Corruption & Working Within the System

This morning was the engagement. After a relatively restless night’s sleep, I woke up, got ready, and we all headed to the “mandapam” for the ceremonies. There were the usual series of rituals and offerings. The most interesting was that there was actually a written contract between the parents that was read out to the gathered crowds and signed (to much fanfare) by both the parents. They essentially actually signed, in public, a written contract agreeing to have their kids marry each other. I wonder if this is an enforceable contract and if there are any specified damages in the event the engagement is later called off.

Later, while sitting around and discussing the state of world affairs, as is common in casual Indian gatherings, the conversation shifted to corruption and the ways in which people could pay bribes to get done, anything they wanted. There was one aspect of this conversation I found particularly fascinating. The group shook their head in apparent dismay when talking about how people could get almost anything past the customs officers with a well-placed bribe. They talked about how some of these processes were almost formalized, with the officer telling you how much the actual duty is and how much the unofficial duty would be if they wanted to pay under the table. They talked about how the key officials kept their hands clean and made innocuous statements that made their intention clear but never actually handled the money themselves. They could direct the person to another officer who would actually take the money and put aside a part to share informally later. All of this was said with head-shaking and a slight sense of disgust. However, they would spice each of these stories with personal examples of how they paid a bribe to get electronics pas customs, to get some paperwork expedited and more. I puzzled over how they could talk about how terrible and corrupt the system is, but still actively participate in that system. Based on my reading of Being Indian, I think that Indians may dislike a system and even consider it unethical to take bribes, but still see as using that corrupt system to achieve their goals quite acceptable. There is no moral conflict with paying bribes because that is the system. These same individuals would consider it abhorrent to ever take a bribe, but consider paying a bribe to get a task done an inevitable part of working within a corrupt system. The question always is, “what is the alternative?” If you don’t pay these bribes, you’ll never get anything done. So, some ethically questionable actions that are in the pursuit of acceptable goals is seen just as a part of getting through life. Maybe Pavan Varma is on to something. That afternoon, we headed to Mysore via Eagleton (Ramesh’s beautiful golf resort home). The day culminated in the “welcome dinner” at the beautiful Lalitha Mahal Palace Hotel. This is a spectacular palace built in 1921 for the visit of the Viceroy and then used by the Maharajah to house his important guests. We took a little tour of the palace and visited the Viceroy and Vicerine suites and then had dinner at the spectacular ballroom, which is now a gourmet restaurant.