We people in India are depressed about corruption and see no redemption out of it. We compare ourselves with countries like the USA and Europe. But in the process what we forget is that our country has obtained independence from the British a mere 77 years ago while the USA had it for 250 years. Similarly the countries of Europe had independence for centuries while India was rotting under exploitation for some 150 years. Moreover, India is a multilingual country with many states being bigger than many countries in the world. Despite having some common factors, there is a cultural difference between the North and the South, not to speak of the cultural differences between religions. India is also multicultural and is a complex country. That India was split into some 564 different states at the time of Independence itself proves its diversity and complex culture.
Corruption is the root cause of selfishness and any society that accepts corruption as a part of life can never function properly with slippages and strife everywhere. Corruption hits at the root cause of all ethics and climbing up and making money by any means becomes the philosophy of the society. That becomes the ethical standard of the day and it becomes extremely difficult for some people who value ethics to fight with society. For those people, changing themselves according to their own set ethical philosophy is one, but changing the population at large is an extremely challenging task which would defeat the most number of such people who would find it impossible to make any dent on societal philosophy.
In this context, let us examine the corruption in the USA. It had loads of corruption 150 years ago almost 100 years after the US became independent. That corruption is comparable to the corruption in a developing country of today. There was political corruption then, political parties provided jobs to supporters who use those jobs to generate illicit income for themselves and also for party bosses and mobilize voters to support the candidate backed by the party. Just like in India and more so in a state like West Bengal.
The political parties dominated local governments and had the practice of buying and selling government jobs. Wealthy businesses corrupted the political bosses by offering bribes to legislators.
Perhaps the main difference of the US of that time was while despite being a developing country, it was wealthy while the current day developing countries are poor. However, despite having corruption the US did not become a Kleptocracy (where the leaders make themselves rich and powerful by stealing from the rest of the people). Most of its Presidents did not mis-utilize the state’s power and resources and were not corrupt. Also at the Federal level, the courts and prosecutors appeared mostly non-corrupt.
The US in the late nineteenth and early 20th century had to make efforts to curb systematic corruption which was not only widespread but was deeply mixed with the political system. That was how business got done in the USA then.
The gilded age was between the years 1870 to the late 1890’s when the US economic growth was rapid but corruption also peaked then. The period saw an influx of millions of European immigrants. There was rampant political corruption then. The Southern part of the USA remained comparatively backward then on account of the civil war of 1861-65 which ravaged it. The Civil war itself was triggered by the election of Abraham Lincoln as the President in 1860. The Southern states felt that he would abolish slavery on which they were dependent.
It is possible that the corruption reformers in India, Brazil and Nigeria may bear a close resemblance to those of the US 150 years ago, as they too are democracies as the USA was then. But then at the same time it is a terrible thought to think that perhaps India has to wait for another 100 years or more to achieve that level of society in the USA guarded by strong laws in the society that would make it impossible for people to deviate from the laws of the land. It is the fear that they would be punished by the laws of the land if they do so acts as a huge deterrent to the people who want to try that. No doubt some people would try it even then because humans are essentially selfish, but the number who would do that becomes far less and the scope to get away becomes very limited.
China has made rapid progress in controlling corruption by being ruthless with people who indulged in it. This has allowed it to expand its income rapidly which cut inequality and provided rapid opportunity to the people. In 1962 at the time of India China war, the Indian per capita was 28% higher than that of the Chinese. Today the Chinese per capita is 500% of India’s. Again, till the year 1990 China has not grown much, but it is the economic reforms coupled with strict implementation of laws through dictatorship made the economy rise rapidly in just 34 years.
That single point alone proves how effective the Communist dictatorship had been in implementing the laws ruthlessly and lifting their country’s rapidly and controlling corruption. Today the Chinese growth has slowed down on account of the blunder they committed in their real estate sector, but it is bound to bounce back soon.
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