POSITIVEVIVE

      It has been customary for most of the Indian intellectuals to smell exclusively the negative aspects in every phenomenon and development in the society. But we must underscore the underlying strong points entailing the wider spectrum.

     Illustratively, media was hyper sensitive in highlighting the episodes of Vijay Mallya, Nirab Modi and the like; but nobody has heard the name of one Ram Lingam Raju of TamilNadu who got engulfed in the same kind of banking imbroglio. Raju borrowed huge sum from the chartered Banks – possibly thousand crores, and failed to repay in due course. No CBI nor ED nor any kind of vigilance sleuth stressed him out, but he himself reported his lapses to the Bank authority; got arrested and imprisoned. Is it not a precedent as such !

  Let us underline some of the positive and unique features in our society –

 (1) There are merely 16,000 police stations encompassing six and odd lakhs villages of India. This figure mentioned by S. Gurumurthy in a Seminar in USA evoked surprise among the enlightened audience who carry harsh account on India. This people-police ratio is out and out unthinkable in any advanced country of the world. The age old Indian society does not sustain on merely police availability. The entire wavelength of the society acts as elusive moral police to reckon with. In a socially vibrant and vigilant society the police have least role. Let us accept this reality as made available on ground reality of police-population figure. More discourse could be taken up on this dimension.

 (2) In 2012 there was a National Seminar at Bengaluru on the factor of prevailing scenario of economic recession. When the World Trade Organisation came into vogue on 1 January 1995 aspersion was cast that the developing countries like India would be at the receiving end. But surprisingly the most powerful economic country USA was its first casualty. One Professor of Economics probed uncharacteristically that India suffered the least because of the fallout of the worldwide economic depression only because of its family system. Even a marginalised family bothers about the future of its sibling and saves something. This kind of mindset hardly find space in advanced countries. We are aware of their family system in contrast to cohesive faily system of India thriving on the citadel of traditional ethos.

  (3) It follows from the above that joint family system is yet intact in rural layer of the society. Albeit it is increasingly eroding due to modernisation of the higher strata yet the basic comprehension of the joint family system yet thrives. As a sequel mutual solidarity is very well prevalent operationally. Otherwise may be 20 to 30 crores of the people out of 130 crores would have been on road without any source of income and demanding the Government to address them economically. This vindicates Indian assertion that this is a society based state rather than state based society as envisioned in the West.

 (4) Pejorative words are used against the practice of rigid casteism beset with the practice of untouchability. Yes it would be. But it is unwise to throw the baby along with the basket. There was a time when the caste system protected the entire gamut of Indian society. Integrity and unviolability in the society ruled the roost at a time when the foreign invaders were crushing the established the Indian society by means of sword. Further, it is this caste system which caused to uphold the traditional values and heritage of the society which caused strain to Lord Macauley. He pondered how that the traditional society of the Vedic age yet survives on the face of seven hundred of Islamic rule! The caste factor yet serves some purpose for marriage negotiation to match a couple of same kind of social and family backdrop. But this must not be traced too much and taken casually.

 (5) Nowadays much is talked of women empowerment. Of course it would be. But the movers are not aware that women of the agrarian community lead the family on the areas of man power management of firm, cattle management and so on. Even in traditional Indian family can anyone think of ignoring the Mother for wedding negotiation or any kind of religious activity. Areas are multiple. This is only the tip of the iceberg. We are to plunge deeper on sociological discourse. Woman is already empowered here.

 (6) In everyday life we have been witnessing phenomenal development in the society. Some of the aspects may be enlisted as such :

 (i) People have been more electorally conscious. Even in rural election where multiple ballot papers are provided to cast vote invalid votes are yet matter of the past.

 (ii) People have been more environment friendly.

 (iii) People have been more conscious on education, health, saving etc.

 (iv) Smoking has been decreasing.

 (v) Begging has slowed down – even completely absent in most part.

      Many more such areas may be unfolded for scrutiny. There has been considerable improvement in every strata of the society, which may be termed as civilizational growth. Let us appreciate the constructive aspects while mooting for considerable reforms on the dismal paras.

Dr. D. D. Pattanaik, M.A.(Utkal) Ph.D.,D.Litt.(Sambalpur).

Member, Governing Council, Indian Council of Social Science Research

Former Senior Fellow, ICSSR

Former Associate Fellow, Indian Institute of Advanced Study

Author, Guide, Columnist on Cultural Nationalism

Retd. Associate Professor, Political Science cum Principal, Govt. Aided College