Some of you may have heard or (better still) read the delightful short stories and novels by Munshi Premchand (1880-1936), one of the greatest novelists of India. Premchand had painted extremaly real life pictures of the evolving social and political norms, and the class struggle in rural and semi urban India during the British Rule.

One of his story, Namak Ka Daroga (The Salt Inspector) hits the nail over the head on the societal perception of corruption in the emerging middle class. As the story goes, the British imposed control on salt trade and a new department was born for tax collection. A black market in salt trade sprung up feeding on bribery. Father of the protagonist in the story, a young man seeking a job, told his son to look for a job with a handsome underhand income, as salary was paid by man, but under-the-table income was a true gift from above. The old man further explained, that a salary was like a full moon that appeared only once in month and waned away. The under-the-table income, earned by winking at unscrupulous traders, he advised his son, remained constant like a spring, and never depleted.

So much for the moral compass of the middle class during that period!

The young aspirant became a Salt Inspector monitoring the salt trade. Brimming with enthusiasm of a newbie (and ignoring the parental advise), he caught a big and influential unscrupulous trader, who was trying to move salt illegally. The trader tried to bribe the inspector with no luck. As the Inspector's luck would have it, the trader had the Inspector's superiors in his pocket, and the young recruit was promptly fired, earning the wrath of his father.  

The author ended this parable like story on a positive note, when the trader actually hired the fired inspector, because of his integrity.

Can you spot all the subtext messages in the story here?

Do you agree that while parents like those of the young inspector abound even today, connoisseur of integrity like the trader are becoming harder to find?

One more, this time a historical fact and not a pseudo fiction. Back again during the British Rule, it was a tradition that you never went to the court of a Zamindar or the District Collector, without bearing gifts, "Dali" as it was called then. Most British Collectors lived off these gifts, and saved every penny from their salary (which they remitted back to England). After Independence, this practice was banned, but the ban has been observed sometimes more in it's breach!

The transformation from the role of a "ruler" to  a " provider of services"  has not happened as rapidly as desirable, when the governance changed from the dominion rule under a foreign power, to a full democracy transfering power to the people (or to the "people")!

We will look at Anna Hazare's plans of adding 3 more issues to the current movement, and his move for electoral reforms in the next post!