HYPOCRISY – OUR NATIONAL PASTIME

  


A dictionary defines “hypocricy” as a trait that makes people behave in a manner different than their declared beliefs. We in India excel in sermonizing and then going and behaving in exactly the opposite way. Being intelligent justifiers of our own actions, we never let this bother us. Even our lawmakers (M.P.s) can easily be branded as Masters of Pretension because of the remarkable difference between their professed and private lives.

Most of us are actually consumed by this desire to say in public what we think will appear “right” to the listeners, irrespective of whether it agrees with our own value system and this dear readers, is the beginning of this life-long habit. Let us look at some of these behavioral patterns that we indulge in, without probably realizing that we are being hypocritical.


Religious cleansing as a license to commit more sins!
Hindus want to go on pilgrimages so that they can purify the soul to possibly gain more strength to continue indulging in whatever they were, earlier. Thousands of us attend religious discourses not with an intention to implement the good things that might be said there, but more to be seen attending a function considered “holy” and “good”. We take part in various rituals and mouth various prayers and songs without understanding the meaning of those words – all in the fond hope that this will somehow do good to us. Don’t we realize that leading a simple and humble life & trying to maximize the goodness within each one of us should really be our aim?



Personal hygiene versus public uncleanliness!
We take two baths a day but think nothing of littering streets, our neighbor's courtyard or public picnic places. Educated people don’t hesitate before jettisoning garbage out of their running cars. Civic sense in India is surely at its lowest and hypocrisy in matters of public hygiene at its peak.



We worship goddesses but would not give equal rights to women!
We continue to treat one half of our population as second class citizens. Educated males continue to think that decision making in the house too is their “right” and would not delegate this to their better halves. Women are not allowed to perform many religious rituals and there are temples where they are not allowed inside. There are intelligent sounding justifications for each of these but examine them carefully and you will realize hypocricy staring at you in the face.



Being proactive rather than indulging in self- satisfying post mortems.
Diplomacy is hypocricy in its most refined form (like triple filtered oil). Our foreign policy towards Pakistan is a good example of how true this is. A wag once defined diplomacy as the art of asking someone to “go jump in the well” but in a manner that he actually looks forward to doing it. We regularly read bombastic policy statements issued by the foreign office on how “patient” we have been and how we have scored “international brownie points” with our deft handling of provocations from this troublesome neighbour, while this neighbour happily continues to kill our brethren with impunity. If you examine this case history carefully, you will find self-justifying hypocricy being paraded as top class diplomacy.

Take that other national pastime – cricket and you will find a hue and cry being raised every time our team loses, with someone proposing with sickening regularity that we should do away with our zonal selection system which is not conducive to the best fifteen being chosen. Come the selection season and we revert back to the same old “you vote for my candidate and I’ll vote for yours” syndrome.

Psychologists infer that hypocricy is a result of an “identity crisis” that an individual faces and is fuelled by ones urge to “look good” than “being good”. People who castigate use of foreign languages would thus happily send their own children to English medium convent schools; eminent citizens who sing praises of our medical facilities would have their own by-pass surgery done abroad and government officers who talk of austerity would go and increase their own salaries. How do we get out of this morass?

Like all good things, dear readers, we need to start with ourselves. Promise yourself to shun hypocricy and see your life becoming more meaningful. Beware of the “withdrawal symptoms” though; they are bound to hit you as in the case of a smoker or a drug addict who is trying to shake off the habit.



"Mr. Prakash Shesh, the author, has done his MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad after his Masters in Physics from I.I.T. New Delhi. You may send your feedback to him by choosing an option at the top right corner of this page."