Are we Rich and Stupid?

No don’t take out your stilettos, guns or barbs. I am not the one saying so. I intend to be the one who will discuss the insinuation with you and we will reach a cool headed logical inference.

Do you mind if I respond to this first? Come along and let us see how it develops.

Rich is a person who has more that her/his needs and some moolah to spare.

Stupid is a person who always makes bad choices and fritters away whatever she/he has.

we in India qualify as both?

Are we Rich?

India has a surfeit of resources. There are so many jokes about someone from another country asking the almighty about his munificence for India, while many others are starved of natural resources. (We will leave out the second part of the joke where God says “don’t worry I will compensate……..)

So let us take a stock of the situation. India has,

1. Natural resources in abundance
2. Rich ecological diversity
3. Abundant water resources (pure too, before we started polluting each one)
4. Awesome weather pattern, both from viewpoint of agriculture and also for human life-experience, till we denuded all forests and started other forms of ecological hara-kiri in gay abandon.
5. Sunlight, divine rivers (for hydro power, irrigation, fish and other river produce) till we have silted away each of these.
6. Exceptional people, till we devised the effective instrument of ‘divide and rule’ and made them exchange some human attributes with some belonging to animal kingdom (referring to ‘dog eat dog’, instant gratification without worrying about Maslow’s upper hierarchy of needs etc)
7. Land of Riches. Indians were a quarter of the world’s monetary assets in the year 1600. ‘Sone ki Chidiya’ was the description of India those days. It was looted by outsiders till it was left with 2% of the world’s riches. It is growing again to its former glory, but this time, the danger is being looted by insiders.

A very clear inference is that India is indeed rich, despite the plunder and loot by humans, invaders or natives alike.

Are we Stupid:

Well, a country cannot be stupid, but its inhabitants can be. So the issue to be examined is, Are Indians stupid (With deference to a lot of sons of soil who are torch bearers for humanity, we examine whether Indians as a group are intelligent or stupid. The scientific purists would call it examining the ‘stochastic behavior’ of Indians).

1. Though we as a society are weaned on ‘peace and kindness’ philosophy, we conduct ourselves in exactly the opposite manner. We are in general discourteous (downright obnoxious if you hold a position of power), we practice one-upmanship, and disregard others rights and conveniences scrupulously. We have no awareness that this results in lowering the quality of life for everybody.

2. We have a great appetite for ‘instant gratification’. We prefer ‘short term’ to ‘long term’. There are no takers for becoming ‘better’ or ‘respected’. There is a mad race for becoming ‘richer’. The scramble has spawned ‘Yen, Ken Prakenen’ (by hook or by crook) mindset, and has vitiated the character of many a generations. ‘To be there’, or ‘To have arrived’ has become the sole aim many a bright minds. Their acumen and brilliance is employed not in making great waves, but to make big money. So we have every kind of corruption (moral, monetary) and a whole plethora of institutions to contain it (though CBI, IT and others are themselves becoming the carriers of the disease). In the long term, it is the snake eating its own tail. Are we intelligent if we are subverting our own future and that of our children?

3. We don’t mean what we say even in political context. And it applies equally to elected and the electorate. The leaders will promise 20 Kms road built everyday and after five years have nothing to show for it. The electorate will bitterly complain for lack of infrastructure, education, jobs and security…and then go and vote for the sorriest candidate because he is of a particular caste or son of someone or sometimes because he is as backward as they are. How can a country which considers itself a cradle of human civilization (and recently a knowledge power) foist upon itself such a sorry bunch as their reps election after election?

4. We have to be stupid to have monumental patience. Americans even recall their inefficient leaders. We reelect them. We accept exploitation by government servants, village thugs, even bus conductors. We do not even appreciate the ones who stand up for citizens rights. We let thugs molest women, beat unarmed citizens and loot public property and we keep standing there watching the fun, till it is our own turn. ‘Menu Ki’ till you are victimized and then shout hoarse about nobody supporting you. Can you be wise if you are ready to be exploited and still want to worship the exploiters?

Phew….. Doesn’t speak too well of us Indians. We indeed are hurtling down the path of being looted like earlier centuries. It is no consolation that perpetrators are of our own ilk.

Pretty rich but stupid, aren’t we?

1. We need to build our national character.

2. We need to weed out corruption

3. We need to elect good leaders

4. We need to recreate ethos of mutual respect and consideration as enshrined in our culture and religion.

If we don’t get rid of our stupidities and elevate ourselves to the ethos of a good society soon enough, we will indeed deserve to be labeled ‘Rich and stupid’.