When Europeans came to India they built schools (there were zero schools in Gujarat before Mountstuart Elphinstone built the first 10 in the 1820s). When Indians go to Europe we build more temples. Patels alone have built 12 Swaminarayan temples in Britain.
Unfortunately, the European is tolerant and the Indian quite shameless, though it’s true also that he’s unaware of what he’s doing. He’s practicing his magic in a culture where it isn’t needed. He doesn’t need God’s favors in a society that isn’t corrupt, that is moral, that is equal. All he needs is hard work, which he’s quite capable of giving. - Aakar Patel
Global political watchdog Transparency International ranks India 87th in the world in terms of corruption, giving Indians the dubious distinction of being among the most corrupt people in the world.
It’s true; we deserve the verdict.
We live in a society where almost everyone and everything is corrupt, from the rat race we run to meet our basic needs - food, shelter, and clothing - to how we aspire to what is higher in politics, education, and even religion.
Religion is probably where it all starts. India is home to all the great religions, but none of them have transformed this country of more than one billion people.
In India religion is a pageant, often a prayer, but rarely a principle.
In our superstitious, caste ridden, money-obsessed culture, the most vulnerable - the poor, women, children, the handicapped - barely survive.
We may be the world’s largest parliamentary democracy, but we have been enslaved in a vicious system, where the powerful systematically loot the country and give lesser Indians the boot.
But that may be changing.
In reaction to unprecedented financial scams on a hitherto unseen scale, a nationwide anti-corruption movement, led by controversial Gandhian crusader Anna Hazare, has taken India by storm and is being hailed as its second freedom movement.
What is happening in India today is a mostly urban frenzy that appears to be peaceful for now, but an enraged citizenry is attempting to bring an elected government to its knees because it is fed up with being ruthlessly exploited.
America and the world’s other democracies should pay close attention to India’s convulsions.
Corruption is suddenly the big story on India’s TV news channels, but Indians know that it is an everyday affair. They can’t stop corruption, because bribe-giving and taking is embedded in the system and in their lives. The "Jan Lokpal" demand for an omniscient, super ombudsman cannot really tackle the evil of dishonesty.
Bribe-takers and givers are not just top bureaucrats and businessmen. They are us: ordinary, corrupt Indians from every level of society.
Nonetheless, the dissent is becoming more strident. It’s obvious that India’s have-nots and its 250 million middle class don’t care if the government falls over their demand for the Jan Lokpal bill. The protest may not play out peacefully as the Congress-led UPA regime considers its options.
Indians have rallied together time and again, but they've just as easily forgotten a Gandhi who was assassinated in 1948 because of a rabid ideology that can still sweep the country; a JP Narayan and his "Total Revolution," who in 1975, without television coverage, attracted hundreds of thousands to his anti-Emergency fight against a power-hungry Indira Gandhi, who suspended India’s democracy for two years; and now a 73-year-old Anna Hazare, who may have let loose demons the country cannot restrain.
The Congress could have championed this issue, which has galvanized the nation. Instead it has shown incredible folly in managing the protests. Dubbed a dilly-dallying puppet under Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh contends Hazare’s uncompromising demand for a powerful anti-corruption watchdog “is totally misconceived and fraught with grave consequences for our parliamentary democracy."
Singh forgets his Congress Party was in power when the Lokpal bill was first blocked in Parliament as far back as 1968, and the bill was revised and re-introduced in 1971, 1977, 1985, 1989, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2005 and in 2008.
India’s venal politicians successfully stalled the bill for four decades, hence the explosion of public anger today, clearly the biggest upheaval in a country oppressed and subjugated in a democracy subverted by its own leadership.
Remarkably few voices have addressed the moral and spiritual issues that might explain why Indians are so easily enslaved by their politicians, and why the evils of greed, hate and caste continue to keep Indians in bondage.
Columnist Aakar Patel wrote in the Wall Street Journal site, www.livemint.com: “No race can be congenitally corrupt. But can a race be corrupted by its culture? To know why Indians are corrupt let’s look elsewhere. What patterns and practices distinguish us?
“First: Religion is transactional in India.
“We give God cash and anticipate an out-of-turn reward. Our plea acknowledges we aren’t really deserving. The cash compensates for our lack of merit. In the world outside the temple walls, such a transaction has a name: “bribe.”
According to Patel, Indians think, “God accepts cash from us, not good work, for which there is no reward. Why does the wealthy Indian give not cash to temples, but gold crowns and such baubles?
“To ensure his gift isn’t squandered on feeding the poor. Our pay-off is for God. It’s wasted if it goes to man. ...
“In June 2009, The Hindu published a report of Karnataka politician G. Janardhan Reddy gifting a crown of gold and diamonds worth nearly US $10 million to the Tirupati temple” (possibly India’s most revered Hindu shrine).
“Tirupati got 3,200 kilos of silver and 2.4 kg of diamonds in just one year. The temple encourages such giving ... Those who gift a kilo of gold, worth over US $45,000, get a “VIP darshan” (which means cutting the queue) to see the idol.
“In 2007, Vellore’s Sripuram temple was built with 1,500kg of gold. By weight alone it is worth US $70 million."
Patel asks, “When God accepts money in return for his favours, what is wrong with my doing the same thing? Nothing. This is why Indians are so easily corruptible. Our culture accommodates such transactions morally. This is key. There is no real stigma. The demonstrably corrupt Indian leader can harbour hope of a comeback, unthinkable in the West.”
Patel only highlights aberrations in Hinduism, but evidence at other prominent shrines like Our Lady of Vailankanni and Khwaja Syed Muhammad Moinuddin Chishti reveal how India’s peculiar culture of religious bribery has infected other religions.
Religion East or West is not that different. Christianity has produced as much havoc in society as any other religion has in its sphere of influence.
Harvard historian Niall Ferguson's book, Civilization, quotes a scholar from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences who revealed, “We were asked to look into what accounted for … the success, in fact, the pre-eminence of the West all over the world. We studied everything we could from the historical, political, economic, and cultural perspective. At first we thought it was because you had more powerful guns than we had. Then we thought it was because you had the best political system. Next we focused on your economic system. But in the past 20 years we have realized that the heart of your culture is your religion. Christianity.”
They are wrong. It is the principles of Christ alone, not a religion called Christianity, the consequences of which the West is currently reaping.
Fifty years ago Chairman Mao declared China a religion-free zone. There are now more than 100 million Chinese Christians, exceeding Communist Party members.
The idols of wealth and power the West worshipped for so long are tumbling. It’s time India figured out why.
By Frank Raj
The Washington Times Communities
Note: Frank Raj is based in the Middle East where he has lived for over three decades. He is the founding editor and publisher of ‘The International Indian’, the oldest magazine of Gulf-Indian society and history since 1992. Frank is listed in Arabian Business magazine’s 100 most influential Indians in the Gulf and is co-author of the upcoming publication ‘Universal Book of the Scriptures,’ and author of ‘Desh Aur Diaspora.’ He blogs at www.no2christianity.wordpress.com
Unfortunately, the European is tolerant and the Indian quite shameless, though it’s true also that he’s unaware of what he’s doing. He’s practicing his magic in a culture where it isn’t needed. He doesn’t need God’s favors in a society that isn’t corrupt, that is moral, that is equal. All he needs is hard work, which he’s quite capable of giving. - Aakar Patel
Global political watchdog Transparency International ranks India 87th in the world in terms of corruption, giving Indians the dubious distinction of being among the most corrupt people in the world.
It’s true; we deserve the verdict.
We live in a society where almost everyone and everything is corrupt, from the rat race we run to meet our basic needs - food, shelter, and clothing - to how we aspire to what is higher in politics, education, and even religion.
Religion is probably where it all starts. India is home to all the great religions, but none of them have transformed this country of more than one billion people.
In India religion is a pageant, often a prayer, but rarely a principle.
In our superstitious, caste ridden, money-obsessed culture, the most vulnerable - the poor, women, children, the handicapped - barely survive.
We may be the world’s largest parliamentary democracy, but we have been enslaved in a vicious system, where the powerful systematically loot the country and give lesser Indians the boot.
But that may be changing.
In reaction to unprecedented financial scams on a hitherto unseen scale, a nationwide anti-corruption movement, led by controversial Gandhian crusader Anna Hazare, has taken India by storm and is being hailed as its second freedom movement.
What is happening in India today is a mostly urban frenzy that appears to be peaceful for now, but an enraged citizenry is attempting to bring an elected government to its knees because it is fed up with being ruthlessly exploited.
America and the world’s other democracies should pay close attention to India’s convulsions.
Corruption is suddenly the big story on India’s TV news channels, but Indians know that it is an everyday affair. They can’t stop corruption, because bribe-giving and taking is embedded in the system and in their lives. The "Jan Lokpal" demand for an omniscient, super ombudsman cannot really tackle the evil of dishonesty.
Bribe-takers and givers are not just top bureaucrats and businessmen. They are us: ordinary, corrupt Indians from every level of society.
Nonetheless, the dissent is becoming more strident. It’s obvious that India’s have-nots and its 250 million middle class don’t care if the government falls over their demand for the Jan Lokpal bill. The protest may not play out peacefully as the Congress-led UPA regime considers its options.
Indians have rallied together time and again, but they've just as easily forgotten a Gandhi who was assassinated in 1948 because of a rabid ideology that can still sweep the country; a JP Narayan and his "Total Revolution," who in 1975, without television coverage, attracted hundreds of thousands to his anti-Emergency fight against a power-hungry Indira Gandhi, who suspended India’s democracy for two years; and now a 73-year-old Anna Hazare, who may have let loose demons the country cannot restrain.
The Congress could have championed this issue, which has galvanized the nation. Instead it has shown incredible folly in managing the protests. Dubbed a dilly-dallying puppet under Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh contends Hazare’s uncompromising demand for a powerful anti-corruption watchdog “is totally misconceived and fraught with grave consequences for our parliamentary democracy."
Singh forgets his Congress Party was in power when the Lokpal bill was first blocked in Parliament as far back as 1968, and the bill was revised and re-introduced in 1971, 1977, 1985, 1989, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2005 and in 2008.
India’s venal politicians successfully stalled the bill for four decades, hence the explosion of public anger today, clearly the biggest upheaval in a country oppressed and subjugated in a democracy subverted by its own leadership.
Remarkably few voices have addressed the moral and spiritual issues that might explain why Indians are so easily enslaved by their politicians, and why the evils of greed, hate and caste continue to keep Indians in bondage.
Columnist Aakar Patel wrote in the Wall Street Journal site, www.livemint.com: “No race can be congenitally corrupt. But can a race be corrupted by its culture? To know why Indians are corrupt let’s look elsewhere. What patterns and practices distinguish us?
“First: Religion is transactional in India.
“We give God cash and anticipate an out-of-turn reward. Our plea acknowledges we aren’t really deserving. The cash compensates for our lack of merit. In the world outside the temple walls, such a transaction has a name: “bribe.”
According to Patel, Indians think, “God accepts cash from us, not good work, for which there is no reward. Why does the wealthy Indian give not cash to temples, but gold crowns and such baubles?
“To ensure his gift isn’t squandered on feeding the poor. Our pay-off is for God. It’s wasted if it goes to man. ...
“In June 2009, The Hindu published a report of Karnataka politician G. Janardhan Reddy gifting a crown of gold and diamonds worth nearly US $10 million to the Tirupati temple” (possibly India’s most revered Hindu shrine).
“Tirupati got 3,200 kilos of silver and 2.4 kg of diamonds in just one year. The temple encourages such giving ... Those who gift a kilo of gold, worth over US $45,000, get a “VIP darshan” (which means cutting the queue) to see the idol.
“In 2007, Vellore’s Sripuram temple was built with 1,500kg of gold. By weight alone it is worth US $70 million."
Patel asks, “When God accepts money in return for his favours, what is wrong with my doing the same thing? Nothing. This is why Indians are so easily corruptible. Our culture accommodates such transactions morally. This is key. There is no real stigma. The demonstrably corrupt Indian leader can harbour hope of a comeback, unthinkable in the West.”
Patel only highlights aberrations in Hinduism, but evidence at other prominent shrines like Our Lady of Vailankanni and Khwaja Syed Muhammad Moinuddin Chishti reveal how India’s peculiar culture of religious bribery has infected other religions.
Religion East or West is not that different. Christianity has produced as much havoc in society as any other religion has in its sphere of influence.
Harvard historian Niall Ferguson's book, Civilization, quotes a scholar from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences who revealed, “We were asked to look into what accounted for … the success, in fact, the pre-eminence of the West all over the world. We studied everything we could from the historical, political, economic, and cultural perspective. At first we thought it was because you had more powerful guns than we had. Then we thought it was because you had the best political system. Next we focused on your economic system. But in the past 20 years we have realized that the heart of your culture is your religion. Christianity.”
They are wrong. It is the principles of Christ alone, not a religion called Christianity, the consequences of which the West is currently reaping.
Fifty years ago Chairman Mao declared China a religion-free zone. There are now more than 100 million Chinese Christians, exceeding Communist Party members.
The idols of wealth and power the West worshipped for so long are tumbling. It’s time India figured out why.
By Frank Raj
The Washington Times Communities
Note: Frank Raj is based in the Middle East where he has lived for over three decades. He is the founding editor and publisher of ‘The International Indian’, the oldest magazine of Gulf-Indian society and history since 1992. Frank is listed in Arabian Business magazine’s 100 most influential Indians in the Gulf and is co-author of the upcoming publication ‘Universal Book of the Scriptures,’ and author of ‘Desh Aur Diaspora.’ He blogs at www.no2christianity.wordpress.com
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