The Religious Roots of Corruption

In a country like India where religion plays a pivotal role in lives, it is safe to say that public servants derive their ethical framework from religion. Religion is considered to be the language of ethics and morality, quite often an actual list of rules to live by some of which we think might play a vital role in keeping corruption at bay. Well, interestingly India ranks high on both, corruption and religiosity. This makes us ponder over questions like “Do our religious texts teach us ethics and morality or not?” and if they really do “Our the religious teachings that hard to implement” or the scariest of all “Do religious texts preach corruption in some form and embed it in our culture?”.

At this point Indians can be divided into two sects: Those who have a narrow/legalistic definition of corruption and those who like to believe in a broader definition of corruption. The later ones are those who believe that the culture of corruption has been and continues to be embedded in our blood by disguising it as a set of rituals and practices of religion.

Indians give donations to God in forms of cash, chattels, jewels and all sorts of valuables expecting a wish to be fulfilled if not a reward in return. Such an offering indicates that maybe such exchanges are needed, to obtain something for personal gain or over the top. If I practice a similar ritual, not in a religious setting, will it then not be called a bribe?. Or we choose to accept it and not call it a bribe only in the four walls of a shrine?.

The way out requires us to widen our definition and knowledge of what we define as corruption and religious practices. Maybe then we can think of religion as a panacea than a cause.