Sushant Singh Rajput, the great actor, murdered himself. Yes, so what? Well, he’s a star and how could it happen? With due regards to the late actor, so what?

How about the normal person who murders himself or is murdered because he or she was doing what they believed in sincerely in life? Who cries on their behalf? Who asks justice on their behalf?

It is time we take this unfortunate demise of Sushant Singh Rajput as a mirror and hold it against our own faces and introspect. Who is next? You or me? Maybe, your child. Maybe, your grandchild. Maybe, our neighbor or their child. Maybe, our friend or their child. Who knows?

Is what happened to Sushant Singh Rajput an unique case from an India viewpoint or the world’s? It is necessary to go deep to understand the underlying issues behind such honest people losing their lives. Every society including the US and UK has its set of problems with no exceptions. India is no exception. If one confronts them in the eye, half the problem is solved. Recognize the pattern and you know there is hope to eradicate or at least minimize the problems in a society.

I would like to classify seven major anti-merit mindsets in my view that prevent merit from flourishing in our  Indian democracy and also list practical examples we  face and possible solutions to eradicate or minimize each anti-merit mindset type.

  1. Corruption mindset: This is one of the most common mindsets in Indian society. The average common man is expected to pay exorbitant fees under the table for services he is rightfully entitled to at a nominal fee above the table. This is mostly a relic of India’s foreign rulers’ administration carried over into India judiciously after independence with no political will to curb such practices. This affects every citizen equally and requires no great elaboration. For any service required at a government office, harassment due to corruption is rampant. 

Examples:

  1. For an honest Indian, getting a vehicle driving license from the stateTransport Department is an all too familiar ordeal to
  2. For a businessman to set up a company is a difficult proposition. The individual generates wealth in the society and he is harassed to no end before a commercial license is finally
  3. Let us not forget the sacrifices of our late brave Civil Services officers like Satyendra Dubey, Saurabh Kumasi, S Muthukumaraswamy, DK Ravi, Pandillappalli Srinivasan, Narendra Kumar and Shanmugham Manjunath who were murdered by the mafia for highlighting their irregularities (Source: www.indiatimes.com).
  4. We can take strength from honest officers like Kiran Bedi (present Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry), Rashmi Mahesh, Ajit Doval, U.Sagayam and Shivdeep Lande (among others who are diligently executing their duties in spite of the obstacles and personal inconveniences they face (Source: www.indiatimes.com).

Solutions:

  1. Elect a state government that shows an intention to reform the state administration.
  2. As a common citizen, start avoiding paying corruption money wherever you can. Every small step matters.
  3. Use social media responsibly to highlight discrepancies to the right people. It is a powerful tool for a common man.

Narayana Murthy, Infosys founder, who is choosy with his words, stated in an interview just before 2019 Central elections that Central government corruption has come down to nearly zero after 2014 under the new Central administration. Can you believe this has actually happened in India? Well, it has, my dear friends. Many educated Indians avoid discussing or thinking about politics thinking it does not affect their lives. Make no mistake, your State and Central governments influence your quality of life in ways seen and unseen.

2. Superiority or Entitlement mindset: This mindset is fueled by possessing status, power, educational and/or birth pedigree. This is also known as an elitist mindset.This is about taking advantage of one’s position in life to trouble another human being just to prove one is superior to the other.

Examples:

  1. Few cases under this category come under wrong interpretation of the time-tested varna and jati concepts of Sanatana Dharma and instead following the caste system concept introduced by the British to divide and rule India. In the US and UK, this mindset is existent as racism, which is based on ethnicity.
  2. Politicians wielding their influence in society at the expense of whom they serve.
  3. Progeny of certain families who believe the world sings to their tunes.
  4. Few people take immense pride in the educational institutions they have studied in and look down others who have not studied from those institutions.
  5. The Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case in 2012
  6. The acid attack victim Laxmi Agarwal’s case

Solutions:

  1. Varna was one system arrived at by our ancestors to regulate a society’s productivity. In fact, everybody follows the four varnas in their life. Every varna is equal in status and nothing is superior. All are important jobs for a society to function properly. From an unknown source on Facebook, I picked up this beautiful illustration on varna for sharing.

‘One is a Brahmin when one studies or teaches their kids, one is a Kshatriya while protecting one’s family, one is a Vaishya when managing the affairs of the house and seeing to it one’s family does not fall upon hard times, and one is a Shudra when one cleans the house and similar manual labor in the house’. 

Thus the Hindu way of life has all these aspects. Also, varna system can be made use of to adopt one’s main occupation in life: Brahmin type of job: Thinking/Analyzing/Teaching profession job, Kshatriya type of job: Armed/Police forces, Civil Services/Politics, Vaishya type of job: Business/Merchant Navy and Shudra type of job: Cleaning services/Facility Management/Garbage clearance/Road construction/Real estate construction/ Factory production work involving physical labor to quote few examples.

  1. Elect a Central and State Government that is willing to serve its subjects. With this step, you get a responsive government that listens to the voice of the people and takes their feedback for development and welfare measures thus improving your quality of life.
  1. Do not feel insecure when you come across a person belonging to a certain family or an alumnus from a certain education institution. Life is yours for the taking and God helps those who help themselves. Observe and learn. Books and life’s experiences with a faith in God should be one’s life’s teachers. Never believe life has come to a standstill. One can be slow but one must move on forward. Take help from people who are qualified and willing to help you.
  1. We should teach our boys to equally respect girls. After all, everybody is someone’s child.

3. Anti-Hindu or Hindu-dividing mindset: Historical and current agenda of some anti-Hindu and thereby anti-India forces fueled by mostly foreign rulers in the past to divide and rule India and continued in the present age.

Examples (quoting from Rajiv Malhotra’s Breaking India book, a highly path breaking book to understand India’s past and present, highly recommended to read):

  • Aryan Invasion Theory was created by Max Mueller, the German intellectual, under employment of the British to devise a scheme to divide India. This theory successfully created a wrong belief that exists till this day that North Indians are descendants from Europe.
  • Dravidian Theory was created by Bishop Robert Caldwell from the Anglican Church. This theory successfully created a wrong belief that the Dravidians preceded the Aryans in India and Brahmins connived with the Aryans to subdue the Dravidians.

Once these two theories were introduced and institutionalized by the British,the rest as someone said is history, Indians had been whitewashed of culture and the mental damage was done, the effects of which are evident till today.

Solutions:

  • Educate yourself about true Indian history. Do not believe the history you studied in your school. The historians who wrote those textbooks are of Communist school of thought who want to distort the past of the Indians so we never learn the truth. 
  • Every society had some shortcomings but it doesn’t mean you damn a society for it. Your parents may have faults in them, but it doesn’t mean you abandon or damn them. Remember, they gave birth to you, raised you, educated you and made you independent. You have an identity in this world because of them.

4. Age mindset: This mindset is purely borne out of being older to someone. Just because someone is of an older age, some people tend to bully others who are younger to them. This is present in every society and also in Asian societies where one is expected to respect elders even if they are one year elder to you. Deference is a virtue but taking advantage of deference is harmful to an individual. Give and take respect should be mutual.

Examples:

  1. Remember your school or college bullies. Everybody may have faced a bully at sometime or the other.
  2. One of your older cousins may have bullied you. May have sexually abused you probably.

Solutions:

  1. Like Swami Vivekananda alluded in his messages, learn to face your adversaries in the eye without any fear
  2. Seek support from qualified and well-meaning elders/counselors

5. Jealousy/Selfish mindset: This mindset is fueled by, ‘If I allow someone to get benefited by me, one day he will over-rule me and I’ll land up on the streets or somehow be disadvantaged’.

    Examples:

This is a common trait experienced by most people and is self-explanatory   and does not require explicit examples to illustrate.

Solution:

It is not easy but we must open up and help people. If not 100%, which is ideal, at least we should help 90% of the time. It is really fulfilling to help someone without expecting anything in return.

6. Criminal mindset: Achieve something through force and other illegal means and not being worried about the harm caused to somebody in the process.

 Examples:

  1. Dawood Ibrahim and team funding illegal activities in India
  2. Land mafia et al grabbing resources at will in India. It is a big nexus and foreign hands are also having a say in the mafias. Highly interconnected parties.
  3. Khalistan movement to liberate Punjab from India.

Solutions: 

  1. Stricter enforcement by law and order authorities, and severe penalties for criminal activities.
  2. Sensibly elect your State and Central governments.
  3. Understand what is happening in society and try to connect the dots.

7. Enemy mindset: This mindset is fueled by the need to keep India subdued always and never let it prosper, and flex its muscles in the international sphere. He/She who does not wish well for you, your family and your society is an enemy. This mindset according to Rajiv Malhotra includes religious fanatics especially from Islam, over zealous conversion enthusiasts especially Christian missionaries and overzealous Communist-influenced individuals who believe in constant rebellion against the government of the land under the false promise to deliver social equality for the citizens.

    Examples:

  1. The Middle East and Pakistan-sponsored Islamic Jihad Program is pumping a lot of resources including money to destabilize India and thwart its development so that the economy keeps suffering and affects honest citizens from thriving on a merit basis. Recent example is the 2020 Delhi riots that tried to undermine India’s unity and stability. According to the Delhi Police chargesheet, a group of alleged anti-CAA protestors had in advance conspired the murder of the honest Intelligence Bureau officer, Ankit Sharma, 
  2. Mother Teresa was a nun with a mission who stealthily converted huge numbers of the poor in India to Christianity under the garb of taking care of them. Information is available in widespread literature now about the real intentions of the Missionaries of Charity in India. People used to think she was the epitome of kindness and Christianity.
  3. Communist intellectuals funded by China and the West control mainstream media, educational and important policy-making institutions in India and political discourse in India. It influences the minorities to always revolt against the majority, the Hindus,  the poor against the rich, and also revolt against the Central and State Governments. It opposes businessmen branding them capitalists, and thereby thieves. They collude with the fanatic Islamists and the proselytizing Christians to constantly destabilize India and undermine its unified fabric. Religion and the family do not hold importance for society in their view. 
  4. Socialism holding many principles in common with Communism has held sway in India from Independence. Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi were classic socialists and we have seen how our country has developed since Independence under their leadership.

 All the above forces are in fact collaborating among themselves to destabilize India.

Solution: 

  1. The present Central Government, voted in by the people of India as a complete majority, is already acting by choking the flow of funds for fanatic Islamists and Christians through strict auditing of foreign-funded NGOs.
  2. The present Central Government is acting on terrorism from Pakistan and also Chinese designs with an iron hand.
  3. We, as citizens, need to be conscientious in highlighting and countering fraud narratives in mainstream and social media.
  4. We, as citizens, need to take note of billionaire businessmen like George Soros in the USA who fund anti-national activities around the world including India 
  5. Be wary of Communists agenda especially in the US who openly support anti-India activities
  6. Be wary of those Democrats and institutions in the US who may not be helping India’s cause.

In conclusion, the seven anti-merit mindsets are impacting the growth of bright young men and women in India. As Indians who care for their country’s future and preserve it for our future generations, we need to remain vigilant to thwart these harmful forces. It is time for us to unite to ensure our future as a country is secure.

A salute to the sacrifices made by all Indians who have the country’s welfare in their hearts. Jai Hind !!! Bharat Mata Ki Jai !!!

DISCLAIMER: The author is solely responsible for the views expressed in this article. The author carries the responsibility for citing and/or licensing of images utilized within the text.