What is our national ethos?

I was recently a guest speaker at an esteemed management school in Switzerland and the topic was on ‘Values in Leadership'. It afforded me the opportunity to interact during the question and comments session with an astounding array of young minds, from across Europe.

A painful mix of hope and anguish came through from their questions and comments about India.

One question that bowled me over was: “In this era of globalisation, is there a national ethos and what are the binding ingredients of a common value system in Indian society?” The question was answered and the students returned satisfied. But I was still not satisfied, and it set me thinking.

And my conclusion was that in the case of our national values and ethos, it is like one giant truck, falling off a cliff, in reverse gear. Like culture, social values are supposed to be dynamic but the disintegration of our society must be attributed, in part, to the swiftness with which we seem to have dumped our eternal values. Have we become a norm-less, dysfunctional society? Have our social values become relics? Let's take a look at the fault lines of our nation.

Value-Based Education

My first point relates to ‘education'. In ancient India, education did not aim to indoctrinate individuals by telling them which value is right and which is wrong. Instead, it attempted to empower individuals to identify conflicts of interest and provided them with the skills necessary to address ethical dilemmas that fall into the grey area between right and wrong. We need to re-define our education system to aid in this self-fulfilment, and not in the acquisition of mere objective knowledge and fake degrees, as at present.

The second component that needs attention is the right mind-set. Having lived in Europe for several years and closely observing the behaviour of people, it is evident that the majority of them are strict in obeying certain basic life principles of ethics, integrity, responsibility, respect for the laws and rules of their country. They strongly believe in respect for rights of fellow human beings, economics balanced by work ethics, time-sense and punctuality.

Today, the Indian dream seems to be the pursuit of quick colossal wealth, without fret or sweat. A society in which everyone lies to everyone else.

A society which seems to have lost the sense of shame. Incidentally, it is not only the bald-headed leaders who manifest this characteristic, but even the ordinary members of society. There is a Chinese proverb that says “when a fish starts to rot, it starts from the head'. This is the third element in the nation's fault line. What can one expect from a leadership that is politically and morally rotten?

Leadership

The truth is that these leaders are men and women who hardly possess the cognitive abilities or values anchored in right thoughts of what is needed to run our nation of 1.1 billion people. Instead, we find in our political and bureaucratic space the cream of the crop that has established a world record in scrounging from the public coffers.

The irrefutable fact is that it is a delicate mix of impeccable character, sacrifice and outstanding ability that are the core ingredients the political and bureaucratic leadership need.Inversely, those three ingredients have been on the decline over the 63 years of our self-governance.

We need to take the nation out of the deep rot. For this, what is needed is a tipping point, set off by collective vision, and brutal strength of character of our public leadership, at all levels of governance.

The last element of the fault line is ‘people'. We cannot blame the government alone for lack of progress in the society, but rather should blame ourselves. It is a fact that we live in an unruly society in which no one cares about the welfare and happiness of others.

Take a look at the way our traffic moves. See the way we dispose of our garbage.

No society is inert, so we face either of two scenarios: we either strive to change our society to become better than it is today or, we adopt a mujhe parvah nahi (I don't care) attitude and wait for the next man to do something about it. Change has to start from us. Not from the government.

Independence Day

As August 15 approaches, Indians prepare to celebrate the 64th Independence Day. When the tri-colour was unfurled on August 15, 1947, the country's first Prime Minister delivered the historic “Tryst with destiny” speech. That great Indian Dream is yet to be articulated.

It is time for us, as a nation, to introspect. What were those eternal virtues that held our society together? What social values were exquisite and admired in our society? To what extent are they still cherished and respected? And, as Mahatma Gandhi said: “Be the change you want to see”.

(The author is former Europe Director, CII . >blfeedback@thehindu.co.in ).

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