Is want of national pride holding India back?

The absence of a sense of national pride with the resolve that I will do my job to the best of my ability, come what may, is perhaps at the root of what’s holding India back in the comity of nations.

Our penchant to blame politicians for all their shortcomings is one part of the story. The larger blame lies with each of the 300 million well-fed, well-educated Indians, who will demand benefits but not deliver to their fullest ability. Whether serving in the government, the public or the private sector, they will blame the “system” for all the ills.

All the law and order agencies, utility services and government administrative services where licences, ration cards, domicile and other certificates are issued, collectively make the “system” where harassment of the public and non-performance of duty is the norm.

If you compare India with the developed Western world and East Asian countries, you’ll find that a genuine spirit of service and national pride is missing in Indians. What exist in its place are false notions of superiority. We become unstoppable when we speak of our ancient civilisation. 

The system is made up of the common man — the public “servant” (who sees himself more as lord and master), the bank clerk, the telephone operator and officials in any capacity — public or private. It will change for the better only when these common elements become conscious of national pride.

The way the red carpet was rolled out for the then Union Carbide chairman Warren Anderson in the aftermath of the Bhopal gas tragedy is not just a prime example of our sense of inferiority before the white man, but also a systemic failure. Had the system worked, at every stage, the chief secretary and all his deputies would have cited procedures and advised the CM and the PM that Anderson cannot be released “because of the system”.  

Realistically speaking, the India of 1984 was very different and backward and what was also missing was the shrill television journalism of today which would have made life hell for Anderson, Arjun Singh and Rajiv Gandhi.

Arresting celebrities for misdemeanours such as traffic violations — leave aside graver crimes — is a common occurrence in the US because even the lowest police official there takes pride in his work.

In that sense, a janitor (disparagingly called a  jamadar), who self-admires a toilet block that he’s cleaned to perfection, has done more for the country than all the high-caste IAS bureaucrats and others who plead helplessness in bringing change in their spheres of influence.

A girlfriend who recently returned from China says that when offered a tip, the courteous cabbie there indicated that all he had done was his duty and the tip was unnecessary. My worst sight of “extracting” tips was at the Sahar International Airport’s rest room, two decades ago, where attendants had removed toilet paper rolls and were handing them to foreigners for a tip of one dollar.

In Bangkok, a pleasant hotel employee was seen removing bags one after the other from the tourist bus, unmindful of the torrential rains. He had his job to be done and there was no time to wait for the rains to subside.

Each monsoon, the same spots and the same arteries in our metros get water-logged. It’s the same blame game of why the storm water drains were not cleaned.  There are obviously isolated examples in all our cities, of people who inspire us by going out of their way to make a difference.

Fixing our system needs to be given paramount importance, because that’s what’s holding India back. The policies are fine but they don’t work because a spirit of service and a sense of national pride which ought to shine in every Indian are missing.