Arrogance and Resentment

I was getting into the lift this afternoon in the office and motioned to someone already inside to move further in as there was sufficient space to allow more people to come in. He glared at me.

Tell the poor driver who blocks the road to stay on the left side. Ask the person who wrongly walks on the road at his own peril to instead use the pavement. Invite someone to honour the queue like you do. Insist that someone who throws waste on the road puts it instead in the dustbin.

Most civilized people would be first embarrassed, knowing they were caught out doing something wrong. Then they would likely comply.

In India, you would be abused for trying to educate. There is an arrogance that is breath taking. The sense is of superiority, of being better than others. The caste and class system means one cannot be told of being wrong. The sense of false pride requires that one cannot be pulled up in public, no matter that one's actions are not worthy of pride. There is no absolute benchmark in our culture, it is relative to the surroundings. So the educated Indian is a boor in Bangalore, and a Roman in Rome. Indians are ashamed of being out of place in the 'developed' West and will largely conform to some basic disciplines. That is however too much to expect back home in India. Here we are too busy, too tired. The government has not provided toilets. The city council has not placed enough dust bins. The public works department has created terrible roads. The person in front of me drives badly.

The sense of not doing wrong oneself, but believing that everyone else does. The sense that others must be responsible and oneself is blameless and is doing all one can.

This arrogance combines quite nicely with a sense of resentment. There is an ill will towards one's perceived betters. The class system also has institutionalized a constant and nagging negative envy. The story of the Indian crabs in a bucket refusing to allow the best crab to climb out and escape, pulling him down every time is a good metaphor for the situation. Our political class has espoused socialism as a way of tapping popular anger at one's own poverty. The zamindar is a good target. The landlord always has obtained his wealth on the backs of the poor laborer. The rich have got there apparently at the expense of the poor in movies and political speeches.

In a road accident, the larger vehicle is to blame. The pedestrian hit by a cyclist while crossing the road without looking, the cyclist swerving into the path of a motorcycle, the bike rider who attempts to squeeze at high speed between two cars. In every case, there is no attempt to understand cause. The mob sides with the underdog. The under class will never want to learn from the perceived upper class. The messenger significantly altering the meaning of the message.

The arrogance and resentment that permeates India means that we will never become better where we should. We will not become civilized. Yes, many will become rich. More will become prosperous - the much touted middle class. We will harvest the demographic divide. The hopeful even argue that with an improving economic future, we will become gentler. What of our culture, our civilization. Brash. Loud. Bling. In your face. Big, bigger.

I despair. The mark of a civilization is an awareness and education of right and wrong. Compliance to this is an individual evolution but a mark of a developed society is to extract a collective larger social will on its inhabitants. I see neither in our immediate future.