This review is not written by me , but an excerpt of speech by N. R. Narayana Murthy at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management .An interesting opinion , must and should be read by every Indian.
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It’s high time we became more professional, and respected society.
Narayana Murthy
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I decided to speak on an important topic on which I have pondered for years
- the role of Western values in contemporary Indian society. Coming from a
company that is built on strong values, the topic is close to my heart.
Moreover, an organization is representative of society, and some of the
lessons that I have learnt are applicable in the national context. In fact,
values drive progress and define quality of life in society.
As an Indian, I am proud to be part of a culture, which has deep-! rooted
family values. We have tremendous loyalty to the family. For instance,
parents make enormous sacrifices for their children. They support them until
they can stand on their own feet. On the other side, children consider it
their duty to take care of aged parents. We believe: Mathru devo bhava -
mother is God, and Pithru devo bhava - father is God.
Further, brothers and sisters sacrifice for each other. In fact, the eldest
brother or sister is respected by all the other siblings. As for marriage,
it is held to be a sacred union - husband and wife are bonded, most often,
for life. In joint families, the entire family works towards the welfare of
the family. There is so much love and affection in our family life. This is
the essence of Indian values and one of our key strengths. Our families act
as a critical support mechanism for us. In fact, the credit to the success
of Infosys goes, as much to the founders as to their fa! milies, for
supporting them through the tough times.
Unfortunately, our attitude towards family life is not reflected in our
attitude towards community behavior. From littering the streets to
corruption to breaking of contractual obligations, we are apathetic to the
common good. In the West - the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand -
individuals understand that they have to be responsible towards their
community.
The primary difference between the West and us is that, there, people have a
much better societal orientation. They care more for the society than we do.
Further, they generally sacrifice more for the society than us. Quality of
life is enhanced because of this. This is where we need to learn from the
West.
I will talk about some of the lessons that we, Indians, can learn from the
West.
Respect for the public good
In the West, there is respect for the public good. For instance, parks ! free
of litter, clean streets, public toilets free of graffiti - all these are
instances of care for the public good. On the contrary, in India, we keep
our houses clean and water our gardens everyday - but, when we go to a park,
we do not think twice before littering the place.
Corruption, as we see in India, is another example of putting the interest
of oneself, and at best that of one’s family, above that of the society.
Society is relatively corruption free in the West. For instance, it is very
difficult to bribe a police officer into avoiding a speeding ticket. This is
because of the individual’s responsible behavior towards the community as a
whole. On the contrary, in India, corruption, tax evasion, cheating and
bribery have eaten into our vitals. For instance, contractors bribe
officials, and construct low-quality roads and bridges. The result is that
society loses in the form of substandard defence equipment and
infrastructure, and low-quality recruitment, just to name a few impediments.
Unfortunately, this behavior is condoned by almost everyone.
Apathy in solving community matters has held us back from making progress,
which is otherwise within our reach. We see serious problems around us but
do not try to solve them. We behave as if the problems do not exist or is
somebody else’s. On the other hand, in the West, people solve societal
problems proactively. There are several examples of our apathetic attitude.
For instance, all of us are aware of the problem of drought in India. More
than 40 years ago, Dr. K. L. Rao - an irrigation expert, suggested creation
of a water grid connecting all the rivers in North and South India, to solve
this problem. Unfortunately, nothing has been done about this. The story of
power shortage in Bangalore is another instance. In 1983, it was decided to
build a thermal power plant to meet Bangalore’s power requirements.
Unfortunately, we have still not started it. Further, the Milan subway in
Bombay is in a deplorable state for the last 40 years, and no action has
been taken. To quote another example, considering the constant travel
required in the software industry; five years ago, I had suggested a
240-page passport. This would eliminate frequent visits to the passport
office. In fact, we are ready to pay for it. However, I am yet to hear from
the Ministry of External Affairs on this. We, Indians, would do well to
remember Thomas Hunter’s words: Idleness travels very slowly, and poverty
soon overtakes it.
What could be the reason for all this? We were ruled by foreigners for over
thousand years. Thus, we have always believed that public issues belonged to
some foreign ruler and that we have no role in solving them. Moreover, we
have lost the will to proactively solve our own problems. Thus, we have got!
used to just executing someone else’s orders. Borrowing Aristotle’s words:
We are what we repeatedly do. Thus, having done this over the years, the
decision- makers in our society are not trained for solving problems. Our
decision-makers look to somebody else to take decisions.
Unfortunately, there is nobody to look up to, and this is the tragedy.
Acknowledging the accomplishment of others Our intellectual arrogance has
also not helped our society. I have traveled extensively, and in my
experience, have not come across another society where people are as
contemptuous of better societies as we are, with as little progress as we
have achieved.
Remember that arrogance breeds hypocrisy. No other society gloats so much
about the past as we do, with as little current accomplishment. Friends,
this is not a new phenomenon, but at least a thousand years old. For
instance, Al Barouni, the famous Arabic logician and trave! ler of the 10th
century, who spent about 30 years in India from 997 AD to around 1027 AD,
referred to this trait of Indians.
According to him, during his visit, most Indian pundits considered it below
their dignity even to hold arguments with him. In fact, on a few occasions
when a pundit was willing to listen to him, and found his arguments to be
very sound, he invariably asked Barouni: which Indian pundit taught these
smart things!