The Price of Being a Taker
The status of first class-citizen cannot be achieved through legislation. It can be achieved only by assuming the role of
giver in society.
In the course of my several visits to the USA over a period of years, I have happened to meet Indians of both the Muslim and Hindu communities. I realized that senior members of both communities have a common concern: they fear that the future generation is rapidly losing the identity of its traditional culture. Indeed, I have seen that although families of both the communities have achieved substantial material progress, they are nevertheless unhappy. They feel strongly that their children will suffer a fate commonly known as cultural assimilation. I told the senior members of both the communities that their fear might be genuine but that their present efforts were not going to yield any positive results.
What is the real problem with these generations? It is that both the communities are living in the USA as takers and not as givers. Both the communities strive to earn American dollars but they don’t try to figure as giver members of American society. In the course of a conversation, one senior Indian remarked that the present development of America was due mostly to the labours of the immigrants. I said, “No, although apparently immigrants seem to be working in the developmental activities of the USA, in actual fact the credit goes not to Mr. Immigrant but to Mr. Incentive.”
It is a fact that these immigrants have failed to perform well in their own countries, whereas in the USA they are seen to be involved in almost all the activities of development and progress. The reason is that in the USA every success is based on merit, so these immigrants become heroes in achieving that success. By taking account of this fact, one can say that the credit goes to Mr. Incentive and not to Mr. Immigrant.
After independence, India’s economy came under the control of the state – a system whereby everything depended upon state policy. That meant that there was no free competition, everything being decided by the state, with the individual entirely subjected to state policy. It must be conceded that a state controlled economy renders people incentive-less and incentive-less people work only as is laid down in rules and regulations and not according to their full and natural capacity.
Once, on a visit to the USA in 1893, Swami Vivekananda walked along a street in Chicago, clad, according to the swami custom, in just two lengths of untailored cloth. At that time in the USA, this form of attire was quite unfamiliar. On seeing this, a woman whispered to her husband, “I don’t think that man is a gentleman.” Overhearing this remark, Swami Vivekananda approached the lady and said politely: “Excuse me, Madam, in your country it is the tailor who makes a man a gentleman, but in the country from which I come, it is character which makes a man a gentleman.” I narrated this story to an American professor. He smiled and said, “In the past maybe this was the Indian culture but now character is an export item for Indians. It is not meant for domestic consumption.” If the Indian community wants to save their next generation, they should try to make themselves a giver group of American society. If their next generation continues to be taker members of American society, no effort will ever save them from being assimilated in American culture.
Some Indians may complain that in the USA they are treated as second-class citizens. If so, it is not due to any kind of discriminatory legislation. And even if there were strong legislation upholding equal status for all, Indians would still inevitably become second-class citizens. The status of first class-citizen cannot be achieved through legislation. It can be achieved only by assuming the role of giver in society. There is a well-known saying, ‘It is in giving that we receive.’ This saying aptly applies to the present situation of the Indian community.
