Tolerance: Indian Style
If there is one nation in the world that is unique for its tolerance of any situation, it is India. The tolerance of its people has to be seen to be believed. Some real life stories will bring out this truth far better.
What do we mean by tolerance? By tolerance, what we mean is ability to withstand the inconvenience of any situation, to live with whatever is available, to make the best use of any given circumstance, and still live a life. Compassion, concern for the other person, love and affection and the like are by-products of this tolerance.
While this might be true of several societies, what is really unique about India, is its tolerance. Decades ago, a leading economist, who was fed up with the artificial controls imposed on free trade by the then Government in power, termed India’s economic growth as “the Hindu rate of growth”. What he meant was that as Hindus (the majority of Indians are Hindus), we are always very happy with small things in life. Hence, an economy that was then pulling on with around four to five per cent growth, with the Public Sector organizations dominating several segments of the economic levers, could be called, somewhat like the “Hindu rate of growth”.
Much water has flown down the economic bridge of India, since then. Globalization and India’s integration with the larger world, has since then been remarkable in many ways.
However, the existence of two Indias, within one India, is now more evident than ever before. It is here that the tolerance of Indians needs to understood in the right perspective. This tolerance can indeed open up huge markets and give employment to hundreds of thousands of Indians — in fact, this is exactly what is going on.
Let us examine the full meaning of this phenomenon.
Since 1991, we have had a huge dose of liberalization. For example, in the life insurance sector, foreign players have entered India, like never before. Thus, we have Max New York life, Metlife, and so on who have entered India, are growing day after day. When compared to the huge market potential, and their fixed costs, they are still able to slog it out in a market that is still dominated by the Public Sector Giant — the Life Insurance Corporation of India. Literally fed up with the very lousy standards of service of this organization, for several decades — inspite of being highly tolerant of the arrogant behavior of its staff members — a huge number of Indians are now migrating to insurance products offered by the new foreign firms.
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