Hardly responsible:

Let us see why India hasn’t developed so much. What are the reasons for our “failure”? I started googling the reasons for this problem. Side by side, I noted the user comments on some popular forums, watched TV shows (like big fight, we the people etc) that fed users with heated discussions on a given topic. I started getting some good insights into the issue. Some claimed our society doesn’t encourage entrepreneurship; our education system is flawed; we are not original but only try to be copy cats of West. Makes sense, isn’t it. Some commentators went as far as saying that Indians are not team players. One person started with the line ‘The problem with Indians is ……..” Of course he is an Indian. I also learnt that we are short sighted. The above were the comments of people who were more educated and had more awareness to the latest issues and current affairs. Another group claimed that politicians and bureaucracy are the root of all evils and India would be much better off with a dictator. The answers in all I read and heard (in TV, radio) made one thing clear. Something needs to change. TV show hosts asserted that the education system has to change, the outdated laws needed over haul and the politicians need to look at the country with a long term perspective and take care of the fellow citizens.
With so many news papers, channels, forums, websites and few million intellectuals having in-depth insights about any issue in the country, it is hard to believe that we haven’t caught up with the West. By sheer number of smart people we would of course beat any other democratic country in the world in terms of collective knowledge and opinion (of course not in per capita terms). These million smart citizens are more than enough to change the country if not the whole world. But not much seems to be happening. Any reason for this situation? I am getting more confused now. I pause and think. After a while, an analogy strikes me – recollected this from what I heard sometime back from a young monk. Long ago, when the earliest civilizations begun, people started settling down on the river banks so that they get enough water for cultivation. Once in a while, the rivers crossed their boundaries and over flowed destroying the settlements around them. For many ages, people were wailing and cursing about the vagaries of nature. Luckily there was no internet or TV channels and so not many talk shows, hue and cries or blogs :). During that period, a limited few among the population saw this differently. They felt, “I am responsible for things happening around me”. They thought it is their duty to solve this problem. They tried to curtail the river. They tried hard, failed, failed again and finally managed to build dam. It is only because of these few responsible men at each point in human history that we are living in a relatively developed nation/world. The remaining people are just followers. All that the followers do is to talk and crib about the issues so that the responsible guys became aware of the issue. The followers, of course, help build opinion but all of the change happens because of the very few who feel deeper in their heart that they should take responsibility for everything. Today 99% of the big talk and opinion we hear all come from the followers. Unfortunately this post is intended to do the job of a follower with at most sincerity :(
The responsible souls who are less than 1% of the “talking” population take responsibility for our nation’s problems and give a fight. For example, during the early 90s, the media, their audience and every one would have cried about the state of demented women in the streets of Chennai. Only two college girls felt distressed and came forward to help these women and started Banyan*. Today, we all survive and lead a decent to good life only due to the efforts of very few who see the nation’s problems as their own and solve them. And it is also because of them that we hope to have a better life in the future.
* http://www.thebanyan.org/html/about.html