial) fee to get the drivers license. It is convenient and quick (in many cases if you pay the fee you do not have to be physically present at the DMV). Depending on religion, caste and other factors most Indians and their families have to pay a “fee” to the bride or the groom before marriage. Most Indians do not consider this a bribe but rather a part of our customs (the word dowry has negative connotations today. But almost all Indian marriages (traditional or “love” marriages) have some sort of financial commitment or understanding between the families or couples involved).
Indians have no problems accepting all these issues (surrounding corruption) as a reality of life and participating and benefiting from it except when it comes to politicians. Suddenly politicians offering or accepting bribes has gone from back page news to the front page. Why this new found anger towards politicians who are supposedly corrupt?
I think it is a direct result of India’s new found wealth and its biggest beneficiary which is the Indian middle class. For a very long time a vast majority of Indians were poor or just barely making ends meet. Corrupt politicians were least of our problems. We spent most of the time worrying about our jobs, getting clean water or keeping the mosquitoes away during power cuts. But we now have people delivering clean water to our house and generators to step up during power cuts. In addition most of us are making money our parents could only dream off.
We have stopped focusing on issues that are vital for survival (like clean water and safe living conditions) and instead have started complaining loudly about corrupt politicians. This is because we now realize that the money that the politicians and bureaucrats are grabbing is actually our money. This pains us and we want to do something about it. But this is also an indicator that we are slowly getting addicted to material things (something we often accuse the West of).
We cannot change Indian politics overnight. It is changing but it will take a while before it becomes acceptable to most of us. But meanwhile we cannot ignore where we came from. There are hundreds of millions of us who are yet to make the transition from a hand to mouth existence to air conditioned cars and Blackberries.
So instead of complaining about what the politicians are doing with our money and losing sleep over it we should instead question them about their plans for controlling inflation (which has reached 10%), providing drinking water to all villages, and affordable health care for the poor and ways to prevent child labor and so on. Let us speak for those who are getting marginalized at the moment.
The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit – Nelson Henderson
Related posts:
- How the Middle Class Can Help India’s Poor
- Grading Middle Class India on its Republic Day
- Ramdev Qualified to Talk About Corruption?
- The Corrupt Indians
- New India but Same Old India
Category: Culture & Religion