The Opposite of Shame

The Opposite of Shame

Is India psychologically ready to join the league of leading nations? Or have years of pressing her nose against the glass, from the outside looking in, stunted her self-image irrevocably? Do we, as a nation, understand that the opposite of shame is not a parochial shamelessness, but perhaps an assessment of how and why we are viewed favourably by other countries. Divining this properly, says American psychologist Dr. Nando Pelusi, helps one feel a glow of pride. Ergo “shame” and “pride” are two sides of the same emotional coin. If we confuse the issue, with what Pelusi delightfully terms “neanderthink”, we could end up over-generalising and tarring everyone with the same brush.

Nevertheless, the conduct of Indian economic policy for example, with its hesitant, two-steps-forward-one-step-back gait, suggests that our policy course, no matter which government is in office, keeps flipping this shame and pride coin. Currently it might be shamed at being unable to contain inflation and the effects of a stronger rupee, and proud of achieving GDP growth rates of over 8.5 percent. But, in this heads-and-tails-game, our e-handlers can’t seem to decide how to curb inflation and keep growing at the same time. So we end up ashamed of this upwardly mobile inflation. We are also ashamed to grow when the poor have to pay more for food and the middle class have to fork out fatter EMIs.

But maybe we are missing the essential point and refusing to take a risk. Growth has a way of blowing away all obstacles in its path and provides opportunities and options that its absence does not. Let us note that the outside world has been attracted to India primarily for her growth story, her size of domestic market, her conversely low dependence on exports when all the rest of Asia is export driven, her considerable human resource, her relatively mature institutions, her judicial system, her vibrant democracy, her impressive electoral system. And this despite huge disparities between the haves and the have-nots.

But, even the most ardent Indophile must be exasperated at the pace of progress on the ground, the ponderous rate of implementation and the hesitation that marks every reform. Maybe we need to take a risk, but in a way described by comic actor Mel Brooks: “Risk means guessing at the outcome but never second guessing,”he said.

(390 words)

By Gautam Mukherjee
Tuesday 12th February 2008