Sometimes west is Best, at least better
Some lessons
from elsewhere: for starters, extend your family values beyond
the boundaries
of your home N R Narayana Murthy
As is said in the Vedas: Man
can live individually, but can survive only
collectively. Hence, our
challenge is to form a progressive community by
balancing the interests of
the individual and that of the society. To meet
this we need to develop a
value system where people accept modest
sacrifices for the common
good. A value system is the protocol for behavior
that enhances the trust,
confidence and commitment of members of the
community. It goes beyond
the domain of legality-it is about decent and
desirable behavior. Further,
it includes putting the community interests
ahead of your own.
There are two pillars of the
cultural value system: loyalty to family and
loyalty to community. One
should not be in isolation to the other, because,
successful societies are
those which combine both harmoniously.
As an Indian, I am proud to
be part of a culture which has deep-rooted
family values. This is the
essence of Indian values and one of our key
strengths. Our families act
as a critical support mechanism for us.
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 towards
the common good. The primary
difference between the West and us is that,
there, people have a much
better societal orientation. In the West-the US,
Canada, Europe, Australia,
New Zealand-individuals understand that they have
to be responsible towards
their community. 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. Consider 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.
Attitude to corruption: In
India, corruption, tax evasion, cheating and
bribery have eaten into our
vitals. 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.
Public apathy: 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 are
somebody else's. On the other hand, in the
West, people solve societal
problems proactively.
There are several examples
of our apathetic attitude. (i) 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 (ii) 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. (iii) The Milan subway in Bombay is in a
deplorable state for the
past 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 this? We were ruled by
foreigners for over a thousand years. Thus, we
have always believed that
public issues belonged to some foreign ruler and
that we have no role in
solving them. We have lost the will to proactively
solve our own problems and
got used to executing someone else's orders. Our
decision-makers look to
somebody else to take decisions. Unfortunately,
there is nobody to look up
to, and this is the tragedy.
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. No other society gloats so much about
the past as we do, with as
little current accomplishment. This is not a new
phenomenon, but at least a
thousand years old. For instance, Al Barouni, the
famous Arabic logician and traveller 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!
At the same time, everyday,
in the newspapers, you will find numerous claims
from our leaders that ours
is the greatest nation. These people would do
well to remember Thomas
Carlyle's words: ''The greatest of faults is to be
conscious of none.''
If we have to progress, we
have to listen to people who have performed
better than us, learn from
them and perform better than them. We continue to
rationalize our failures. No
other society has mastered this art as well as
we have. Obviously, this is
an excuse to justify our incompetence,
corruption, and apathy.
Another interesting
attribute, which we Indians can learn from the West, is
their accountability.
Irrespective of your position, in the West, you are
held accountable for what
you do. However, in India, the more 'important'
you are, the less answerable
you are. For instance, a senior politician once
declared that he 'forget' to
file his tax returns for 10 consecutive years-
and he got away with it.
There are over 100 loss-making public sector units
in India. Nevertheless, I
have not seen action taken for bad performance
against top managers in
these organisations. In the West, each person is
proud about his or her labour that raises honest sweat. On the other hand,
in India, we tend to
overlook the significance of those who are not in
professional jobs.
We have a mindset that
reveres only supposedly intellectual work. For
instance, I have seen many
engineers, fresh from college, who only want to
do cutting-edge work and not
work that is of relevance to business and the
country. Yet another lesson
to be learnt from the West, is their
professionalism in dealings.
The common good being more important than
personal equations, people
do not let personal relations interfere with
their professional dealings.
They don't hesitate to chastise a colleague,
even if he is a personal
friend, or family for incompetent work. In India,
we tend to view even work
interactions from a personal perspective. We are
the most 'thin-skinned'
society in the world-we see insults where none is
meant.
In India, we consider our
marriage vows as sacred. We are willing to
sacrifice in order to
respect our marriage vows. However, we do not extend
this to the public domain.
For instance, India had an unfavourable
contract
with Enron. Instead of
punishing the people responsible for negotiating
this, we reneged on the
contract-this was much before we came to know about
the illegal activities at
Enron.
To quote another instance, I
had given recommendations to several students
for the national scholarship
for higher studies in US universities. Most of
them did not return to India
even though contractually they were obliged to
spend five years after their
degree in India. In fact, according to a
professor at a reputed US
university, the maximum default rate for student
loans is among Indians-all
of these students pass out in flying colours and
land lucrative jobs, yet
they refuse to pay back their loans. Thus, their
action has made it difficult
for the students after them, from India, to
obtain loans.
Further, we Indians do not
display intellectual honesty. For example, our
political leaders use mobile
phones to tell journalists on the other side
that they do not believe in
technology! To borrow Gandhi's words: There is
enough in this world for
everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's
greed.
Let us work towards a
society where we would do unto others what we would
have others do unto us. Let
us all be responsible citizens who make our
country a great place to
live. We have to extend our family values beyond
the boundaries of our home.
Let us work towards maximum welfare of the
maximum people-''Samasta
janaanaam sukhino bhavantu''.
(Excerpts from
a lecture delivered at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of
Management in
New Delhi on October 1, 2002)
Narayana Murthy is the Head of Infosys, a top software company based in Bangalore