Indian Bureaucracy, Protestant Ethics, Hindu Growth Rate, ManMohan Singh and Anna Team Phenomenon

[Nagarjuna]

Dear All,
While enjoying my summer holidays back in Kanpur, this August, I had a
brush in with the phenomena called Anna Hazare on the streets of
Kanpur.
I must say I was happy to see students from elite and privileged
schools like Delhi Public School suddenly taking to the streets in
silent candle marches.
To me it did seem like they were "losing their political virginity".
I hope this experience will be remembered by them in their later more
experienced years like some of the career bureaucrats on this forum.
Talking of bureaucracy I am surprised that there is very little
sociological debate in intellectual circles on the larger meaning of
Indian bureaucracy and its differences from Western bureaucracy and
capitalism.
I must say I am personally very impressed with Arvind Kejriwal. There
is some very significant fermentation going on in India and I feel
happy that people like AK are in the Anna Team.
I hope people have the wisdom to understand the deeper currents.
The ustad of bureaucracy in terms of analysis of its theory was surely
the German philosopher Max Weber.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Weber
The deployment of Rapid Action Force at Ramlila Maidan follows from
Weber's comment ... "Politics as a Vocation, Weber defined the state
as an entity which successfully claims a "monopoly on the legitimate
use of violence".
A lot of Indian bureaucrats are now being trained in refresher courses
in Western cities and universities. I think courses like PPP and
globalization and public management are much in vogue.
This phenomena too needs to be understood along with how ManMohan
Singh is baffled that the Indian public is suddenly disenchanted with
his 9% growth rate mania for which he thought he may even be
considered for a Nobel Prize in Economics and would be lauded by
common Indians.
The so called Hindu growth rate of 3.5% has been exceeded. ManMohan
Singh and Montek are blissfully unaware of Protestant ethics and its
central role in Western bureaucracy.
He erred in thinking that 10-30% corruption in public life would be
acceptable to Hindus as long as GDP growth rate of 9% is clocked.
This is a serious judgemental error.
I feel that ManMohan Singh has not understood the centrality of
Protestant ethics in Western models, bureaucratic institutions and
paradigms of development.
After all he is a World Bank plant in Indian politics.
"The Protestant Ethic formed the earliest part in Weber's broader
investigation into the sociology of religion: he would go on to
examine the religions of China, the religions of India and ancient
Judaism, with particular regard to the apparent non-development of
capitalism in the corresponding societies, as well as to their
differing forms of social stratification.[a]
Religion, economic development and bureaucracy need to be understood
and reexamined in creative ways by a new breed of Indian political
intellectuals IMHO.
Modern day Indian bureaucrats also need to read the works of Dharampal
to understand what is going on. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharampal
Warm Regards,
Nikhil Nigam