“One of the prevailing sources of misery and crime is in the generally accepted assumption, that because things have been wrong a long time, it is impossible they will ever be right.”
-John Ruskin
I asked this question to many people – “If given power, What is the 1 thing you would change in India?”.
I got many responses for this question. Many brilliant minds coming up with the most painful issues in India and suggesting countermeasures. The responses were able to cover a large number of aspects that people would have taken care of if given power. Right from imagining a cleaner and pollution free India, to a better and elaborate electoral system, to a caste-free India, a more secure India, a gender neutral India, a cashless economy , a more educated India, a corruption-free India and also a poverty-free India.
I would love to pick any and all of these topics and would want to change that. But when I tried answering this question, it took me a while to answer it. Which problem is the biggest? What do I choose first among all these? When I thought about it, I realized that though the issues are numerous, the underlying cause is only one.
If given the power, I would definitely opt to change the mindset and attitude of our people. We Indians have a habit of always blaming others for all the bad things that we face.
We deal with our problems in 2 ways- we blame and we complain.
Our best defense strategy- blames
* For unclean surroundings- The government doesn’t care about waste management
* Orthodox people not sending their girl child to school- The government lacks in initiatives
* A cop asks you for a bribe when your vehicle is parked in a non-parking area- The government definitely doesn’t understand the parking concept. Why should I park my car 50metres away from my office building? Why can’t I park it in the front? I am being harrassed here
* Awareness of terrorism- The government should build strong defense systems and hire more people in forces
* Women are unsafe- The government doesn’t take any actions against rapists and eve-teasers. Women shouldn’t have gone out late in the evening etc. etc.
And if by any chance we can’t blame our government, we take it on our neighbors and the blame list keeps on growing. We don’t want to change ourselves. We want to and wish to live in a secure and developed country with an expectation that we as individuals shouldn’t be bothered at all. The government should renovate the entire country on its own and give us invitations to enjoy this freshness only once it is done. In hoping so, we definitely forget that no matter how much decorating stuff you collect to decorate your home, at the end it’s you who has to clean the house and not the guy who delivered you the vacuum cleaner. Similarly, the government and politicians can make rules and laws but it’s the people who need to follow it.
Our Complaints vs What we do about it
* Corruption is eating away India like a termite, but we are the ones who try to hand over a 100 rupee note to a cop when we jump the red light. And of course, giving money to get your company a tender is just business as usual
* Our neighborhood and roads are really dirty, but we are the ones who clean their houses and throw the garbage in an empty land plot or by the corner of the house.
* There is too much traffic and pollution, but we are the ones who don’t want to carpool with our colleagues to the office. Otherwise, how would people know we also own a car.
* By every passing day, India is becoming very unsafe for women, but we are the ones who beat up their wives just to take out our office frustration. We are the ones who turn a blind eye when a guy is beating or molesting some girl in a public place or transport. We ask our daughters to behave properly when they are out but our sons can behave however they want, there is no restriction for them.
* All politicians are bad and corrupt, but we don’t want to enter the system to do something for our country.
* We don’t have good sportspersons, but we won’t let our own children play sports as a profession.
* We are divided into groups and castes, but we want to get ourselves identified by our religion, our caste, our state and if by now we still have a gap to fill in our introduction, well then we can fit in India there.
* We complain about our rights but we don’t want to be reminded of our duties.
With our current attitude, even if God makes our country heaven-like, we would drag that too to the same level. The day we start taking responsibility for our own problems and think about solving them rather than blaming others; We would be able to solve a major chunk of our issues on our own. The government can then focus on the key issues and resolve them quickly. The day every individual does his/her bit, the problems we are worried about today would start vanishing one by one.
The agenda of this article is not to hurt anyone’s feelings rather than encourage everyone to do their own bits for the country. I would love to know what you would like to change in India if given the option.
Let's break the wheel 
December 3, 2016 at 8:53 PM
Its not just about the government or the mindset of people.Its a collaborative effort where both roles have to be played in a better way.If only people start thinking for good changes but the system is not supporting them in one way or another then after a saturation point of people’s patience they will think that the old way is the better option. Same is the case with our government,like even if 20% of the population wants a good change to make this country better then they should provide the infrastructure and facilities to make those things or changes happen in an easy way where a person doesn’t need to go on a hunger strike or approach the media just to prove that what he/she is trying to say is the right change that is needed for the betterment of the society and the country.They need to make strict rules and regulations and which should be implemented in a right way too on ground level to make the remaining 80% realise that this thing or change is needed for the betterment of the country(like recent denomination’s ban) and they have to accept it even if it causes pain and problems to them on a temporary basis.
We all know the problem and most of the solutions too,but the actual problem is that we don’t try to initiate that solution process as there is not much trust in between the relation of people and government.People think that even if they want to do something good for the country they won’t have enough support from the government to make it happen.On the other hand over government thinks that till the time an issue isn’t raised by the people upto a higher level by any means,till then they don’t need to think about the solution of that problem and even if they want to think about it then also they will have the fear of the reactions of people,opposition and most of all the fear of loosing the power just because of one decision.
Right now we are lucky that we have a bold and brave PM who at least doesn’t care about loosing the power. The day people and government will have that trust,that both of them will support each other for the right cause,the nation will start changing automatically.
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December 3, 2016 at 9:06 PM
Well, I believe in the same thing. Once we as citizens of India start taking up responsibilities of our small issues on our own, the government can then concentrate on solving the bigger issues that are impossible for a common man to solve. What I meant was that it’s not only our government’s responsibility to ensure India’s progress rather it should be every individual’s responsibility too.
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December 3, 2016 at 9:53 PM
Well said. I totally agreed and believe that the day will come soon when everyone understood his/her responsibilities towards society and country.
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December 4, 2016 at 2:28 AM
I agree….. the mindset and attitude of the people; the majority of people decide the fate of a country n its undisputadely true that we Indians have a habit of blaming others for the incessants come across our way in any circumstances especially with regard to our well-being or
the way in which people live or work and thats too happens
in any or every scenerio.
See the thing is ;every Tom Dick or Harry whosoever has or be there in the power thinks him/herself a dumy god and DO NOT let the people have their own opinion or u can say influence their opinion or thinking in many ways… we chose govt.n would xpect it to do the best for us bt wat we got _the best of wat (they said )they could do. Things could have been done in a better way bt again that attitude or favourism cms in n spoils the things. I feel we became used to of all this that we don’t even want to think over wwholrsomr. For instance-Demonetisation. People facing troubles n trubulence bt still if they say smthing against would be criticised or called haters.and then if smbody want to show dislikes agaunst smthing its too cms in a subtle manner n not in a calm way .
So its true untill we won’t start thinking over the root cause of it we would be a developing country.
Being true to my senses.
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December 4, 2016 at 6:09 PM
V nice Shikha gud job i am very happy for you. God bless you always. Your thoughts are wonderful and I am impressed.
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December 5, 2016 at 2:25 AM
Dear Shikha,
Wish you a very happy wedding anniversary.
However coming to your blog. No doubt your thoughts are very brilliant, focused entirely on making the country good and happy. I found two very impressive lines written in the blog and as I discussed with you these lines brought a thought to me , I was compelled to think what you are quoting yourself , could it be a reason for the matter of your blog. I am quoting your those lines below:
“We Indians have a habit of always blaming others for all the bad things that we face.”
Are you not yourself doing the same , blaming others for their mindset which in your opinion need to be changed.
My dear we are a nation which have the most diversified, most colourful , multicultural social system and if I am not wrong our civilisation is considered to be the one of the most ancient one. We have some of our systems and beliefs that are more than thousands year old. They may not be very useful in the present world and may seems to be outdated when they are compared to other developed or developing nations but then they cannot be abolished in few years. The public have a deep driven faith in them and they need time to change them.
Now coming to the changes , again the people cannot be blamed because they always believed on whatever our leaders presented to them and also followed the same religiously but when those leaders ditched them for their own benefits they lost the faith and resolved to their own systems and beliefs.
The mindset of our Indian brother and sisters are only due to these rouge leaders who cheated the public and made them a suspicious, selfish, self oriented and unruly crowd.
My thought about what I will change for my country still remains the same.
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December 5, 2016 at 2:26 PM
Well, I have included myself also in the people, hence used we the people. There have been times when I also cursed our government to be such a shameful leaders but later I realized that just sitting at home and criticizing any politician is not doing the country any good. I used to think what I am doing for my country apart from finding pitfalls in the system. That wasn’t very long ago when instead of expressing disappointment I started stopping my near and dear ones from throwing the waste on roads and I started picking up the trash from my surroundings whenever and wherever I could do so. The same thought was applied in other areas as well when instead of just observing a domestic violence from my opposite apartment, I chose to confront them and tried helping the victim lady. I believe I haven’t done much but every little bit counts. I have started taking up my responsibilities as a citizen slowly.
Well when it comes to government, it’s we who choose the people who come to power. Most of us don’t even vote in elections but that doesn’t stop them from insulting the leader. If we play our roles as voters responsibly, no fraud and wrong candidate come into power.
Last but not the least, it’s not necessary that a decades-old custom is right. If our ancestors have committed mistakes it doesn’t necessarily mean that we should follow them too. In fact, it is our responsibility to correct them and aware people about them.
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December 5, 2016 at 7:18 PM
Very nice shikha.its realy amazing to read sch innovative n powerfl thoughts.no doubt tht ur blog defintly make a change in reader’s point of view on d subjct.m proud of u dear.no doubt u r intelligent enough to tch d hrt of readrs by ur writings.god bless u .
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December 5, 2016 at 7:22 PM
Gd job shikha.god bless u
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December 13, 2016 at 11:02 PM
That’s an interesting idea to change the mindset of people, but what troubles me is how feasible it is. Thoughts and instant reflex doesn’t sync well. When we sit n think or discuss among groups we realise the responsibility, what happens to us at the time of execution. For instance, we instantly handover 100 bucks to the cop of the fear of spending time and energy and money to go over the police station for just crossing a signal let’s say may be because we are in an utter haste. So my point is , yes a reasonable mindset is the key to it but we need to figure out how to achieve that.
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December 14, 2016 at 10:22 AM
The question was hypothetical, if given power to change something. If I get the power, I would definitely change the mindset of our people.
But even without any such super power, we can bring in the change slowly if we start motivating our near and dear ones to own up the onus of their issues. If every body starts this at a personal level, it might take sometime, but we would definitely be able to change the mindset of us Indians.
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December 14, 2016 at 2:36 PM
Everything is changing. Bribe thing has already been ended in most of the cities and talking about roads and cities, they are not dirty now because of swachh Bharat Abhiyan.
India is the 4th powerful military nation in the world. The part you mentioned about our duties that is correct. Most of the Indians don’t know, if they have 6 rights they also have 12 duties.
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December 16, 2016 at 4:00 PM
Liked all your posts. Well in this case I guess it’s combined effort and integrity of all citizens and system. A change in itself will bring some inconvenience initially because we are used to a routine of something. It’s then that society and citizens need to be patient.
Change can never happen over night. Takes time and change starts right from family,society and national. Changing ones mind set is most important factor but then like the fingers you can never expect everyone carry same views and ideology.
But yes we can take in steps to educate or show people what you think is good or better in your view and how it would even be better for others.
Dear Shikha,it’s a never ending topic and right now the big change that’s taking place in our nation you can see how people are reacting! It’s indeed history and is sure to effect in longer term but it’s again people who need to understand it’s cause, have patience,give a chance for the change and even fight for their rights.
Keep writing your blogs….
TC
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December 16, 2016 at 4:09 PM
Thank you so much for your kind words Rinku. This means a lot:) You have got a great and informative blogs yourself.
And I completely agree with what you said it has to be a combined effort from both the government and the people. Nobody should put the entire blame on any one entity.
The change is already being witnessed in India while the entire economy is rebooting due to Demonetization. Yes, there are some inconveniences to the common man but the long term benefits are gigantic for India’s progress.
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