Article - 46 Week 2 A Ghost In Our Living Room:

Article - 46 Week 2

A Ghost In Our Living Room:

William Bentinck wanted to cut costs of administration and authored the system of cheap English-knowing Babus to be the unkempt bridge to the natives. In turn the Babus turned their unique position to exploit the natives for their own self interests and also to please their English bosses. Macaulay insisted upon creating brown-sahibs to manage higher posts and believed that the brown sahibs will be more English than the English and would look down upon the barbarian natives. The brown-sahibs were designed to be Indian in blood & colour, while extremely English in their attitudes, thoughts, and loyalty. And they were meant to be a class apart from the pan chewing Babus who spoke in an odd mix of chewed up English & the vernaculars.

Bentinck must be having a hearty laugh from upstairs (If that is the place God gave him), while looking at our innumerable Babus - doing exactly what he set out to do. Macaulay must be wriggling with delight to watch our mandarins, fighting the growth of the native with all their might - from Policy Liberalisation to blocking files.

It is just unthinkable as to how and why we still hold on to the exploitative and repressive bureaucratic system. The system that was used to enslave & subjugate us, does not shame us any more, even when it undermines our progress, image, and pride as an independent nation with a rich cultural heritage and a hyper powered future! The IAS, IPS, IRS,(a grotesque variant of ICS), Bade babus, Chote babus, the peons, the hawaldars, and many such terminologies are shameful reminders of our enslaved past. And the system still thrives! Till such a repugnant system thrives, we can not call it a true democracy. Democracy also means having independent and fair institutions for the votaries. 

Rote acts and vomiting out the garbage in the tests on the corridors of JNU continues to produce handfuls of IAS & IPS recruits. I do not claim that they are any less talented or intelligent, just because they were forced to internalise texts and phrases to qualify. But is this an appropriate system of recruitment for the future mandarins of the nation? Do memory power, IQ, and spatial talents alone constitute the DNA of an administrator? 

If things don't move in India, it is ourselves to blame. While we shout out loud on corruption and other social issues, we keep mum on our administrative reforms. And if we don't fix this problem on time, we shall have a price to pay.

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