Swami Vivekananda, the great Indian philosopher, sarcastically referred to adults devoid of civic values as ‘moustached babies’. This showed how peeved he was at the attitude of our people, who did not exhibit expected norms of social behaviour. A great thinker that he was, he died at a comparatively younger age leaving so much treasure of thoughts for his countrymen — attacking age-old cultural taboos.
Relating to irrationality in food habits, he referred to our obstinate reliance on these (then) as ‘religion of kitchen’. There is no attempt at internalising such gems of wisdom. The best of the so-called elite sets no example to be emulated by the lesser mortals. It is interesting though that many of these persons start behaving once they set their foot on a foreign land for fear of being ridiculed.
A highly irresponsible public behaviour is urinating in public spaces. Khushwant Singh rightly called those urinating on the roadsides as ‘slaves of their bowels’. It is so disgusting to find people urinating on Delhi roads in broad day light after parking their cars or scooters. Who are these guysIJ They are not our poor slum dwellers without a shelter or access to basic amenities. They are typical middle and even upper classes that pride itself in everything but have no training in basic etiquettes.
One needs to ask them why cannot they wait till they reach their place of work, residence or what ever their destination before deciding to make a public display of their prostatic impairmentIJ These people are in need of help. How else could one explain such uncouth and nasty scenes enacted daily on city roadsIJ So if some adults (not old, genuine sufferers) still need to wear their nappies, they can only be called moustached babies.
We are infested with littering bug. Go to any public park, monument, market, railway station, there will be heaps of garbage that you wonder if the municipal van has just unloaded itself. Fact is, in our total blindness to the surrounding, we revel in spreading filth — it is the duty of the municipal workers to clean the mess that is what they are here for — irrespective of our educational background, caste or creed. No place can ever be kept clean by some hired hands until the citizenry performs its basic duty to take care and make some contribution towards that objective. The littering habit also shows that we are moustached babies and have grown up without inculcating any of the adult learning.
Swami Vivekananda is not there to guide us. But why doesn’t each one of us ask questionsIJ When I see a person throwing an empty can or plastic bottle from a moving sedan after lowering his power window, I wonder what would be his upbringing like or social background. How can a civilised person throw rubbish on the streetIJ It is pathetic to find litter strewn all over the city spaces, streets, markets and parks despite the dustbins placed in good number. This filth is spread by people who are all ‘well-connected’ and ‘influential’ people and not street urchins.
An interesting booklet by Swami Ranganathananda, Enlightened Citizenship and Our Democracy, being a compendium of his discourses given in a symposium in 1980, in a very simple and lucid language, explained his well-researched ideas on civic values in Indian context. Even three decades earlier, he was complaining about the absence of civic values, declining standards of urban living, and lack of community feelings. He characterised these negative traits in one phrase, the ‘pathology of law-breaking’.
This expression very appropriately conveys the lack of civic virtues in citizens, and one could not agree more. How else would one explain people parking their car or bike and urinating on city streets in broad-day light, littering on the streets, jumping the traffic signal, blaring horns like mad and indulging in vandalism at heritage sitesIJ These people are in need of help. They are ‘moustached babies’ of Vivekananda and suffer from ‘pathology of law-breaking’ of Ranganathananda.
Reflecting on the lack of responsible behaviour, Nani Palkhivala said, “While eternal vigilance is undoubtedly the price of liberty, yet in a more profound sense eternal responsibility is also part of the price of liberty”. Responsibility (of thinking, conduct and behaviour) thus, in a manner of speaking becomes the core of civic discipline.
We may recall that some of these were sought to be ingrained by incorporation of Fundamental Duties in the Indian Constitution in 1976. Though law alone cannot bring about a change should be crystal clear to all; it is a behaviour change communication issue to be achieved through a mix of socially marketing the civic ideas and enforcing it through strict regulatory framework.
The need is to make a beginning somewhere. Our urban landscape is in desperate need of reinventing itself in terms of adherence to law and observance of basic norms of civic behaviour. The quality of life defines a place and that among other things depends on altering the undesirable behaviours enlisted above. When the debate is now centering on the image market, cities would be more competitive if its inhabitants start living within the boundaries of law.