Our attitudes towards life, work, other people and society are generally shaped unconsciously by the…

Question

Our attitudes towards life, work, other people and society are generally shaped unconsciously by the family and the social surroundings in which we grow up. Some of these unconsciously acquired attitudes and values are often undesirable in the citizens of a modern democratic and egalitarian society.

Discuss such undesirable values prevalent in today's educated Indians.

Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

Many educated Indians still carry unconsciously absorbed values such as caste consciousness, patriarchy, contempt for manual labour, tolerance of petty corruption and parochialism that contradict constitutional equality. The India Human Development Survey (2011-12) found that 27% of households admitted practising untouchability in some form.

**Introduction**

Ambedkar warned in 1948 that Indian democracy was "only a top-dressing on an Indian soil, which is essentially undemocratic." Many educated Indians still carry hierarchical values absorbed at home that contradict constitutional equality.

**Hierarchy-Based Values That Deny Equality**

SKETCH: iceberg | Undesirable Values of Educated Indians
visible: Sycophancy, Rule-bending, Prejudice, Status-seeking
hidden: Family norms, Caste networks, Rote schooling, Peer conformity

1. **Caste consciousness**: The India Human Development Survey (2011-12) found 27% of households admitting to untouchability in some form, and caste-based matrimonial advertisements show endogamy thriving among graduates.
2. **Patriarchal conditioning**: The sex ratio at birth of 929 girls per 1,000 boys (NFHS-5, 2019-21) and 5,737 dowry deaths recorded by NCRB in 2024 reveal son preference in educated homes too.
3. **Deference to status**: Sycophancy and VIP culture, targeted by the 2017 ban on red beacons, reflect the bhakti in politics Ambedkar called "a sure road to degradation."

**Civic and Moral Values That Weaken Democratic Citizenship**

1. **Tolerance of petty corruption**: A "chalta hai" acceptance of speed money and tax evasion is Gandhi's social sin of "knowledge without character."
2. **Parochialism**: Racial abuse of North-East citizens, which prompted the Bezbaruah Committee (2014) after Nido Tania's death, shows prejudice surviving education.
3. **Contempt for labour and civic indifference**: Disdain for sanitation and care work, and littering or low urban turnout, ignore the duties of Article 51A.

**Conclusion**

These values persist because schooling has taught information more than values. Constitutional morality "has to be cultivated", as Ambedkar said, through families, schools and institutions, so that educated Indians become democratic citizens and not merely literate ones.

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