Ten Percent Nation

India imposes itself on the consciousness, like no other place. On the flight home after every visit, I am left reflecting on things I saw, people I met, what I heard or read about and how much or how little things have changed since my last visit. My most recent trip was easily the most disturbing and depressing by a long margin. It is good to see the economy boom and prosperity flow to the people, I am however getting concerned at the rapid slide towards India becoming a Ten Percent Nation.

I do not mean Ten Percent in the sense of the growth rate India aspires to. Neither to the bribes that increasingly need to be paid to get anything done nor to the incessant clamor to reserve everything for every community and thereby elude the merit trap. Rather a peculiar phenomenon you witness everywhere you look is that of a small minority of people, organizations or systems that are world class amidst a vast ocean mired in abject mediocrity.

Why the contentment with mediocrity? I can think of three drivers: Lack of opportunities starting from education or infrastructure for a significant chunk of the population. Second is force of habit. It is easy to live in India and drop your aspirations for rewards and settle into a cocooned existence of your family’s heritage. Last and increasingly significant is the opportunity to latch on to someone in power, leech like and live off ill-gotten gains. One consequence of this situation is that for every statement about India, the converse point of view can be argued with equal passion.

Take politics. It is progressively becoming a family enterprise and the arguments that got rid of the aristocracy & feudalism have long since been jettisoned. A recent study showed that as many as two thirds of elected representatives under forty and an astonishing 100% of those under thirty owed their success to their family’s political presence. Every politician sees his/her role as holding fort and accumulating wealth for the succeeding generation, almost to a rule. No place for upstarts here. The successors in turn are brought up in an entitlement culture. Not being offered their parent’s seat or ministership is a personal affront that gets them terribly riled. They split parties, organize street protests, and make their disgruntlement known by burning down buses and shutting down whole towns. There is no ideology here except self-perpetuation. Another interesting phenomenon is that Indian politicians defy Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. At no point do they seem to migrate from making money to thinking about their legacy. The expectations are pretty inconsequential. Having a street here or an unexceptional educational institution there named after them and of course a profusion of statues is all they aspire for. Shelley’s admonition is sadly forgotten:

“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away”

A few well-meaning politicos plow a lonely furrow in this morass.

Turn your attention towards business. The Economist recently published an analysis that in the past decade a growing share of business growth has been captured by existing business houses or by entrepreneurs connected to those with political power. Infosys was seen as the last start up with global aspirations that was purely entrepreneurial and was being run as a professional and ethical entity. And when did Infosys get started? That was thirty years ago. So Big Business and crony capitalism are crowding out entrepreneurs. As the economy opens up and new opportunities become available, why are entrepreneurs unable to jump in? Why are they unable to scale? Why do they not have aspirations to global excellence? Here is a typical example. I have arrived at the Mumbai International Airport. After a tiring flight, I and several others like me are not looking forward to the four hour drive to the nearby town of Pune. We have lined up to take a taxi. Over the years I have watched this taxi company’s business prosper from the booming traffic. There have now nearly a hundred taxis plying this route. A nice story of an entrepreneurial venture prospering, you might say. From the team doing the job day in and day out, you would expect the performance of a well-oiled machine. And you would be wrong – by a wide margin. The chaos as drivers and the folks managing the station try to figure out the optimal way to seat the incoming passengers would be appalling if seen in a bunch of newbies. Baggage is loaded and promptly unloaded. Passengers seated and asked to disembark in a comic charade. If there is any system or process that is being followed, I would have great difficulty telling what it is. On the way the driver mentions business is booming. On some days he does two trips to cope with the demand. His boss has just bought a swank German automobile with all the money sloshing around. So what is he planning to do next, I ask. Invest in Real Estate, is the instant response. Real Estate? So no aspirations to growing one’s business into world class operations. I have often been puzzled at the keenness of businessmen to dabble in several sectors. Reality is at heart few are in any business for the passion. Rather they see it as an opportunity to make money. That is as it should be. But making money as the end and not a byproduct of the act of creation means the focus is never on striving to excel in the field you are in.

Education is in a similar state of decay. For all the talk about the excellence of the IIT’s and the IIM’s, fifty years on, there is scarcely an institution that aspires to out IIT the IIT’s or the IIM’s. Hundreds, maybe thousands of Engineering and Management institutions have been started during these years. Is it not an astonishing spectacle that these are mostly run as printing presses giving their students little more than a piece of paper the receiver hopes will be their passport to the good life? And of course as ATM’s throwing out cash for the founders!

I have always wondered why it is so difficult for Indians to aspire for excellence in their fields. Why don’t the performances of the 10% motivate the rest? Why must mediocrity be the norm? In the closed economy of the past, one could argue that awareness or funding was a barrier. But these days every field is global and access to funds is not an issue anymore. If anything there is way more money chasing top talent. Financial rewards in India are disproportionately skewed towards the high performers in every field. For example, a study at Wharton analyzed Indian Cricket and concluded that the top players corner way higher share of the total pool in Cricket than in the NBA or NFL. So the financial incentives are in place. If so, is it the hard work that is required to raise and sustain one’s game the barrier - especially when short cuts are available? Exhortation by poets like Tagore for a land where ‘tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection’ have fallen on conveniently deaf ears.

Actually it does not take a vast majority to lift a nation to greatness. What is needed is that the actions of a few inspire emulation from only a few more. In the answer to this conundrum lies the path for the country to achieve a modicum of its boundless potential.

Alaska Ahoy

“Vegetarian: Another name for a poor hunter”. These words prominently displayed at the entrance welcomed us to our abode one night. It does not take long for the traveler to realize that Alaska is the epitome of ”frontier” civilization - Man in an incessant battle to dominate his environment.
Alaska was purchased by the US from Czarist Russia in 1867 for the then princely amount of $7M. The rate of 2 cents an acre for unusable brush land led the state to be tagged ‘Seward’s icebox’ (after William H. Seward, Andrew Johnson’s Secretary of State who negotiated the deal). At the time of the purchase the state hosted little economic activity beyond the fur trade. Later discovery of Copper and Gold deposits were followed by the inevitable, albeit short lived Gold Rush. Agriculture however proved to be a singular failure. Land lots were parceled out to immigrant farmers from the ‘lower 48 states’, but all efforts to coax bountiful harvests out of the barren soil in the short daytime hours were so unsuccessful that they had to be quickly abandoned. To this day most food is hauled from the mainland US and neighboring Canada.
Oil was struck in the Arctic in post war years. Much wringing of hands about the ecological impact ensured the oil remained underground until the stalemate was broken by the Arab oil embargo. The oil pipeline from the Arctic coastline to the all-weather port of Valdez is an 800 mile marvel of engineering and a reflection of man’s ingenuity and commitment to overcome natural odds. Constructing a line carrying hot oil while preventing the permafrost from melting was a challenge. The line also crosses three major earthquake faults; traverses steep gradients and needs to withstand air temperature swings of 180 degrees Fahrenheit through the year (Alaska has one of the highest annual differences between minimum and maximum temperatures). It must rate as the last major engineering construction project in the US before the field of engineering lost its grip on the imagination of young Americans. The sweat and grime of the physical world is no match to the joy of financial engineering executed in air-conditioned comfort!
Alaska is hunting territory with most animal species open for being hunted by residents and to some extent by non-residents. Despite this, we were happy to see the widespread presence of wildlife. The Denali National Park was a veritable feast for the eyes of bears, moose and caribou. One evening glancing outside our remote cottage in the woods as we were having dinner, we saw a black bear parked right outside our front door. That was about as close I have ever got from having dinner to becoming one!
Alaska experiences extreme swings in daylight hours across the year owing to its proximity to the North Pole. Much of the northern part of Alaska is plunged into a period of continuous darkness when the sun does a no show for 54 days from Nov 24th to Jan 18th. And then in summer you have more or less uninterrupted daylight. In August when we visited, it would be 11 pm before it got dark only to have the Sun show up around 4 am. The Alaskans we spoke to said they stop linking their lives to the fate of the Sun. People eat and sleep driven purely by their biological cycle.
Human presence in Alaska traces its roots back to the migration across the Bering Strait during the last Ice Age nearly 10,000 years back. Their choosing to stay and brave such harsh environment is remarkable and is one more example of man’s phenomenal capacity to adapt. To protect themselves from the chilling winds and snow as well as the numerous bears, they built their communal homes underground with a very narrow entrance. Fishing was the main source of food as there is not much by way of nutrition from plants they could access. Not surprisingly, legends and myths about bears and fish replace the agrarian tales of the tropics. Today only a few tribes of native Inuit’s, descendants of these migratory tribes remain scattered around the state and are working hard to preserve their fast disappearing lifestyle and culture.
I asked the owner of our lodging how he found himself in Alaska. He narrated an interesting tale. He and his wife had for several years in the seventies spent the winter months roughing it out in the remote wilderness. His home proudly displayed the stuffed trophies of the wild animals he had shot over the years. Prominent too was the large safe that housed the numerous rifles he possessed. A relapse to the hunter gatherer mode of existence? - I wondered. The economic boom of the Oil pipeline had convinced him to drop anchor and settle down in a remote part of the state. On proud display were pictures of him logging the forest and building his home and the lodge single handed. A number of Alaskans we spoke to narrated a similar tale. The draw of a wild untamed frontier land had proved irresistible.
Alaska is glacier country. One sees melting glaciers transporting ice and moraine from mountaintops at every turn. Evidence of global warming is everywhere. Well documented photographs show the rapidly accelerating shrinkage of the glaciers. I sometimes wonder if future generations will get to see only photographic evidence of the existence of glaciers. Man is a strange animal. During my conversations with Alaskans, stark evidence of the disappearing glaciers was dismissed with a cold shrug. To think that these are people whose lifestyles would be the most impacted! The thaw was attributed to a natural climate cycle that has been going on over the ages and hence of little concern. In contrast Pacific Islanders are the most vocal in pushing for a cut in emissions to stop the rising ocean levels consigning their homes to a watery grave.
As our flight departed I was left bidding farewell to what surely is one of mankind’s fast disappearing frontier terrain. Only time will tell whether it retains its immense beauty or falls a victim to man’s pursuit of technological progress.

© Milind Yedkar

Leadership for Our Times

Read a good business book lately? Encountered exceptional business leadership in recent years? If you are like me, then you probably answered both questions in the negative. Corporate world’s much publicized indiscretions of the last decade starting from Enron and ending with the recent banking crisis have ensured American management has lost much of its sheen. Just as the lost two decades of Japanese economy sealed the fate of Japanese Management books, it seems that an entire genre of publishing spawned by “In Search of Excellence” and which brought into circulation terms like MBWA (Managing by wandering around); Level 5 leadership or Theory Z may be in terminal decline. Ditto for corporate memoirs. These heroic tales have ceased to grip the imagination. Political leadership likewise offers nothing but a bleak landscape to the discerning eye. At the same time, the increasing challenges the world faces today demand higher levels of leadership from each of us. The world’s problems are not going away. Where do we look for role models in an increasingly cynical environment? Here are a couple of good books I read recently that point the way.
Picture this: An upcoming business leader in a respected corporate environment; a rising star in the firmament suddenly chooses to abandon his corporate lifestyle midstream and starts up a Non Profit (aka NGO) to set up libraries in remote schools in Asia & Africa. Along the way he breaks up with his partner who does not wish to trade in the certain luxuries of a corporate lifestyle for the uncertain hardships of an entrepreneurial life and incessant travel through remote terrain. This is the story of John Wood who left Microsoft in 1999 to establish his NGO ‘Room to Read’. Today they have set up over 1000 schools and distributed over 9 Million books to over 10,000 schools. Truly impressive statistics by any yardstick, the impact these have had on the lives of children have been beyond measure. It all began with a trekking holiday John took in Nepal, where in a remote school he witnessed a library having only an abandoned copy of ‘Lonely Planet’ that was kept under lock and key as the only English book the school possessed. Dashing off an email to friends to donate books they did not need, he was pleasantly surprised by the response in the form of a garage overflowing with books in his parent’s home. The joy he saw in the children’s eyes when the books were delivered contrasted with the ennui he experienced in life at Microsoft where he rehearsed Bill Gates travel through China down to the last minute only to watch Bill blow up all the preparations in a disinterested interview to the media. Seeing an opportunity to give meaning to his life, he jumped ship and ‘Room to Read’ was born casting John in the role of a Twenty First century Andrew Carnegie – except in this case he was passing the hat around for funding rather than writing cheques to his account.
The year is 1993 and an amateur mountaineer is making his way down after an unsuccessful attempt to scale the world’s second highest peak K2. Losing his way, he stumbles into a remote village of Korphe in the Balti region of Pakistan severely ill and nearly dead of exhaustion. Greg Mortenson, an American from California was cared for by the villagers. In gratitude for their kindness, Greg made a promise to return and help build a school for the village children - especially the girls. Raising funds proved way more difficult than he had imagined however, with several lecture presentations ending with no collection at all. Moving out of his rented apartment to save every dime, he slept for weeks in his old car in a public parking lot. Eventually finding his savior in a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, Greg encounters the challenge of executing his best laid plans in the cultural tangle of tribal Pakistan. His commitment to building schools to educate children and especially girls in remote Pakistan and Afghanistan sees Greg undertake several life threatening journeys including the time when he traveled the night at the back a truck hidden under putrefying carcasses barely escaping being shot in order to reach a remote Afghan warlord and get his support to building schools in his area. At another time Greg was kidnapped and kept under confinement in the Waziristan area of Pakistan while his captors tried to figure out who this American eccentric was who wanted to build schools for girls in their tribal area. Importantly Greg was able to convince an equally committed bunch of mavericks to join his NGO ‘Central Asia Institute’ and inspire them to carry on his task. What do you say when your hire works days and nights even risking a burst appendix in remote Afghanistan to keep his projects on track – with no financial incentives at play.
“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life!” Thus spake Confucius. Easier said than done - as most of us working the corporate world discover pretty soon! Here are two individuals who seem to have done just that – and lived to tell their tale. More importantly the people they inspired were like the proverbial brick layers who kept the vision of the cathedral they were creating alive as they laid the bricks. Now, if more of us manage to do just that, is there any doubt about the transformation that that would unleash in the world? Do take the time to read John Wood’s: “Leaving Microsoft to change the world” and Greg Mortensen’s: “Three cups of Tea” and ‘Stones into Schools” and be inspired. These are the real leaders the world of the twenty first century needs.
© Milind Yedkar

Calling on Confucius

“Failing is not falling. But failing to rise when you fall!” These alliterative words read somewhere in early childhood had remained imprinted in my memory through mindless repetition. I must confess to have been ignorant of the quote’s origins. It was only much later that I discovered that these were immortal words of Confucius exhorting his followers to never give up trying. With a host of other equally profound sayings and a philosophy grounded in the realities of daily life, Confucius’ thoughts have grown from their humble sixth Century BCE days to define the very fabric of Chinese society over two millennia. As I prepared to leave China, I had to make one last stop at his hometown of Qufu - I could not imagine leaving China without paying my respects to this guru.
Which period in our history has had the greatest impact on human thought? This is debatable with several claimants including the just concluded twentieth century. For me it is the sixth century BCE that will always rank as the period when human thought took the greatest leap forward. In India, Titans in the form of the Buddha and Mahavir (founder of Jainism) reinterpreted ancient Hindu philosophy. Across the Himalayas, Confucius and Lao Tzu laid the foundations of religion and culture that continues to this day across most of East Asia. The West was to see the earliest stirring of thought in the form of Pythagoras and several Pre-Socratic philosophers. Although there is some debate, several historians believe the Second prophet Isaiah and Zarathustra led philosophic thinking in the Middle East.
Little is known about the life of Lao Tzu. The home and grave of Confucius are however well preserved. Confucius is one of those rare teachers whose wisdom was ‘discovered’ in his native land nearly three centuries after his passing away. During his long lifetime Confucius could not even secure an appointment to see a minor Duke let alone an Emperor. He lived in relative obscurity, revered only by a band of close followers who documented his sayings and the incidents from his life. It was not until the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, over three centuries later that Confucianism was installed as the state philosophy. Makes me wonder how many such jewels lie buried in the sands of human history waiting to be discovered. A man, whom people were not keen to associate with in his lifetime, today has over two million individuals claiming direct descent. Today a steady stream of tourists makes a beeline to his home and grave. We were happy to join this crowd on one day.
His hometown of Qufu (pronounced ‘ChooFoo’) is an obscure village in Shandong province that lives off the tourism its worthy son generates. Several ancient temples dedicated to Confucius in Qufu were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. These have been quickly rebuilt when their tourist potential trumped the distaste the communist party had of a ‘reactionary’ thinker. Confucianism today is once again experiencing a revival among the Chinese rulers and the literati as they grapple with the current singular focus on economic success. Ever since Confucius was deified in China, his descendants experienced an unanticipated windfall. Successive generations of sons have been appointed Dukes of the province and today 80 odd generations are buried in a private cemetery. Must take a lot of good karma to be born a descendant!
One can trace the pragmatism in Chinese thinking to Confucius. When asked by a follower what happened after death, Confucius is reported to have retorted,”When one does not understand life, how can one understand death”. In stark contrast, Indian sages composing the Upanishads in roughly the same time period found the challenges of an evanescent life too uninteresting and prayed to be led “from that which is ephemeral to the eternal”. The Buddha too was more concerned with helping people find a path to end the unavoidable suffering in this evanescent life. Confucius, in contrast exhorts us to teach people how to catch fish rather than gifting them a fish.
Confucius was deeply concerned about filial piety and making sure people paid their respects to their ancestors. This finds its way into the Chinese naming system. The middle name is typically that of the generation. So it became possible for distant cousins to know who should kowtow to whom. The ‘Ze’ in Mao Ze Dong, for example is the name chosen by the previous generation for all children born in the extended family (Mao being the family name and Dong the first name). In Confucianism belonging to a generation is more respectable than one’s physical age.
Confucianism led to the stratification of society into four classes - the scholars, farmers, artisans and merchants, much like the Indian Varna or caste system. Unlike the Indian caste system however, the merchants were the lowest and most despised strata of society. The Chinese businessman of today is one who has successfully shaken off the yoke of Confucianism! Veneration of scholarship led to the creation of the annual examination system to select the mandarins. (Interestingly the word ‘Mandarin’ owes its origins to the Sanskrit word ‘Mantri’ (Minister) and was used by Europeans to describe officials in China but the word itself does not exist in the Chinese language!).
Through its long history Confucianism has vied with Buddhism, its contemporaneous philosophy for dominance as the state religion. Confucianism emphasized learning and drove power into the hands of the Mandarins. Under its influence China went through long periods of economic isolation. Experimentation wilted under the stern revulsion for physical labor and leapfrogging inventions such as paper, printing and gunpowder were allowed to languish and Chinese society went from being an economic powerhouse to a recluse. On a positive, the emphasis on filial piety, relationships and loyalty brought much needed stability to Chinese society after the chaos of the ‘Warring States’ period ( 475 – 221 BCE). Confucianism’s essential belief in the goodness of every being and in the possibility of self improvement via learning has contributed to the drive for education seen in Eastern Asian societies to this day.
As I bowed in front of the great man’s grave, I could not help reflecting on the genius of an unknown man who left an enduring stamp on a wide swath of human society and its actions - as well as the human frailty in its inability to recognize genius in its midst. I wonder how many unpolished diamonds surround us today that we are unable to discern!
© Milind Yedkar

A Surprise Encounter

It was a steamy summer morning in Japan. The hot humid air hung heavy and listless. I was late to work and as I charged down the railway platform I could feel the beads of perspiration coagulate into tiny rivulets and run down my spine. The train doors closed just as I leaped in. I was basking in the satisfaction less at having accomplished anything but more out of escaping the disappointment of watching the doors slam in my face. My reverie was jolted by a tap on my shoulder and a halting voice saying ‘Thank You’. I spun around to face an old man well into his eighties-The face wizened with the years, the voice rasping hoarse, the eyes sallow, the frame strangely erect-pride holding a tired body up against its natural proclivity to stoop. I must have bumped into him in my rush, I thought and a poor vocabulary confused thanks for an expletive. I stooped low in profuse apology. He wanted to know if I was Indian and when I confirmed it, he could not stop saying thank you. Tears welled in his eyes and pretty soon they were rolling down his cheeks. Imagine my consternation. I was heading for work. My mind preoccupied with what I had to get done and here was a strange old man weeping like a child while holding on to me in a crowded train. We alighted together after a thankfully short but intensely embarrassing ride. We were strangers headed in the same direction. As we walked, he managed to gather himself and narrated a tale.
1945 was drawing to a close. The War had ended in utter ruin for Japan. To add insult to injury, the Allies decided to try the wartime leaders as criminals. Unlike the Nuremburg trials, those in Tokyo were a less publicized and even less organized affair - whether due to war weariness that had set in by the time Japan surrendered or the crimes having been committed in far away Asia, I know not. The trials also differed in that the judgment against the war criminals was not unanimous. Of the eleven judges who heard the case, one dissented and declared the defendants not guilty on all counts. That judge was an Indian – Justice Radhabinod Pal. “Radha who?” I can well hear a majority of Indians say. Justice Pal is clearly a man as famous in Japan as he is anonymous in India.
I can picture the scene. The hearings have been completed and the judges gathered around to share their opinions. ‘Guilty’ one by one, they concur - until ‘Not Guilty’ thunders Mr. Pal. The disbelieving gasp, the shocked silence-one can hear a needle drop. Here was a judge from a slave country who had dared to go against the wishes of his masters. To be clear it was not Justice Pal’s contention that the Japanese were innocent or that atrocities were not committed by them across Asia. He however felt that the trial was a mere veneer for the victors to whip the vanquished. That smelt of retribution. No side was innocent in the war. By dropping the nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Allies too had committed crimes against humanity. For actions like the rape of Nanjing, he felt a special court should be set up to try the perpetrators. Consequently he declared the Japanese defendants not guilty on all counts. If a ‘Profiles in Courage’ is ever written for India, Justice Pal would make it to the list by miles. What courage of conviction it must have taken for someone to have a point of view and to be unafraid to voice it against the torrent of public opinion demanding retribution and the inherent human impulse to conform to the thinking of one’s peers!
Gratitude is a strange emotion amongst us humans. This incident took place over a half century ago and I, who had no knowledge of this was being thanked merely for being an Indian! Justice Pal is one of only two Indians to be publicly honored in Japan - the other of course being Mahatma Gandhi. A grateful nation erected a memorial to Dr. Pal at the Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo after his death. In 2007 the visiting Japanese Prime Minister Abe also felt compelled to fly down to Calcutta to thank Justice Pal’s family.
I have google’d the deepest recesses of my memory of the Indian history taught in Indian schools but have found it singularly devoid of any Radhabinod Pal’s. Isn’t it exceptional that there is not a mention of his name or the trial at all? Was it because of India’s fixation with Europe that there is little coverage of the war in Asia and how it ended? Or was it because the Congress had thrown its lot with the British; since the Japanese were enemies; there was little sympathy for any viewpoint that spared the Japanese? There is an oft voiced opinion that respect in India is earned via the West. If true Justice Pal is an eminent example - Internet blogs excoriate his imprudence and vilify him for being a Bose acolyte. Mysteriously his memory remains alive amongst the bureaucracy. Successive Indian Prime Ministers have harped on his name when they have addressed their Japanese counterparts. Almost like the memory of a ‘black sheep’ ancestor whose photograph is brought out and dusted for an occasion only to be put away quickly. Whatever be the reason, fact remains that Justice Radhabinod Pal is better known and revered in Japan than in his motherland. A quote from his 1235 page judgment reads:
“When Time shall have softened passion and prejudice; When Reason shall have stripped the mask from misrepresentation; then Justice, holding evenly her scales, will require much of past censure and praise to change places“.
I was left pondering on this as I made my way to another unexceptional working day.
© Milind Yedkar

Memorial to Dr. Radhabinod Pal at the Yasukuni Shrine, Tokyo

Lessons from a Disaster

Telephones started ringing across China midday on May 12, 2008. The speakers were puzzled. Something was amiss. The earth had trembled. Had it buckled under the immense weight of the Chinese Civilization? Or the stupendous achievements of its current generation?
At around 2 pm a tremor had leveled the largely agricultural Wenchuan County in China’s bread basket Sichuan Province. The official death count stands at 70,000 - a significant number of them children trapped in the debris of collapsed school buildings. On the 18th of last August the river Kosi in the Indian state of Bihar abruptly changed course and swept away villages and rendered millions homeless. The responses of a democratic and a communist political system as well as these two ancient cultures to these recent disasters offer a thought provoking contrast.
Spurred into action, China’s Communist Party leadership ordered the army out the very next day. The crisis was worrying enough for the Prime Minister too to show up at the site personally leading the relief team. The party after all touts its raison d’etre as the only one that can keep the nation united, prosperous and mighty. It was now reckoning time. Relief effort became an overriding priority trumping even the upcoming Olympic extravaganza. Adroit minds in the Leadership doubtless estimated that doing so would douse the brouhaha over the Tibetan protests worldwide accompanying the Olympic torch relay. For weeks following the quake, relief flights had priority over civilian traffic. Having had the painful experience of sitting in a plane awaiting take off for over an hour on a couple of occasions, I was surprised at the solidarity this evoked amongst my fellow Chinese passengers who put up with the inconvenience with nary a murmur.
Many people imagine the Chinese living in a quasi 1984 world with Big Brother watching over their every move. The actions of Chinese netizens will no doubt come as a surprise. Websites seemed to spring up overnight reporting the financial commitments of the rich Chinese and Multinational Corporations to the relief effort. These were compared with the public information on their earnings and the misers were publicly named and shamed for being ‘iron roosters’. (Chinese is a figurative language and an iron rooster (Tie Gong Ji) is someone with not even a feather to contribute!) Boycott calls went out against products of these companies. Chinese employees of these companies received hate mail and text messages from friends for their apparent lack of patriotism in influencing their companies to contribute more. The impact of this campaign was severe enough for the CEO’s of several corporations to fly down to their global headquarters and secure exceptions to corporate policy and increase contribution over previous global crises including the Asian Tsunami.
Over the next several weeks the world watched as the Chinese led and globally assisted relief effort brought life back to normal in time for the Olympics. State media played up the heroics of the relief team and the army. Leaving people feeling positive about their country is important in China. The crisis predictably diluted the storm over crushing of the Tibetan insurgency. The one issue the government continues to tiptoe around though is that of the construction quality of the schools that seemed to have suffered disproportionate collapse. That continues to rankle in the minds of the survivors.
Bihar is as remote from Delhi as is Sichuan from Beijing. However that is where the similarities end. It took days for the flood relief effort to get going in Bihar. The army was called out well over a week later. The relief exercise complicated no doubt by electoral considerations that predictably affect everything in democratic India. An opposition party was in power in the state. There were rumblings that the state administration was being brought down a few notches and shown in poor light. Public participation in disaster relief no doubt occurred. But in Indian culture this is mostly a volunteer effort with conscientious citizens contributing as they deem fit. The concept of ‘Dana’ has a long and rich heritage across religions. Giving under duress is deemed to harm all parties. The anger and moral rectitude of China is missing. In a week or two however the floods did a disappearing act from public consciousness as media, hankering headline grabbing news moved on. A recent article reported that the displaced population was patiently awaiting reconstruction. Elections seem to be the only time when things get done.
Floods are an annual ritual in India. The Economist produced an article from its archives of Seventies vintage. A different river then had broken its banks. Since independence not much has changed except the volume of reports and studies on flood control. Canals have been proposed linking rivers. Not one has seen light of the day. It is Brahmanical to propose a strategy. A committee at work attacking a problem is a conjurer’s trick creating an illusion - a smoke and mirror act that accomplishes nothing. Sinecures are available to be doled out; Global junkets for the asking. Execution in contrast seems a trivial pursuit. In the heat and tumult of India it is no doubt a tiresome affair.
In democratic India governments no doubt are regularly voted out for their incompetence by a hurt populace. Incoming administrations except a severe minority, though then proceed to exhibit the same level of incompetence or parochialism. This flip flop dance of democracy means a step or two backward for every movement forward. In China’s unitary system in contrast we see a clear recognition by the incumbents of the limits to their authority that can be ignored only at their own peril. A recent incident in the prosperous city of Xiamen brought this home. The local administration had approved the construction of a petrochemical complex near a residential seaside community. This brazen action incensed the local population. There were rumors of a protest march. The local administrators panicked, no doubt seeing their future in the party hierarchy imperiled. Text messages went out from the Government to the local citizens asking them not to take to the street as the decision was being reconsidered.
Herein then lies the paradox: A single party dictatorship that seems to fear the wrath of the masses and is responsive to their plight while a vibrant democracy displays callous disregard to their suffering. Amartya Sen has long argued that Democracy is the single insurance against famines. The data overwhelmingly support his thesis. It is hard to imagine for example, the famine following the ‘Great Leap Forward’, occurring in India. The recent disasters however seem to indicate that while democracy is necessary, by itself it is not sufficient.
© Milind Yedkar

My Quest For Shangri La (III)- In Pictures

Here are pictures I took on the trip.
http://picasaweb.google.com/milindyedkar