Jayant Bhandari 印度：比你想象的更糟糕

印度：比你想象的更糟糕

Jayant Bhandari，《美国复兴》，2024年12月19日
https://www.amren.com/features/2024/12/india-its-worse-than-you-think/

大多数西方人对印度一无所知，除了对印度教、瑜伽、大师以及或许还有点宝莱坞的模糊概念。对这类人来说，这篇文章将是一个沉重的打击。

我在印度中部的博帕尔长大。从我记事起，我就在父亲的印刷厂工作。我在附近的印多尔市学习工程学，后来去英国曼彻斯特商学院攻读MBA。我回到印度，为一家英国公司成立了子公司，并取得了巨大的成功。住在德里期间，我为印度主流媒体撰稿。我曾在印度和世界各地广泛旅行。

我最初回到印度，是想改善它，但11年后，我意识到印度就像一艘正在下沉的船，腐败日益猖獗，愈发无耻，民众堕落，社会分崩离析。我从未见过一个诚实的官僚或政客。我申请移民加拿大，申请在创纪录的三周内就获得了批准。

我现在为东亚和西方公司提供在印度投资的咨询服务。我告诉他们的大部分内容在他们听来都夸大其词、不切实际、令人难以置信。在经历了一番折腾、戏剧性事件和巨额亏损之后，他们开始相信我的话。然而，由于拒绝了解印度，这种学习从未制度化。这是一种政治正确，一种侵蚀西方价值观内核的毒药。

我小时候在印度长大，学到的道理是“强权即公理”。权力经常被滥用，掌权者仿佛拥有上帝赋予的剥削和支配他人的权利。权威的展现有时过于极端，以至于质疑权威或期望当权者履行职责都可能招致报复。当权者似乎认为，他们的职位并非服务他人，而是为了个人利益。

那些表现出尊重的人似乎温顺地接受了较低、屈从的地位。善良的人不得不隐藏他们的同情心，因为友善被视为软弱。

在印度，我很少看到当权者主动解决自己负责的问题。我上大学的时候，一个在厨房工作的未成年男孩被清洁工强奸并鸡奸。我举报了这件事，但当权者不仅没有做正确的事情——这完全是他们力所能及的事情——当局和同学们还威胁我，如果我继续追究此事，将面临严重后果。他们缺乏同理心，还嘲笑我和那个男孩。

是的，这里面确实有虐待狂的成分。印度人以他人遭受的痛苦为乐。当局的态度就像德里那位位高权重的官僚，他告诉我，他的黑牌威士忌好喝得多，因为他知道大多数印度人喝不起。

这让西方人感到困惑。如果他们有权有势，即使他们腐败，在既无所得也无所失的情况下——双方都很穷，收受贿赂也无妨，而且也不会冒犯关系密切的人——他们也会做正确的事，把涉嫌强奸的凶手绳之以法。这些印度人什么也不做，连一根手指头也不肯动，除非有奖励：金钱或性。他们的冷漠是无底洞。

上级可能会认为做好自己的工作是娘娘腔。如果你能逃避责任，就会被认为是大男子主义。在那种文化中，做正确的事很少有任何自豪感或荣誉感。如果你叫水管工来修，他会觉得不弄脏就走是有失身份的。他可能会故意敷衍了事，即使做好并不需要更多时间。傲慢、自负、奴性、种姓制度、部落主义和奇思妙想交织成一张复杂的网络，驱使着这种行为。他表现出对你不屑一顾，并通过留下一片狼藉来占你便宜。而他的顾客，作为同一枚硬币的另一面，很可能会看不起甚至剥削那些工作做得好的人。

如果你做得不好，就意味着你不会被叫回来吗？对于那些从一开始就没有标准、缺乏远见的人来说，这无关紧要。对于那些想要做得更好、更公平或生产更好产品的人来说，几乎没有积极的反馈。

公平、正义、信任、同理心和公正对许多印度人来说是陌生的。他们很难区分是非对错。即使公平无需付出任何代价，他们也漠不关心。此外，如果他们可以不付出任何个人代价做好事，他们仍然宁愿不做，因为这可能被视为软弱的表现。印度人被灌输要顺从的思想。这种思想根深蒂固，以至于印度人甚至会称呼那些比他们稍高的人为“先生”。他们往往卑躬屈膝、阿谀奉承、谄媚奉承。但这不应被误认为是

尊重，因为尊重对印度人来说是陌生的。当他们称呼你“先生”时，这只反映了他们在互动中将你视为强者的观点，这与他们“强权即公理”的观念一致。一旦你处于弱势，他们就会贬低你。

你要么高人一等，要么低人一等——因此，你要么是施虐者，要么是被施虐者。平等是不可能的。来访者很快就会明白，“请”和“谢谢”被视为软弱的表现，只适用于那些想要贬低自己的人。

印度人无法维持英国人建立的制度。这些制度已经被掏空、腐败，变得掠夺成性。宪法和法律几乎毫无价值。驱动这些制度的唯一力量是贿赂和关系。无论你接近最高政治领导人还是最卑微的官僚，他们都会公开且毫无羞耻地索要贿赂。

2023年12月10日，印度巴特那，活动人士焚烧国大党议员迪拉吉·萨胡（Dhiraj Sahu）的肖像，抗议腐败并追讨现金。图片来源：Santosh Kumar/印度斯坦时报比哈尔政治与治理（图片来源：© Imago via ZUMA Press）

街头智慧备受推崇，逃避法律制裁的罪犯则受到赞扬。我的一位亲戚曾骄傲地告诉我，他租的房子永远付不起房租。他贿赂了地方当局，才让房东无法把他赶出去。

在一个缺乏信任的社会里，当一个人被骗时，他很少会向骗子寻求正义。相反，他会欺骗他人。男人虐待女人，女人虐待孩子，孩子虐待动物。动物会攻击任何它们能攻击的东西。高种姓的??印度人虐待低种姓的人，而低种姓的人则与其他低种姓的人争斗，以决定谁更优越。这是一个永无止境的不信任和专横的循环。

西方人谈论英国人正式确立的四五个种姓制度。这混淆了问题，因为它给人一种夸张的结构感。实际上，印度有14亿个种姓。所有的互动都是为了衡量你。你最终要么压迫别人，要么被压迫。所谓的低种姓人比高种姓人更有种姓意识。

印度的大多数种姓问题在新闻中都是用被动语态描述的。某某被压迫和虐待。没错，受害者是低种姓的人，但压迫者通常也是同样低种姓的人。当一个低种姓的人掌权时，他喜欢向高种姓的人炫耀。还有什么比虐待他人而不受惩罚，或者——如果你是个水管工——留下一片狼藉更能炫耀权力的方式呢？不同的人炫耀权力的方式取决于他们能逃脱多少惩罚。

许多人公开撒谎。每个人都知道每个人都在撒谎，但无论如何，每个人都会撒谎。许多印度人让自己相信自己的谎言，以至于他们再也无法区分事实和虚构。即使你不必或不想这样做，你也必须夸大其词，撒谎，因为你知道你的听众会根据你所说的话做出调整。对话往往被个人的物质利益所驱动。每笔交易都是一场零和博弈——或者可能是一场负和博弈，因为施虐倾向可能是其中的一部分。

你可能认为与家人共事会很安全，但他们最终可能会成为你最大的敌人，因为即使是他们也会背叛你。荣誉不是社会准则的一部分。印度人是原子化的群体，不懂忠诚。印度人普遍把黄金藏在自家，甚至连家人都不告诉。

我从未（我是谨慎地使用这个词）在印度签订过任何合同。行贿必须技巧娴熟。如果你在法律纠纷中与对方发生冲突，法官和警察会收受双方贿赂。你的律师会与对方以及你面前的法官勾结，最大限度地索取贿赂。这听起来可能难以置信，但这并不能改变现实。

大多数美德的词汇都来自波斯语、土耳其语或英语，而不是印度本土语言。但仅仅因为这些词汇进入了印度语言，并不意味着印度人接受了这些美德；它们被曲解了，成为了旧习俗的幌子。

每个人都在自己的房产周围筑起坚固高大的围栏。每个人都在买房的那天就这么做，因为邻居们会尽可能地侵占他的土地。我搬到西方国家好几年后才明白为什么人们不建围栏。

我第一次去英国旅行时，惊讶地发现动物并不害怕人，也不会攻击人。令我惊讶的是，当权者并不指望人们卑躬屈膝或敬畏。多年来，我一直感到不安，仿佛除非行贿，否则就不算履行了自己在交易中应尽的义务。

我的祖父母和父亲在财务上诚实守信，并且对自己有很高的自尊心——这在印度实属罕见。印度有很多善良、理智、有道德、理性的人。

我虽然在印度，但我的手指比我认识的印度人总数还多；一个早上我就能找到那么多诚实的美国人。以印度的标准来看，我们家还算正派，人脉也很广。这使我免受许多堕落的侵扰，也让我能够忽略那些我听到的故事。

在普通的印度人中，谈话内容都是诽谤朋友、八卦朋友、讨论名人、交换迷信以及对其他群体的敌意。印度教徒憎恨穆斯林，穆斯林憎恨印度教徒，锡克教徒憎恨印度教徒。这些群体之间互相争斗，导致每个人都分裂成不同的群体，但他们对其他群体的仇恨表面上将他们团结在一起。

示威者抗议印度加尔各答北德里市政公司突然发起的“反侵占”运动。在穆斯林与印度教徒发生暴力冲突后不久，北德里市政公司拆除了几处人行道上的建筑物，例如商店。 （图片来源：© Sukhomoy_ Sen/eyepix via ZUMA Press Wire）

直到在英国生活了一年，我才真正理解了荣誉和忠诚的概念。那一年，有人告诉我，在宣传我工作的组织时，不要夸大其词。我第一次意识到，人们说真话只是为了追求真话。我一直都知道“真话”这个词，但直到第一次，我才真正领悟了它的本质。

理解印度的基本原则是：它是一个不道德、不理性、缺乏价值观的社会。你试图灌输的任何价值观都会像水从鸭背上流淌一样，最终消失殆尽。

我目睹了印度社会的持续恶化。基督教传教士和欧洲殖民者灌输给印度人的优雅和文明，正在慢慢消磨殆尽。

我清楚地记得我离开印度的第一天。从希思罗机场到曼彻斯特的火车上，我看到的最初以为是些乏味的房屋、干净平淡的水道和空气。火车上的喧嚣和宁静让我感到茫然和沮丧。我不知道该如何应对这种没有持续冲击感官的境况。

随着时间的推移，我意识到，对于大多数印度移民来说，这导致了一种强烈的欲望，想要在他们搬进的贫民窟里重现印度的景象。他们追寻熟悉的气味、喧嚣和持续不断的喧嚣。他们重现了永无止境的情绪化、徒劳的冲突、混乱和智力的近亲繁殖。

当我们被允许畅通无阻地进入曼彻斯特的学校，后来又进入我工作的办公室时，我和我的移民同胞们常常怀疑，英国人是否如此天真，如此轻易地信任我们。是什么阻止了我们偷走眼前的一切？大多数移民从未真正理解“信任”和“感恩”的意义。更糟糕的是，他们发现抱怨往往能带来好处——而好处恰恰是他们在多元文化的西方唯一真正关心的事情。人文主义和文明价值观从未触动过他们的内心。

有一次，我和一个朋友在曼彻斯特开车兜风。他喝了几杯酒后闯红灯，被警察拦了下来。警察对他的尊重令我震惊。在印度，警察甚至会羞辱和剥削乘客。我的朋友被带到了警察局，在警察开车送我去的路上，我解释了如果这种事发生在印度，我们会受到怎样的对待。

当时我住在曼彻斯特一个犯罪率很高的地区，我走路回家时，警察有时会跟踪我。我问警察为什么他们从不拦下我或盘问我。他告诉我，他们跟踪我是为了确保我的安全，没有正当理由无权拦下我。我第一次开始理解英国人对个人空间的尊重，这也是另一种价值观，也开始在我心中扎根。

警官让我的朋友坐了一两个小时清醒过来，然后就放他走了，没有立案。我开始意识到，英国的当权者可以灵活运用法律，考虑到法律背后的精神；而在印度，法律只是掠夺的借口。

当然，英国早已今非昔比。多年来，警务工作不断发展，以适应来自第三世界移民带来的最低标准所带来的挑战。

统计数据在印度人的心理中无法产生共鸣。他们没有灰色地带的概念；一切都非黑即白，对细微的差别毫无欣赏力。这种缺乏比例感导致他们优柔寡断，无法评估事物的价值。最终，无节制的情绪主宰着生活。我身上也曾有这种心态的一部分。将我的思维与理性、道德和西方价值观重新整合是一项艰巨的任务。

我曾就读于印度最好的工程学院之一，并自认为富有创造力、果断果断、脚踏实地。然而，当我开始观察英国的社交互动和行为时，我发现自己缺乏自信。就连杂货店老板也显得更加自信

坚定而果断。我意识到我的思绪被混乱的思维和相互冲突的动机所笼罩。

即使是我在印度优越的成长环境，也让我根深蒂固地形成了层层错综复杂的世界观，以及不诚实、诡计多端的行为。尽管我本意是好的，但摆脱它们并重塑思维却花了几十年的时间。我意识到并试图改变的任何错误信念，都会与其他根深蒂固的信念和思维模式发生冲突。这就像试图在我的认知结构城堡中重新砌上一块破碎的砖块，同时又不破坏整个结构。有时，我不得不喝得酩酊大醉，才能找到短暂的理智。

随着时间的推移，我注意到我的睡眠质量开始提高，精神也更加自由。甚至我的身体也开始发生变化，堵塞我思绪的阴云也开始消散。一种周围人都在支持我的安心感对我帮助极大。那些导致慢性压力的混乱和矛盾的想法开始消散。

我祖母常说的两句话，我曾经觉得是老掉牙的，但如今我却深以为然。她认为有些人必须处于饥饿的边缘，因为如果给予更多，他们就会制造麻烦。尽管她是我认识的最平等的人之一——和她的司机兼裁缝成了朋友——但她还是会提醒我，并非每个人都有资格拥有一席之地，除非他身体条件允许。

“人权”是一个西方概念，大多数印度人难以理解。他们不懂得尊重个人。跟他们谈论“权利”只会导致困惑。他们无法区分“消极”权利和“积极”权利。例如，当人们教导他们财产权时，他们学会了保护自己的财产，却不承认他人的权利。当女性被教导强奸是一种侵犯时，她们可能会开始在各种情况下都看到强奸，并将其作为剥削男性的工具。当她们接触到权利的概念时，她们从接受自己悲惨的生活转变为怀有怨恨的受害者心态。

除非人们具备道德、理性、因果关系和其他西方价值观的基础，否则你无法教给他们任何好的东西。没有这些基础，西方文明的成果只会将人们常常隐藏的享乐主义倾向转化为更加邪恶的东西。每一种文明的成果——教育、西方服饰、繁荣、西方制度——在印度都被扭曲了。

英国人留下的制度已被掏空，变得纯粹地掠夺成性、残暴成性。之所以发生这种情况，是因为在后英属印度，当权者将权宜之计和获取财富视为人生的唯一目的。今天的印度甚至缺乏欧洲人到来之前那种模糊的法治。正??因如此，当印度最终崩溃，英国人到来之前那种类似塔利班的独裁体制从废墟中重生时，情况才会有所改善。

由英国工程师詹姆斯·A·富勒上校设计的孟买高等法院。图片来源：benbeiske via Flickr，CC BY-NC-SA 2.0。

没有西方传教士的引领，基督教被印度的迷信和巫术“滋养”，沦为巫毒教。语法被抛在一边，英语也常常沦为洋泾浜语。

教育和西方服饰被奉为一种货物崇拜的心态。人们关注的是获得证书和穿着西装，仿佛这些外在的象征本身就能赋予地位和物质利益。同样，教育也不被视为促进智力发展或成为更优秀人类的手段。相反，在兽性欲望、权宜之计和对资源不道德追求的驱使下，大多数印度人对自我提升嗤之以鼻。

教育应用于那些通过巫术思维处理信息的非理性思维，会成为一种负担，使这些人比未受过教育的人更糟糕。

印度人的心灵本应先被塑造成道德理性的化身，并充满荣誉、纪律、尊重和正直，然后才能接受正规教育，汲取西方文明的果实。可惜的是，这充其量也得经历一个长达千年的过程。

经济学中有一个“中等收入陷阱”的概念。我更倾向于将印度的处境称为“低收入陷阱”。与专业经济学家的观点相反，这些陷阱有着深厚的文化根基；几乎不可能逃脱。

繁荣既没有带来社会和平，也没有带来智力和精神的提升。印度人不懂得“舒适”的概念。大多数富有的印度人建造华而不实的房子并非为了舒适，而是为了炫耀财富，并控制那些比他们弱小的人。更糟糕的是，近几十年来西方科技进步带来的轻松繁荣，已经偏离了对理性和道德的追求。社交媒体成了传播神话、迷信和色情内容的平台。信息技术革命并没有带来启蒙。

世界上最贫穷的地区！

如今，印度的奇思妙想和迷信比以往更加根深蒂固。享乐主义盛行，家庭支离破碎。

大多数印度人身居高位后，变得傲慢自大，甚至有虐待倾向。这并非出于掩饰自身能力的不足和心理弱点，而是源于他们坚信傲慢和虐待狂是权力和阶级的标志。这也是一种应对文化灌输的根深蒂固的自卑感的方式。殖民者曾经灌输给印度人的优雅和文明，如今已荡然无存。

西方创造的财富让印度人如痴如醉。然而，他们却未能理解财富背后的含义。他们把西方与好莱坞的刻板印象联系起来：穿短裙的女孩、放荡不羁、酗酒吸毒、炫耀财富、在豪华办公室工作、控制他人。这才是真正的灵魂，曾经被维多利亚时代的道德观和伊斯兰教的束缚所遮蔽。这是回归前殖民时代、前维多利亚时代、享乐主义文化。

英国人是天赐之物。没有他们，情况只会持续恶化。印度最终将抵消它从西方获得的所有好处，并回归到前殖民时代的方式。它将分崩离析，如果它的大部分人口沦为战争和饥荒的牺牲品，并衰落到欧洲人到来之前的水平，我也不会感到惊讶。

大多数印度人除了金钱、性和生存之外，什么也想不到——这正是一个平均智商为77的社会所期望的。所有西方赋予他们的价值观都被歪曲和腐蚀，以达到这些目的。印度人没有十诫。他们对这些价值观如此漠不关心，以至于即使有人强行灌输，他们也依然浑然不觉。对此，你无能为力，只能努力理解来自印度和其他第三世界国家的移民会对西方造成什么影响。

本文改编自最近在土耳其博德鲁姆举行的“财产与自由协会”会议上的一次演讲。

India: It's Worse Than You Think

Jayant Bhandari, American Renaissance, December 19, 2024

https://www.amren.com/features/2024/12/india-its-worse-than-you-think/

Most Westerners know nothing about India beyond vague ideas about Hinduism, yoga, gurus, and maybe a dash of Bollywood. To such people, this article will be a rude awakening.

I grew up in Bhopal in central India. Since as early as I can remember, I worked in my father’s printing press. I studied engineering in the nearby city in Indore and went to Manchester Business School in Britain to do an MBA. I returned to India to set up a subsidiary of a British company, which was a huge success. When I lived in Delhi, I wrote for the mainstream Indian media. I traveled widely in India and around the world.

I had first returned to India with the idea of improving it, but after 11 years, I realized that India was a sinking ship, with worsening and increasingly shameless corruption, degraded people, and a society that was falling apart. I had never met an honest bureaucrat or politician. I applied to emigrate to Canada and my application was approved in a record three weeks.

I now advise East Asian and Western corporations on investing in India. Most of what I tell them sounds to them exaggerated, unrealistic, and unbelievable. After much dance, drama, and a great deal of lost money, they begin to believe what I tell them. However, this learning is never institutionalized because of a refusal to understand India. This is a form of political correctness, a poison eating away the innards of Western values.

When I was a child growing up in India, I learned that “might makes right.” Power was often abused, with those in control acting as if they had a God-given right to exploit and dominate others. The display of authority could be so extreme that questioning it or expecting those in power to do their duty might lead to retribution. Those in authority seemed to believe that their positions were not for serving others but for personal gain.

People who showed respect appeared to have meekly accepted a lower, subservient position. Kind people had to hide their compassion, for being nice was seen as a weakness.

In India, I have rarely seen someone in authority take the initiative to solve a problem he was responsible for. When I was at university, an underaged boy who worked in the kitchen was raped and sodomized by the janitors. I reported the matter, but not only did no one in authority do what was right — something well within their power — the authorities and fellow students threatened me with severe consequences if I pursued the matter further. Devoid of empathy, they also made fun of the boy and me.

Yes, there is an element of sadism here. There is some degree of pleasure that Indians take in the pain suffered by others. The attitude of the authorities was like that of the high-placed Delhi bureaucrat who told me that his Black Label whiskey tastes so much better because he knows that most Indians can’t afford to drink it.

This confuses Westerners. If they had power, even if they were corrupt, in a situation where there was nothing to gain or lose — no bribes to receive since both parties were poor, and no risk of offending someone well-connected — they would do the right thing and book the alleged rapist. These Indians would do nothing, not even lift a finger, unless there was a reward: money or sex. Their apathy was bottomless.

Doing your job may be seen as effeminate by those above you. If you can shirk your responsibilities, you’re considered macho. In that culture, there is rarely any pride or honor in doing what is right. If you call a plumber for repairs, he will see it as beneath him to leave without creating a mess. He may deliberately do a shoddy job, even if doing it well wouldn’t take more time. A complex web of arrogance, egotism, servility, casteism, tribalism, and magical thinking drives this behavior. He shows his contempt for you and gets the better of you by leaving a mess. His customer, as the other side of the same coin, might well look down on and exploit someone who did his job well.

If you do a bad job, does that mean you do not get called back? That doesn’t matter to people who have no standards to begin with and who do not think ahead. There is little positive feedback to those who want to do better, be fair, or make better products.

Fairness, justice, trust, empathy, and impartiality are alien to many Indians. They have a hard time telling the difference between right and wrong. They are indifferent even when no cost is associated with being fair. Moreover, if they could do good without any personal cost, they would still prefer not to, because that can be seen as a sign of weakness.

Indians are indoctrinated to be submissive. The indoctrination is so profound that Indians address those even slightly above them in authority as “sir.” They tend to be servile, sycophantic, and ingratiating. This should not be mistaken for respect, because respect is foreign to Indians. When they call you “sir,” it reflects their view of you only as the stronger figure in the interaction, consistent with their view that might makes right. They will demean you the moment you are in a weaker position.

You are either higher or lower — therefore, you are either abuser or abused. Equality is impossible. A visitor learns very quickly that saying “please” and “thank you” is seen as a sign of weakness and is reserved for those who wish to demean themselves.

Indians cannot maintain the institutions established by the British. These institutions have been hollowed out and corrupted, becoming predatory. The constitution and laws hold little value. The only forces driving these institutions are bribes and connections. Whether you approach the highest political leaders or the pettiest bureaucrats, they openly and unashamedly demand bribes.

Activists burning an effigy of Congress MP Dhiraj Sahu in protest against corruption and recovering of cash on December 10, 2023 in Patna, India. Photo by Santosh Kumar/Hindustan Times Bihar Politics And Governance (Credit Image: © Imago via ZUMA Press)

Street smarts are highly valued, and criminals who evade justice are celebrated. A relative of mine, brimming with pride, once told me that he would never pay rent for the house he had rented. He had bribed the local authorities to make it impossible for his landlord to throw him out.

When someone in a society without trust is cheated, he rarely seeks justice against the cheater. Instead, he cheats others. Men abuse women, women abuse children, and children abuse animals. Animals attack whatever they can. Higher-caste Indians abuse those in lower castes, while lower-caste people fight with other lower-caste people to determine who is superior. It is a perpetual cycle of mistrust and arbitrariness.

People in the West talk about a system of four or five castes that was formalized by the British. This confuses the issue, for this gives an exaggerated sense of structure. In reality, there are 1.4 billion castes in India. All interactions are about sizing you up. You end up either oppressing others or being oppressed. The so-called lower caste people are more caste conscious than the higher caste people.

Most caste problems in India are described in the news in passive tense. So-and-so was oppressed and abused. Yes, the sufferer is a lower caste person but the oppressor is often of a similarly low caste. When a lower caste person rises in power, he loves showing it off to those from higher castes. What better way to show off power than by abusing others and getting away with it or — if you are a plumber — by leaving a mess? Different people show off power according to what they can get away with.

Many people lie openly. Everyone knows everyone lies, but everyone lies anyway. Many Indians convince themselves of their lies so that they can no longer differentiate between fact and fiction. Even if you don’t have to or want to, you have to exaggerate and lie, for you know your listener will calibrate to what you say. Conversations are often driven by personal material gain. Every transaction is a zero-sum game — or perhaps a negative-sum game, for sadism may be a part of the equation.

You may think you will be safe if you work with family members, but they may turn out to be your biggest enemies, for even they will betray you. Honor is not a part of the social code. Indians are atomized people and do not know loyalty. Indians across the board hide gold in their own houses and do not tell even family members about it.

I have never (I am using the word advisedly) had a contract honored in India. When you bribe, you must do so skillfully. If you have an opposing side in a legal fight, the judge and the police will take bribes from both sides. Your lawyer will collude with the opposing side and with the judge right in front of you to maximize bribes. This might sound unbelievable, but that does not change reality.

The words for most virtues come from Persian, Turkish, or English, not native Indian languages. But just because the words came into the language does not mean Indians accept those virtues; they were perverted and became a façade for the old ways.

Everyone builds solid, high fences around his property. Everyone does this the day he buys a property, because his neighbors will encroach on his land if they can. It took me years after I had moved to the West to understand why people don’t build fences.

When I first traveled to the UK, I was amused to find that animals weren’t fearful of or aggressive toward people. I was surprised that those in power didn’t expect servility or reverence. For years, I felt uneasy, as if I wasn’t fulfilling my part of the transaction unless I paid bribes.

My grandparents and father were honest in financial matters and held themselves to a high standard of self-respect — an anomaly in India. There are good, sane, moral, rational people in India, but I have more fingers than the total number of such Indians I have known; I can find that many honest Americans in one morning. By Indian standards, our family was decent and well-connected. This shielded me from much depravity and made it possible to ignore the stories that I heard.

Among ordinary Indians, conversations revolve around backbiting, gossiping about friends, discussing celebrities, exchanging superstitions, and animosity toward other groups. Hindus hate Muslims, Muslims hate Hindus, and Sikhs hate Hindus. These groups fight among themselves, leaving everyone atomized, but their hatred of other groups superficially unites them.

Demonstrators protest against the sudden “anti-encroachment” drive carried out by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation in Kolkata, India. The NDMC demolished several pavement structures such as shops, shortly after a period of Muslim-Hindu violence. (Credit Image: © Sukhomoy_ Sen/eyepix via ZUMA Press Wire)

I doubt I understood the concepts of honor and loyalty until I had lived in Britain for a year. During that time, someone told me not to exaggerate when promoting the organization I worked for. For the first time, I began to see that people wanted to speak the truth simply for the sake of truth. I had always known the word “truth,” but for the first time, I began to grasp its essence.

The foundational principle to understanding India is that it is an amoral, irrational society devoid of values. Any values you try to instill will slip off, like water off a duck’s back.

I have seen a continual worsening of Indian society. Whatever grace and civility Christian missionaries and European colonizers instilled in Indians has been slowly eroding.

I distinctly recall my first day outside of India. On a train trip from Heathrow Airport to Manchester, I saw what I initially thought were dull-looking houses and clean, unremarkable waterways and air. The lack of hustle and bustle and the calmness of the train ride left me feeling disoriented and gloomy. I didn’t know how to cope with a situation where there was no constant assault on my senses.

With time, I realized that for most Indian immigrants, this led to a compulsive need to recreate India in the ghettos they moved into. They sought the familiar smells, noise, and constant hustle and bustle. They recreated never-ending emotionalism, fruitless conflicts, chaos, and intellectual inbreeding.

When we were granted unhindered access to the school in Manchester and later to the office where I worked, my fellow immigrants and I often wondered if the British were so naïve as to trust us so readily. What was to stop us from stealing everything in sight? Most immigrants never truly grasp the significance of “trust” and “gratitude.” Worse, they discover that complaining often leads to benefits — the only thing they genuinely care about in the multicultural West. Humanistic, civilizational values never touch their hearts.

Once, a friend and I went for a drive in Manchester. Having had a few drinks, he ran a red light and was pulled over by the police. I was stunned by the respect with which the officer treated him. In India, the police would have humiliated and exploited even the passengers. My friend was taken to the police station, and as I was driven there by an officer, I explained how we would have been treated if this had happened in India.

At that time, I was living in a high-crime area of Manchester, and the police sometimes followed me when I walked home. I asked the officer why they never stopped or questioned me. He told me they followed me to ensure my safety and had no authority to stop me without legitimate cause. For the first time, I began to understand the British respect for personal space, another value that was also starting to take root in my mind.

The officer made my friend sit for an hour or two to sober up, and then let him go without booking him. I began to realize that those in power in Britain could apply the law flexibly, considering the spirit behind it; in India, laws were excuses for predation.

Of course, Britain is no longer what it once was. Over the years, policing has evolved to accommodate the challenges presented by the lowest common denominator introduced by immigrants from the Third World.

Statistics fail to resonate in the Indian psyche. There is no sense of a grey area; everything is black or white, with no appreciation for nuance. This lack of proportionality leads to indecisiveness and an inability to value things. In the end, unrestrained emotions drive life. I carried a part of this same mindset with me. Realigning my thinking with reason, morality, and Western values was a difficult task.

I attended one of the best engineering colleges in India and believed myself to be creative, decisive, and well-grounded. However, as I started witnessing social interactions and behavior in Britain, I found I lacked confidence. Even the grocery store owner appeared more confident and decisive. I realized my mind was clouded with confused thinking and conflicting motivations

Even my privileged upbringing in India had ingrained into me layers upon layers of confused worldviews, and dishonest, scheming behavior. Despite my best intentions, shaking them off and rewiring my thinking took decades. Any erroneous belief I became aware of and tried to change clashed with other deeply ingrained beliefs and mental patterns. It was like trying to replace a broken brick in the castle of my cognitive constructs without destabilizing the entire structure. At times, I had to get drunk just to find a fleeting sense of sanity.

With time, I noticed that I began to sleep better and felt mentally freer. Even my body started to change, and the mental cloud that had clogged my thoughts began to lift. A reassuring sense that those around me had my back was immensely helpful. The confusing and contradictory thoughts that had caused chronic stress started to fade.

My grandmother often said two things I once considered backward-looking, but I agree with them today. She believed that some people needed to stay on the edge of starvation because if given more, they would make problems. Despite being one of the most egalitarian people I knew — befriending her chauffeur and tailor — she would remind me that not everyone deserved a seat at the table unless he was fit for it.

“Human Rights” is a Western concept that is incomprehensible to most Indians. They fail to understand respect for the individual. Speaking to them about “rights” only leads to confusion. They fail to differentiate between “negative” and “positive” rights. For instance, when taught about property rights, they learn to protect their property but fail to recognize the rights of others. Women, when taught that rape is a violation, might begin to see it in every situation and use it as a tool to exploit men. As they are introduced to the concept of rights, they shift from accepting their wretched lives to adopting a resentful, victim mentality.

You cannot teach people anything good until they have the foundations of morality, rationality, causality, and other Western values. Without these foundations, the fruits of Western civilization serve only to turn people’s often-hidden hedonic tendencies into something more malevolent. Every civilizational fruit — education, Western clothing, prosperity, Western institutions — has been perverted in India.

The institutions left behind by the British have been hollowed out, becoming purely predatory and sadistic. This occurred because, in post-British India, those in power prize expediency and acquiring wealth as life’s sole purposes. Today’s India lacks even the vague rule of law that existed before the arrival of the Europeans. This is why it will be an improvement when India eventually collapses and the Taliban-like authoritarian system that existed before the British reemerges from the ashes.

The High Court of Bombay, designed by British engineer Col. James A. Fuller. Credit: benbeiske via Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Without Western missionaries at the helm, Christianity has been “nourished” by Indian superstitions and magical thinking and has become voodoo. Grammar has fallen by the wayside, and English has often become pidgin.

Education and Western clothing have been adopted with a cargo-cult mentality. The focus is on obtaining certificates and wearing suits, as if these outward symbols alone confer status and material benefits. Similarly, education is not viewed as a means to foster intellectual growth or evolve into better human beings. Instead, driven by animalistic desires, expediency, and the unethical pursuit of resources, most Indians scorn the idea of self-improvement.

Education applied to an irrational mind that processes information through magical thinking becomes burdensome, making such people worse than their uneducated counterparts.

The Indian mind should have been made moral and rational and imbued with honor, discipline, respect, and integrity, before being formally educated and provided with the fruits of Western civilization. Alas, this would have been, at best, a millennia-long process.

In economics, there is a concept of the “middle-income trap.” I prefer to call India’s situation the “low-income trap.” Contrary to the beliefs of professional economists, these traps have cultural underpinnings; it is virtually impossible to escape.

Prosperity has led to neither social peace nor intellectual and spiritual growth. Indians do not understand the concept of comfort. Most rich Indians build garish houses not for comfort but to display wealth and control those weaker than themselves. Worse, the easy prosperity of recent decades, which is essentially a result of Western technological advancements, has derailed the pursuit of rationality and morality. Social media are a platform for exchanging myths, superstitions, and pornography. The IT revolution does not bring enlightenment to the poorest parts of the world!

Today, India is more entrenched in magical thinking and superstition than in the past. Hedonism is rampant, and families are falling apart.

When elevated to high positions, most Indians become arrogant and sadistic. This is less from a desire to mask their incompetence and psychological weaknesses and more from a genuine belief that arrogance and sadism define power and class. This also serves as a way to cope with the deep-seated inferiority complex instilled by their culture. Whatever grace and civility had once been imbued in Indians by colonizers has eroded.

The wealth created by the West hypnotizes Indians. However, they fail to understand the underpinnings of that wealth. They equate the West with Hollywood stereotypes: girls in short skirts, promiscuity, drinking and drugs, flaunting wealth, working in plush offices, and controlling others. This is the true soul, once obscured by Victorian morals and Islamic constraints. It is a return to a pre-colonial, pre-Victorian, hedonistic culture.

The British were a godsend. Without them, the situation has continued to worsen. India will eventually nullify all the benefits it got from the West and revert to its pre-colonial ways. It will fall apart, and I wouldn’t be surprised if much of its population falls prey to war and famine and declines to the level it was before the arrival of Europeans.

Most Indians cannot think beyond money, sex, and survival — just what you would expect of a society with an average IQ of 77. Every Western value given to them has been caricatured and corrupted for these ends. Indians have no Ten Commandments. They are so unaware of these values that they remain oblivious even if they are forcefully presented to them. There is nothing you can do about this, except to try to understand what immigration from India and the rest of Third World will do to the West.

This article has been adapted from a recent speech given at the Property and Freedom Society conference in Bodrum, Turkey.