TRAGEDY OF COMMONS

INDIA IS A NATION OF INDIVIDUAL WINNERS NOT COLLECTIVE STRENGTH

INDIA IS GRIPPED BY a strange case of Tragedy of the Commons – a situation where individually rational users over-utilise or exploit resources in such a way that they create a complete system breakdown at a larger level. Those who are in a position to appropriate to themselves the returns — be it time, money or resources — do not bother about the after-effects of their mode of exploitation. For them, factory shutdowns, environmental degradation and corruption are not things that have to be bothered too much about, as long as they are meeting their selfish ends. 

   Why is the Tragedy of the Commons so pronounced in India compared to the other developing countries? Firstly, as a society we have always been competitive, primarily because of the resource constraints that we faced — a case of too many people chasing too few resources. We fight tooth and nail, because the very next person could be after our bread, putting even survival in question. In the global market this has helped us excel as individual members. The irony is that we have not yet been able to consolidate our position as leaders in team situations, where co-operation, more than competition, is required for us to survive. Secondly, we lack built-in systems to deal with the tragedy of commons unlike some other societies who have put social rights over individuals. Be it the UK or the US - the current mouthpieces of democratic machinery - during the initial stages of development, they too resorted to iron hand leadership mechanisms like stiff penalties and stringent punishments in order to ingrain social consciousness into every individual. This difference is apparent even in a comparison between India and China. Harvard professor Tarun Khanna suggests that in the case of any conflict between public interest and private rights, India would err on the side of private rights while China towards public interest. This makes social issues like infrastructure building and resource management much easier to manage in China. When building a road in China you would be given compensation and moved away, while in India the project would stall, if it caused the slightest discomfort to the interests of a single individual, causing discomfort to millions. In fact this difference is apparent even the way corruption is practised in both these nations. While the corrupt in China demand a piece of something new that is being created for the social good, in India the corrupt are content with their own selfish interests without any real contribution to the society. 

   Winning as individuals has helped Indians end about 200 years of misery to get back on the world stage. But what took us up till here would not help us as a nation to reach out to the next level. Our current glory would be short lived, if we are not able to prioritise between individual and social needs. Attention to this reprioritisation would be the next challenge in the way of our growth.