An individual of foreign nationality once matter-of-factly remarked to me that India is the most corrupt country ever, and all Indians are inherently dishonest. While this remark infuriated me, I could not altogether deny the presence of corruption in what I take pride in acknowledging as my motherland.
In fact, every, single day this disturbing reality is thrown in our faces (sometimes even censored), by the media. Moreover, so ingrained is corruption in our sense of functioning, that criminals (read politicians) brought to book refuse to yield, clinging tenaciously to some inexplicable sense of righteousness.
However, what specifically rankled me about my fine, white friend’s remark, was his superlative use of adjectives. Corruption is a universal phenomenon, not a feature unique to Incredible India. In fact, the West is inextricably caught in a web of extreme capitalism that is rife with corruption and exploitation.
Interestingly, a large percentage of the Western world and “developed countries” are atheist, who consider religion an antidote for the naïve, irrational, and weak in character. Rejection of God is associated with rationality and intelligence. However, such is their enlightenment and liberation that they are in the grip of a different and even destructive hegemony. One that encourages them to act against self-preservation. One that builds Rupert Murdochs and equips them with such powers that world leaders appear mere puppets in comparison. One that fuels organizations like Americans for Prosperity, exploiting the poor and protecting the rich.
To our atheist betters, it may logically follow that a god-fearing people are an irrational, suggestible lot. Thus it is a tad embarrassing for them to emerge in the grip of such acute hegemony that it allows them to be exploited by the corrupt.
Corruption is universal. India may not possess the incredible ability to hide it, in the words of Lennon, “behind a smokescreen of bourgeois clichés”. Our rational and enlightened sister countries not only wallow in it, but relentlessly deny its existence. A case of double deception.
