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Introduction To Indian Ethos and Values

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168 views

Introduction To Indian Ethos and Values

Uploaded by

psrajaa
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© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Indian Ethos and values…

CA V Sreeraman
Before we proceed…

• Business is meant for “profits” no doubt…


But do we agree that profit motive over
rides all other issues like the means to
earn the same….
• We all “respect” some business houses but
do we really look into how they operate….
• Consider the following examples….
Case 1-Is tobacco
bad?
• British American Tobacco and Philip Morris
knowingly lied about a product – tobacco –
that led to addiction and killed their
customers. The World Health Organization
estimates four million people die yearly
from tobacco- related illness. No-one has
been tried for this conscious infliction of
terrible hurt.
Case 2 - Is human
life valueless?
• Johns-Manville and the Cape Company
knowingly exposed millions of people to
poisonous asbestos. Some 18 per cent of
serious exposures are estimated to result
in life-threatening disease. They lied to
governments and workers as they chased
profits at the expense of life. No-one has
been charged with a criminal offence.
Case 3 - Care for
others….
• The manufacturer AH Robins knew that its
intrauterine contraceptive device would let
loose organ-affecting bacteria when
inserted in women. Many miscarriages and
some deaths later, they went into
bankruptcy – but no-one was ever
prosecuted for this willful infliction of harm.
Case 4- Surprising…

• Nestlé hustled women in poor countries to use their


powdered milk, instead of breast milk. When the
powder was mixed with impure water, large
numbers of babies got sick. Some died. If Nestlé did
not comprehend this at first, protesters brought it to
their attention.
• Yet they persisted in their quest for profits at the
cost of babies’ lives for many years.
Case 5 -You too….

• Ford made a Pinto car that exploded on


touch. It had known this could happen, but
preferred not to cut into its profits by
recalling the car – paying damages to the
burnt victims was cheaper.
• No-one was ever convicted for these
deaths by immolation.
Case 6 - On our own
ground…
• Just before dawn on 3 June, 1997, police officers
forcibly entered the homes of several women in
Veldur, a fishing village in western India, dragged
them into waiting police vans and beat them with
sticks. The only ‘crime’ committed by these women
was to lead a peaceful protest against the
environmental impact of Enron’s massive new
Dabhol natural-gas plant being built near Veldur.
Cruelty….

• According to Amnesty International, one of


the women who was arrested in 1997 was
Sugandha Vasudev Bhalekar a 24-year-old
housewife whose husband, Baba Bhalekar,
was a known leader of the protests.
• At the time of the arrest she was three
months’ pregnant.
Harsh reality

• She testified to the Judicial Magistrate: ‘At around


five in the morning, when I was in the bathroom,
several male police with batons in their hands
forcibly entered the house and started beating
members of [my] family who were asleep.... the
police forcibly opened the door and dragged me out
of the house into the police van parked on the road.
Police Atrocity…

• [While dragging me] the police kept


beating me on my back with batons. The
humiliation meted out to the other
members of my family was similar to the
way I was humiliated... My one-and-a-half-
year-old daughter held on to me, but the
police kicked her away.’
Law and order!

• A January 1999 report by Human Rights Watch (HRW)


investigators found that Enron was directly paying police
salaries.
• Police Sub-Inspector PG Satoshe, who was in charge of this
operation, told HRW that Enron was picking up the tab for policing
Dabhol. ‘I calculate the number of officers there and
according to the (government set) rates, submit a report to
the superintendent of police in Ratnagiri... I do not handle
any money. The company pays directly to the Government.’
What do all these
mean……
• Is there something called “Doing business the
right way?”…
• If so, how can one define as to what is the “right
way?”….
• Can this be prescribed by man made laws and
strictly supervised ?
• Are these instances reflective of issues wherein
individuals concerned must have strong urge to
have “concern for others” without getting worried
about “why” and “what” of it?
We do have an
answer….
• Indians take pride in having propounded to the
world the principles of “Dharma”
• Dharma distinguishes between “neeti” and
“nyaya”
• “Neeti” refers to the enactments of legislatures
that regulate public conduct while “Nyaya” refers
to the criterion of person action, of what a man
should do by himself and for himself i.e.
individual morality.
Code of conduct…

Hierarchy is established as follows-


• Vedas
• Sruti
• Smriti
• Conduct of those who know Smriti
• Virtuous actions of good people who are pure in
heart
• Intimation of pure conscience
Conclusion….

• This land, Bharatvarsha is a spiritual land


where “religion” is one based on
experience and not one based on study.
• Whatever “Dharmas” we have acquired
today have all come down to us as a result
of experience and not as a result of
bookish knowledge.
• Upanishad says – Satyam vada, Dharmam
Chara
Indian ethos….

Plain living and High Thinking

Dharma is the root of our religious tree; bhakti and jnana are its flowers and
fruits.

Strength is life; Weakness is death. It is truth alone that gives strength


Indian ethos…

• Reforming the lives of people through advice, either


spoken or written, or even through propaganda may have
a temporary effect; but not lasting benefit.
• Anything achieved through pressure will disappear the
moment the pressure is withdrawn.
• The Hinduism has seen spiritual leaders who have
succeeded in revolutionizing thought because they lived
in their own life what they preached; Sri Ramakrishna
Paramahamsa, Sri Ramana Maharishi, Sri Aurobindo,
…..the list is illustrious!

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