Advantage China
Jug Suraiya
08 October 2013, 10:01 PM IST
It was an everyday morning in the housing colony and the sabziwalla was doing his rounds. A housewife selected a sizeable quantity of vegetables from him, and, without asking him what she owed him, handed over 20, which was clearly inadequate payment for her purchases. The sabziwalla accepted this token payment without protest.
The housewife's tenant a young man from China came out and also bought some vegetables, paying the right price for them. The housewife ordered the vendor to return the money and said to her tenant: "Just give him 10 or 20 rupees. I am the wife of a managing committee member and he dare not charge me the full price, or he'll be banned from coming into the colony. As my tenant, you have the same privilege." The tenant waited till landlady had gone into the house, then he paid the vegetable seller the full amount.
That small incident might help partly to explain a very big question: Why is it that China is so far ahead of India in almost all fields? The most commonly cited reason for China's lead over India is that China as a totalitarian state is made to march forward to the same drumbeat or face the consequences, whereas India enjoys a chalta-hai democracy, in which for every one step forward we take, we seem to go three steps sideways. Dictatorships tend to be, at least outwardly, single-minded and more disciplined; democracies, being diverse, are often divided as to their goals.
Fair enough. But there could be another, equally fundamental reason why India remains so far behind China. And that reason illustrated by the anecdote about the wife of the managing committee member taking it as her right to shortchange the sabziwalla is entrenched and everyday corruption.
All of us express outrage at the corruption of our politicians and bureaucrats. But one way or the other, all of us are implicated in either giving or taking graft, of one form or another. Bribery and corruption have become the lubricants of the wheels and deals of everyday living, from awarding a government contract, buying defence equipment to protect the country, selecting a sports team to represent the nation, or buying one's daily vegetables.
Of course, China also has its share of corruption, as shown by the recent much-publicised trial of Bo Xilai, an eminent political figure. But perhaps in China corruption hasn't become a routine reflex, performed almost automatically and without thinking, as it seems to have become in India.
It's like breathing. You don't have to think before you breathe; breathing happens naturally. In India bribery has become a fact of nature like breathing. This common air of corruption that we breathe infects us all, and affects our everyday relationships with others, from the babu we have to bribe to get our work done to the sabziwalla we shortchange through the misuse of authority.
All-pervasive corruption corrodes the unwritten contract, the mutual trust on which society is based. By cheating you today, i ensure that you'll cheat me tomorrow, or whenever you have the chance. In the end everyone loses, because today's cheater is tomorrow's cheated, and vice versa.
Advantage China, disadvantage India.
Advantage China by Juggle-Bandhi : Jug Suraiya's blog-The Times Of India
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This is a blog that I come across recently. Please share your opinion.
Compared with Chinese Chen Guan (城管
, Chen guan are at least under the name for public orders, but this landlady seems purely for self enrichment.
Another question is, why the sabziwalla (what is it? A street peddler?) has to sell here not somewhere else?
Jug Suraiya
08 October 2013, 10:01 PM IST
It was an everyday morning in the housing colony and the sabziwalla was doing his rounds. A housewife selected a sizeable quantity of vegetables from him, and, without asking him what she owed him, handed over 20, which was clearly inadequate payment for her purchases. The sabziwalla accepted this token payment without protest.
The housewife's tenant a young man from China came out and also bought some vegetables, paying the right price for them. The housewife ordered the vendor to return the money and said to her tenant: "Just give him 10 or 20 rupees. I am the wife of a managing committee member and he dare not charge me the full price, or he'll be banned from coming into the colony. As my tenant, you have the same privilege." The tenant waited till landlady had gone into the house, then he paid the vegetable seller the full amount.
That small incident might help partly to explain a very big question: Why is it that China is so far ahead of India in almost all fields? The most commonly cited reason for China's lead over India is that China as a totalitarian state is made to march forward to the same drumbeat or face the consequences, whereas India enjoys a chalta-hai democracy, in which for every one step forward we take, we seem to go three steps sideways. Dictatorships tend to be, at least outwardly, single-minded and more disciplined; democracies, being diverse, are often divided as to their goals.
Fair enough. But there could be another, equally fundamental reason why India remains so far behind China. And that reason illustrated by the anecdote about the wife of the managing committee member taking it as her right to shortchange the sabziwalla is entrenched and everyday corruption.
All of us express outrage at the corruption of our politicians and bureaucrats. But one way or the other, all of us are implicated in either giving or taking graft, of one form or another. Bribery and corruption have become the lubricants of the wheels and deals of everyday living, from awarding a government contract, buying defence equipment to protect the country, selecting a sports team to represent the nation, or buying one's daily vegetables.
Of course, China also has its share of corruption, as shown by the recent much-publicised trial of Bo Xilai, an eminent political figure. But perhaps in China corruption hasn't become a routine reflex, performed almost automatically and without thinking, as it seems to have become in India.
It's like breathing. You don't have to think before you breathe; breathing happens naturally. In India bribery has become a fact of nature like breathing. This common air of corruption that we breathe infects us all, and affects our everyday relationships with others, from the babu we have to bribe to get our work done to the sabziwalla we shortchange through the misuse of authority.
All-pervasive corruption corrodes the unwritten contract, the mutual trust on which society is based. By cheating you today, i ensure that you'll cheat me tomorrow, or whenever you have the chance. In the end everyone loses, because today's cheater is tomorrow's cheated, and vice versa.
Advantage China, disadvantage India.
Advantage China by Juggle-Bandhi : Jug Suraiya's blog-The Times Of India
----------------------------------
This is a blog that I come across recently. Please share your opinion.
Compared with Chinese Chen Guan (城管
, Chen guan are at least under the name for public orders, but this landlady seems purely for self enrichment.Another question is, why the sabziwalla (what is it? A street peddler?) has to sell here not somewhere else?
