Blaming the Sarkar is a Weak Alternative to Self-Reflection

I have found that the average middle-class Indian tends to blame “government” for all the ills of the country and its polity.  While governance structures and institutions in the country are absolutely to blame for many things, the constant invocation of sarkar and sarkari behavior tends to concentrate all discussion on government and in the process exonerate other institutions from all blame.  This is perhaps the single biggest reason that prevents positive change in the country.

Let’s keep many other faulty institutions (rapacious companies, unhygienic healthcare institutions, private hoarders, and the like) aside for a moment and discuss the one that is perhaps most “fixable” by each of us- our collective attitude towards others and towards our environment.

For our attitudes and our personal behaviors, we have no one to fault but ourselves.  And as an outsider to Udaipur (but someone who is very interested in investing in the people of the city), I’d like to offer a few examples of that about which I write:

• In my one visit to celebration mall, I found that people were unbelievable rude and pushy when getting in the elevators.  No less than 3 times, people forcibly bumped me, cut the queue, and did so without even a hint of apology.
• Right outside the IT Park are entire swaths covered with litter.
• In a restaurant considered one of Udaipur’s finest, the bathroom had paan-spit all over the place.

Now, you might think that I am a spoilt NRI with no notion of the real India and a penchant for complaint, but let me ask you, dear UT reader, two questions- 1. Do you enjoy such behavior and such circumstances? 2.  Do you believe that the sarkar has anything to do with these?

My hope is that you’d answer each with an emphatic “NO!”

Which is the point of this small piece- when we discuss innovation, development, modernization, or equality, let’s stop blaming the government all the time.  That’s the easy road.  The tougher road is to take it upon oneself to act like the thing you want to be, to oneself enact the change which one claims one wants to see, to oneself start to innovate in one’s own actions.  Don’t be the bumper, the litterer, or the spitter.

If that is a step you can’t take then please stop moaning about the sarkar.  And please understand that innovation is a mental exercise as well as an investment exercise and if you aren’t willing to perform the mental component, you won’t get any of the benefits of the latter.