How Honest is India?

I would judge someone honest if s/he does good and just even when God is not watching. Judging a nation or place in general is very difficult, because of diversity. Here is an interesting report about honesty in Mumbai/India.

Reader’s Digest came up with a report (Aug’07) on an exercise it carried out in 32 cities across the world. They deliberately mislaid 1000 cell phones, and waited to see how people behave once they see the phones lying unclaimed. And to see how many phones are returned back. At some places they even video-recorded the whole process.

On an average, 30 cell phones were kept in a city. In India, Mumbai was the chosen place. The editor says that he expected to get back only 6 out of the 30 phones left at several places in the city. Some people in the team jokingly said that they weren’t expecting even a single cell-phone back. Do you know how many cell-phones were returned back in Mumbai? 24 out of 30! And do you know how other countries fared? Mumbai stands at World’s No. 5, above Paris, London or Singapore!

Coming to my own personal experience, yes, I have lost one mobile phone while getting into a Mumbai local train. And in one instance, a gang of three guys on a motorbike stopped a friend on mine in Thane and snatched away his phone. He lodged a police complaint but didn’t get it back. But these are cases of crimes and can’t be used to judge if people are honest or not.

The average Mumbaikar who returned the cell-phone back was not of a particular caste, religion or surname. The report tells the story of one Dharmendra Kumar, who had already lost three mobile phones himself in the city, but very promptly returned back the phone he found. He even asked the journalist in disguise: “Just how can you be so careless?” Mumbai is made what it is – good or bad - with the joint effort of both the migrants and the locals.

So what explains such high score on honesty, in case you wonder? We may say that such cases can be the result of general attitude of Mumbaikars to mind their own business, which some times goes to extreme limits. A woman reported in yesterday’s newspaper that a stupid person groped her from behind at a bus-stop but not a single person came to her help. She had to hit him with newspaper and verbally abuse him to get rid of him. But these cases of returning back the mobile phones needed the person to call up a contact from the address book of the phone and enquire and then make arrangements to give the phone back: it needed investment of time and effort. And if 24 out of 30 Mumbaikars still did it, it proves that we really are honest people!

After all, the land of Buddha and Gandhi, where children grow up listening to moral stories from their mothers with every dinner should reflect some times!