In the Land of the Vishwaguru, We Are Frogs in a Well

Caveat: I risk confirming the status of an ‘anti-national’, given to me by many of my friends and relatives, after this piece sees light of the day. 

My recent sojourn as a tourist to Uzbekistan recently made me realise that we Indians are like frogs in the well confined to a cocoon created for us by the totally controlled media spreading government-sponsored propaganda. 

We Indians are happy with whatever life presents us because we have no one else except Pakistan and Bangladesh to compare with. Most of us (at least 1.35 billion out of an estimated 1.40 billion Indians) do not have means to travel and get a first-hand feel or knowledge of how much the other countries of the world have progressed leaving us way behind in almost all spheres of activity.

Having travelled abroad earlier too, I have experienced the much better level of infrastructure, systems, discipline, cleanliness and behaviour of people in those countries. However, I was particularly conscious to take note of these aspects during my  latest visit abroad. I was particularly conscious and anticipating that I will come across the “danka of India and Modi” (danka is a ceremonial drum) that is supposed to be playing in the world. I was expecting to be treated as a visitor from the country that we have been regularly informed during last 10 years, is the “vishwaguru” or at least is fast on its way to become one. 

However, I found that the country just about one-eighth of India in geographical area and having a population of only 38 million is way better in all the aspects mentioned above. The country which is ranked 67th or so in the world in terms of Gross Domestic Product, leads the world’s fifth largest economy by far in infrastructure and functional systems. 

The well-maintained roads ensured that the traffic was always smooth both within the cities and the highways. We did not encounter any “toll booths” anywhere on our journey on the highways, unlike in India where we find toll booths at short distances, in spite of which the highways are good only in patches. Even the single road to Chimgan mountains, two hours’ drive away from Tashkent, was without all pervasive potholes or speed breakers that we find in India. Suffice to say that in India the roads, especially, beyond the highway, are in despicable condition.  

The only police presence that I saw was that of “tourist police” at places of touristic importance. The traffic was smooth because everyone followed traffic rules. No one overshot traffic light, nor did they drive on the wrong side. Even the pedestrian traffic followed discipline, stepping out to cross the road only upon green light for them to walk. This was in spite of the fact that there was hardly if any presence of police on the roads. Technology, obviously, is the deterrent besides the pressure of societal norms. 

A lot of touring by us was by train. The distance of about 525 kilometre from Tashkent to Bukhara took just over four hours to cover, in spite of two halts en route. We on the other hand are still in the process of grandiosely flagging off “Vande Bharat” which can at best be termed as medium fast, hardly covering 300 kms in three hours or more. Unlike in India, the train staff was courteous and stood outside the bogey at the door to guide the passengers to their respective seats. Heaps of garbage along the railway line – a common sight in India – was nowhere to be seen. The trains were punctual to the last minute.

The “Nirmal Bharat” campaign started at the beginning of this century, has obviously failed to make an impact even after being rechristened “Swachh Bharat” and billions of rupees spent in advertising it. The campaign was bound to fail because of absence of any infrastructure for waste disposal. We also need to imbibe the sense of discipline and cleanliness amongst our children in their formative years in the schools. However, there isn’t enough emphasis on these aspects. Dependence merely on sloganeering and media hype is not likely to succeed in moulding behaviour rooted in a culture since centuries.

Discipline and appropriate social behaviour can be ingrained only if we as a society try and inculcate a sense of moral responsibility on part of citizens towards the society. It is the shared sense of respect for the rights of others, duty towards them and the society that can motivate people to behave appropriately. The sense of cleanliness and discipline thus gets imbibed into each individual and becomes inherited culture. We in India however, totally lack this sense of responsibility and care for others and towards the society. Breaking law in India is considered niche and the law breakers are looked at with awe, especially if the law breaker is well connected and powerful, besides having the ability to short circuit the due process of Law by paying out the law enforcers. 

The second reason for such impeccable discipline in Uzbekistan is the widespread use of technology to detect crimes and strict enforcement of law of the land irrespective of any external considerations. While one is not privy to actual data, one can safely presume that the rich and powerful perhaps too are treated in the same manner as any common citizen.

The levels of education in Uzbekistan too appear to be much better as compared to India. The cost of education, especially the higher professional education appears to be much less there. I found several young boys and girls travelling to Tashkent in our flight and interacted with some. A common refrain was that they preferred to go to Uzbekistan and other countries of Western Asia for medical education because it worked out much cheaper at Rs 3 million tuition fees for six years plus their personal expenses. Whereas in India the same education would cost upwards of Rs 15 million plus personal expenses if they fail to get into a government medical college through the centralised NEET examination. As per them, the standards of teachings imparted are equivalent if not better when compared to India. Lack of quality education in India has led to the presence of a large number of “professionally qualified” but actually unemployable young people in the society available for the politicians and religious bigots to exploit.

We had two very young guides conducting us at Samarkand and Tashkent. Both of them were studying and working part time as tourist guides, even though they need not have done this because of sound financial conditions of their parents. In India this is unthinkable, especially, amongst the middle- and high-income households. The elite in India would rather present their minor children with a high-end SUV which they drive rashly and kill unsuspecting pedestrians after downing a few drinks, secure in the knowledge that the money power and contacts of their parents will save them from any penal action by the law enforcing authorities. It is only the poor who are compelled by circumstances to take up work at the cost of a formal education in order to supplement the income of their household. 

I was surprised at the amount of knowledge and world view that these young guides had, not only about the tourist sites that they took us to or Uzbekistan only, but also about what developments taking place in the world and their impact on Uzbekistan. To the contrary, one finds very few, if any, young and formally educated persons in India having well-rounded knowledge and analytical ability. There are hardly any young or even senior people willing to engage in any meaningful discussions on any issue beyond the bigotry of fixed ideas or knowledge acquired through social media.

Such a state of affairs prevails here because formal education in India doesn’t encourage critical thinking. It doesn’t prepare people to face up to the challenges of the world. The result is that we have young people resorting to cultural and religious bigotry, moral policing, superstition and unscientific practices. No wonder the country has failed to achieve either moral ascendency or actual development. Whatever successes that we have achieved in the fields of science, technology, and sports have been in spite of impediments as mentioned above and due to individual brilliance.   

Last but not the least, one very important aspect of the society in Uzbekistan is communal and ethnic harmony in the country which has a majority of 96% Muslims (84% being Sunnis and 12% Shias) and barely 4% practitioners of other religions (2.3% being Orthodox Christians and remaining 1.7 other minorities). Even a minuscule minority of just 200 Jews have a functional synagogue in Bukhara where they continue to pray and welcome visitors of any religion or ethnicity with open arms (most of about 95,000 Jews left for USA, Germany and Israel after the dissolution of the Soviet Union). Different ethnic communities like the majority Uzbeks, Taziks, Kazaks and Russians too live in perfect harmony. There have hardly, if ever, been any reported case of ethnic or religious strife. Our Russian guide at Samarkand told us that the only time they faced some restrictions on open practice of religion was during the Soviet era till 1991, when it was practiced mainly in the confines of homes. 

There has been no reported case of practitioners of majority religion going and dancing in front of churches or synagogues on Eid or shouting religious slogans and waving weapons as happens quite frequently in India or vice-versa. None from religious minority is compelled to shout slogans equivalent of “Jai Shri Ram” that the protagonists of Hindutva force Muslims and other minorities to do in India. No one is ever known to have attacked the only synagogue or tried to fly a green flag on it or on any of the churches in Uzbekistan. No one scoffs at inter-religious or inter-ethnic marriages and cries “love jihad” or imposes food choices on minorities.

This short trip to Uzbekistan has brought in a realisation that India needs to do a lot of catching up in spite of the size of its economy, geographical size and population. We risk having continued ethnic strife if the people in power continue to resort to divisive policies, be they religion-based or caste-based.

I must confess that the short trip is not enough for a person to understand the nitty-gritty of the dynamics of a society, however, it is absolutely clear that the “danka” of India doesn’t actually play as we have been made to believe during the last decade. India is yet a far distance from arriving on the world scene. India has the potential to achieve greatness, which can happen only by inculcating discipline, morals and compassion. The people in power must work towards uniting the society instead of playing divisive politics. The common citizen thus empowered will have “true sense of patriotism and nationalism” which is totally different from the one being spread and talked about now these days. 

Sanjiv Krishan Sood was Additional Director General, BSF.