Corruption!

There is a lot of coverage in the media these days covering Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement in India.  He is currently fasting for 15 days to convince the government to pass anti-corruption legislation to curb the rampant graft that is literally choking this nation.  He is being hailed as Gandhi-like in his approach and the ranks of his supporters are growing every day.  From the outside, one would think that this must be an exciting time to be in India as the population mobilizes against corrupt government officials and politicians.  Well, you would be wrong.  Let me explain. 

Firstly, any news story reported from India is bound to be blown way out of proportion.  The Indians love their drama and the media here can make a four-day media event out of a cow crossing the road – especially if it is a Pakistani cow.  They are not totally at fault, though, as the average India loves to participate in anything that attracts a crowd be it a car accident, a mob beating someone to death or a futile protest.  Moreover, this is the land of 1.5 billion people and a small gathering will see numbers in the thousands.  Even a small protest looks massive on European or American standards.

Secondly, any support this guy garners is coming from the educated class that makes up a small portion of the Indian population.  They are fickle with a small attention span and, in my opinion, are only interested in this protest, because it is against a specific group, the government.  I believe they feel that others should be held accountable, but their participation in corruption, both giving and receiving, is fine and even necessary and they should not be held to the same standard. 

Even if every educated person in India supported this guy, the corrupt politicians simply head out into the villages, provide some food and a TV set and instantly they are elected again.  The TV thing actually happens in the state of Tamil in the south.  In the last election, voters were “rewarded” for voting a certain way with washing machines.  In the election before that, it was TVs.  Which brings me to my final point. 

Corruption is part of the fabric of India and Indians.  While we, in the west, think of things as right and wrong as defined in moral terms, Indians have a more flexible understanding of the concept.  They believe that if the immoral action results in good, then it is OK.  The crux of the matter is that good is defined by the individual rather than a moral imperative and usually revolves around the success of the act rather than the merits of the act itself.  This leads to a great deal of rationalizing and not a great deal of accountability and consequences. 

This is not a modern concept for Indians, though.  If you look at the Hindu epics, such as the Mahabharata, many of the deities are depicted as morally questionable.  Moreover, many of the gods, like Lakshami, are gods devoted to wealth and material prosperity. If the gods are corrupt, what does the society that worships them aspire to? 

In the end, I believe that Anna Hazare is a good man and his cause is noble.  I also believe that a hunger strike against corruption in India is like a telethon in Texas banning beef.  It is futile and someone liable to get hurt!