Monday, July 27, 2009

A few problems we Indians need to fix

I've been reading this excellent book by Narayan Murthy for a while now, and it let's me define the problems that I see in India, much better. Here are some important problems that I feel we should fix to go past the critical growth and take a big leap towards making India a truly great nation.

1. We're still very pessimistic about life. I understand this is attributed to our past, but we should now give this up. We're progressing, the world is looking up to us. We should now start thinking positive about everything, and take our dreams and aspirations to the new heights.

2. Our wrong understanding of the democracy. We feel democracy is all about our rights, and that the government is a seperate entity. These are some of the biggest mistakes a democracy can make. Democracy is equally about rights and responsibilities. And then, govenrment is what we make, and in fact, government is made by people from our own society and community. We have to realise and practice these in our lives. For without these two essential beliefs, a democracy is handicapped.

3. Strong imbalance between family and society. We almost always care only about ourself, our family, our community (read caste, religion...). However, we forget that the society we live is a mix of various individuals, families, communities and religious beliefs. Especially, in a diverse population such as India, we need to take care of this even more. We should realise that only by encouraging a symbiotic environment in the society, as we do in our workplace, we can prosper. We should utilize the energy that we waste in fighting amongst ourselves in various ways towards the betterment of our country as a whole, even if it requires a few sacrifices of family interests for the good of the society. Remember that man is a social being, and unless society grows, the growth of an individual will always be hampered.

P.S. I couldn't think of an image for this post. Pls let me know if you'd want to suggest one.

No comments: