Corruption in India

Corruption in India

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, monasteries, pilgrim centers, mosques etc. 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 politician easily 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 only India amongst super developing poor nations. 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. Robert Clive who is considered as the patron conqueror of India for the British 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 Sikh, Jain, Buddha 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.
Oh I am not pessimistic—there are great leaders like Abdul Kalaam, Narayana Murthy, many noteworthy literate citizens having dropped illustrious careers and are doing a lot of rural and poor upliftment activities as seen in the CNN and other media in their own small ways. It is just that these service oriented people won’t waste time in political party activities resulting in people voting for the present political or past opposition leaders . Yes we then continue to boast of being the best democracy in the world. – Yes with the freedom to do all the corrupt practices ( because sitting as mute spectators with even the convicted stalwarts like Kalmadi, Raja etc. who take cover by the fact that until legal cases are fully dispensed with a judgement against them, they are all innocent free Indian citizens.)

That’s why despite the world economy crashing, and the continuing corruption in our nation, our Indian Economy is stable because all that Dr Manmohan Singh or any PM in office needs to do is only to mortgage the wealth of our temples, mosques and churches to attain any international loan to revive or structure our economy. But most importantly thanks to our great patron leader Mahatma Gandhi, whose leadership has seen that we have evolved as the best democratic nation in the world.
Tony Chacko
tonychacko2000@gmail.com
(readers are welcome to send their opinions/ comments to me, as its earnestly hoped that we have an ethical free thinking society)