M Vishweshvarayya: National Character

Source: Chapter XVIII, Memoirs Of My Working Life, M Vishweshvarayya, 1951

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The way to build a better nation is to build better individuals.  A successful nation is usually composed of citizens, the majority of whom are efficient, of good character and possess a reasonably high sense of duty. An individual who aspires to be trusted should have character. The foundation of business, as we know it, is credit. Credit depends upon confidence, and confidence upon character.

A plan and programme of essential national ideals and duties and of specific policies and practices to give effect to them, under the best advice available, are necessary for a people to build themselves up into an efficient modern nation.

At present an overwhelming majority of the population of India is untrained and undisciplined. Only a small percentage can be said to come up to the desired standard. The great majority are ignorant of even the three R’s and are content to follow static, unprogressive policies and traditional practices.

Foreign nations cannot be expected to advise Indians on how to develop into an efficient nation. Both the Government and national leaders should assume this responsibility of building a good national character, progressive behaviour and corresponding wholesome habits in the population.

The development of a good national character should form one of the country’s long-range policies. This policy should be encouraged by every citizen who wishes to see the Indian nation rise to a position of esteem for efficiency and high character among the nations of the world.

Character and efficiency in the long run lead to high working capacity, comfortable living and longevity. There is vast difference in the standards attained in these respects by the people of an advanced Western country, like the United States of America, and by those of the present-day Indian Union.

Education and Planned Life

It cannot be too often emphasised that one of the main reasons why the average Indian has a low earning capacity is that the great bulk of the country’s population is uneducated. Besides illiteracy, what keeps the people poor and inefficient is their lack of regular  business habits.

Mainly as a result of these defects the average Indian lives an irregular life, largely based on tradition. He lacks the guidance needed for progressive living. There are, it is true, many shrewd people who, although uneducated, are accustomed to thinking and judging wisely in their limited spheres but, generally speaking, lack of education keeps them shut out by an iron curtain from the higher advantages and refinements of life.

Some citizens, though without education, may through exceptional natural gifts gain influence and prosper, but higher education, disciplined habits and a thought-out plan of life are most valuable to raise the individual’s character and standard of living appreciably.

The reason why countries like the United States of America are more prosperous and maintain a high level of civilisation and why their people live longer is because they have access to the highest educational facilities obtainable in the world and their people are the best informed on world affairs. They have a set purpose or plan and they work with disciplined habits.

The average American is far better equipped with education, practical skill, mechanical equipment and knowledge of the world. The Americans have great organising ability and enterprise and they work much harder than the people of India. They lead disciplined lives and hard work not unusually makes them stronger and more efficient for their working life than they would otherwise be. They have leaders of merit and capacity, who have accumulated and mastered the experience of many generations in their respective occupations or callings, to guide them.

In India, on the other hand, the great bulk of the population is uneducated, and large numbers of them, who were hitherto content to follow the way of life of their forefathers, which lacked ambition and enterprise, now find themselves hard put to it to secure a comfortable living in the present-day crowded surroundings.

Lack of education has led to indolence and absence of ambition. The capacity for organisation and creative power remains low or altogether lacking. Mainly due to absence of education, the earning power of an average Indian is in practice less than one-tenth of that of an American, and the expectation of life in India is less than one-half of that in America.

One essential prerequisite of progress in India is, therefore, compulsory primary education such as Russia first provided its population with when it began a career of reform. It is hoped that this very grave lacuna will no longer remain unnoticed by our national Government.

In 1946 the writer was told by officials of the Education Department of New York that if a child of school-going age failed to attend an educational institution, the parents were liable to arrest. In India firmness of this type is lacking in the execution of orders, rules and precepts even when set forth as binding.

Certain Basic Ideas of Life and Knowledge of World Affairs

Certain basic ideas may be set forth in this connection which will form a background for reform.

The working power of an average Indian, judged by the results usually available, is exceptionally low. I say exceptionally, because the population is growing more rapidly than the means of subsistence needed to maintain the growth. India, although an agricultural country, fails to grow enough food for its population, and at present is not earning enough by other occupations or pursuits to pay for the requisite import of food from abroad.

One common slogan of the West, the importance of which the Indian citizen has not yet sufficiently grasped, is:

” If you do not work,
Neither shall you eat.”

It is by his work that an individual is enabled to earn a living.

Every man should take the responsibility to do sufficient work and gain a satisfactory livelihood for himself and his family, and not be a burden on others. He should do more than that, and normally render any other service to his country and neighbours when he can. Work performed with higher knowledge or skill, capacity or ambition, usually brings a correspondingly higher reward.

To make him efficient, the average Indian must work harder than he does now, must develop disciplined habits and should equip himself, as far as circumstances permit him to do so, with a sound knowledge of general world affairs. Every individual who considers himself progressive should endeavour to acquire such knowledge. If he possesses higher capacity and merit and is inspired by ambition, he ought to put forth his best efforts to do any work which comes his way as efficiently as possible. Every man who has become great owes his achievements to incessant toil.

In India we are not trained to act up to these truths and standards, we are brought up under softer conditions and dreary ideals; we are not trained to face risks when they arise. The industrial leaders of the West are so trained. They come from a race accustomed to struggle and enterprise.

The Americans are the richest nation today. Their standard of living is the highest in the world ; yet when occasion arises for enterprise, they are ready for anything, even to fight and sacrifice their lives.

Our philosophy in India is different; it lacks ambition and hustle.

Americans are not content with mere security in business life. Mr. Sumner Slichter, a Professor of Harvard University, Boston, at a public function in America a couple of years ago, expressed himself as follows :

“Undoubtedly security is worthy of a high place in man’s ideals. Let us remember, however, that no nation has achieved greatness simply by striving for security . . . More positive and dynamic ideals are needed in order to bring out the best in men. The nation which wishes to be great must place enterprise ahead of security. The employment opportunities of many depend on the enterprise of a few. The country must therefore regard innovators, experimenters, starters of enterprises, as peculiarly useful citizens and go out of its way to furnish them a congenial and hospitable environment.

“It (the country) must strive to increase the proportion of its citizens to become experimenters and innovators who make their living, not by getting on someone else’s pay-roll, but creating pay-rolls of their own.”

There are other healthy characteristics which modern nations have developed, namely, industry, unity, forethought, ambition, and they have learnt to put forth the necessary amount of work to do things thoroughly.

An example of precision or attempt at thoroughness is given in the life of Mr. Joseph Pulitzer, Master Journalist, of the New York World, in the following extract taken from Pearson’s Magazine for March 1909:

“At the call of his newspapers, his (Mr. Pulitzer’s) mental and moral powers fall into instant order and he will struggle for hours to get a fact or a thought in its most powerful and striking relationship, or feel out a single phrase or even a word in its nicest, most exact and unforgettable sense to startle and convince. This is the result of discipline.”

In the present crowded state of the world, sound habits and good behaviour are indispensable for every community to constitute itself a body of successful business men. The average citizen will learn from experience that what keeps him in sound health and prolongs his life is organised planned work and disciplined habits.

Regular hours of work, punctual attendance to duty, standard business habits, appreciation of the value of time are some of the practices which help to improve the individual’s chances of attaining a prosperous, care-free, healthy life.

Natural intelligence and capacity may be high or low but they have to be further developed by forethought, industry and will-power to obtain their due reward.

Success in any profession or trade is due largely to the capacity, individuality, integrity and foresight of the person who attains it. Man’s success in life depends on man’s own exertions. Most ship-wrecks in life, perhaps all which are not caused by accident (says an old issue of the journal Monist), occur because people follow pleasure and avoid pain. A man whose maxim is to seek pleasure and avoid pain is sure to go to the wall. Mastery over pleasure and pain is the basis of any permanent and well deserved success in life. It is the stamp of dignity that moral actions bear; it is the indispensable condition of a great man’s greatness.

Rules of Conduct

Any rules to regulate conduct, to be easily remembered by the Indian citizen, should be given in the briefest form. That form is attempted under four heads in what follows :

(i) Harder work — The average Indian is inclined to take things easy. The amount of work or effort put in by him in the usual course is small. The efficiency and economic strength of the country are in consequence very low.

In Western countries citizens work harder, the quality of their work is high and, therefore, the income earned and the standard of living maintained both happen to be comparatively far higher.

(ii) Planned disciplined work — If work is done in a disciplined manner by assigning to it a fixed number of hours regularly every day, it will considerably enhance the value of effort.

Hard work performed in a disciplined manner will in most cases keep the worker fit and also prolong his life.

The popular belief, that rest under all conditions benefits health, should be discarded. Many people resort to change of work for relief; it is action-cure, not rest-cure, in their case.

(iii) Efficiency — Efficiency implies the possession, in a high degree, of the qualities of diligence, ambition, punctuality, discipline, precision, and a desire to do one’s work of as high a quality as possible. Ordinarily, the higher the quality of work the greater will be the reward.

(iv) Courtesy and service — In Western countries the capacity to work in harmony with one’s fellow men is highly appreciated. Friendly feeling between individuals to the same extent is lacking in India at present.

The behaviour of every citizen to fellow workers or neighbours should be marked by harmony and courtesy.

The above four precepts should be persistently kept in view by every citizen who wishes to succeed and who expects to be regarded as a worthy member of the community.

These advantageous qualities are not acquired without preparation or training. Such training should be given in educational institutions, and for the adult population by propaganda under Government direction, as was done in Japan.

The circumstance that we are under a national Government has kindled fresh desires and roused new ambitions.

The foregoing four rules have for their aim the promotion of harmony and unity among the people and the enhancement of their sense of duty and responsibility.