What happened to our society’s core values? We once prided ourselves on honesty, strong buildings, pure products, and real help from neighbors. Now it’s substitute construction materials, adulterated ghee, scams in everyday deals, and corruption everywhere.
The 1960s is only a reference point – it could be the 1950s or 1970s as well.
Authorized service centers bill hidden costs, standalone mechanic shops cheat customers with spurious parts, poor service, and even sell bad used bikes. Government officials are as corrupt, if not more, as their former British masters. Roads wither away in a year, and trust feels rare. This didn’t start overnight. It grew from big changes after independence.
Economic Policies
India’s post-independence economy (starting in the 1950s) was heavily regulated under socialist-inspired policies, often called the “License Raj”. Excessive government controls, permits, and quotas for everything from imports to production created opportunities for bribery and favoritism.
But the economy of day-to-day goods and services was smaller and more agrarian, with fewer bureaucratic hurdles. Dishonesty was less institutionalized.
By the 1960s and 1970s, urbanization led to more low-paid government officials, difficult-to-understand trade and business rules, and cut-throat competition. More “expertise” created complicated and opaque rules, leading to everyday cheating – like paying extra for a simple permit or a mechanic giving false information. It became normal because the system rewarded it.
Community Bonds
In the 1960s, India’s population was around 450 million, mostly rural, with tight-knit villages where reputation mattered – neighbors helped each other and social accountability was high. Today it’s over 1.4 billion, with massive urbanization (urban population jumped from 18% in 1960 to 35% now), leading to anonymous city life where people are less connected and more self-interested.
In crowded and lazy cities, it’s easier to cheat, exploit and scam without consequences, as traditional oversight from family or community fades.
Pre-1970s buildings were stronger because construction was slower, community-driven, and less profit-oriented; now rapid demand for affordable luxury housing prioritizes cost-cutting over quality – cheap materials like M-sand and gypsum to increase profits. How many new, expensive, grand apartments face leakage and breakage within a few years of construction?
There is no shame, no reward, no ethics left for honest, quality, and good construction.
Ghee from your milkman became ghee from your small grocery store to now oil-fat replacement from a corporation, sold as flavorful.
Shifts
Economic liberalization in 1991 opened markets, boosting growth but also intensifying competition and materialism. This shifted values from “honesty as pride” to “profit at any cost”, where adulterating products (adding chemicals to spices) became common to cut costs and undercut rivals.
We Bharathiyans consider substitutions genius or jugaad and pride ourselves on it – just look at food on trains, viral food spots, and even expensive restaurants using fake paneer.
Now global pressures (cheap imports, inflation) push sellers toward fakes, and social inequality makes it worse.
But here’s the thing
Pre-1960s, the poor bought original cheap items. Ghee was pure, vegetables were organic, steel containers and little plastic.
Pre 1960s, the wealthy bought original rich items. Ghee was pure, vegetables were organic, steel containers and more plastic from foreign chocolates and gadgets.
Today plastic is everywhere. Both rich and poor consume fake, adulterated, chemical food. But the rich can afford to minimize and treat their damage. Junk vs refined junk.
EVs being promoted as clean and green is a scam, and used to demoralize affordable, factually greener and economical petrol cars.
Service people like mechanics were more honest back then because trades were often family-based with reputational stakes; today it’s a gig economy with transient workers.
Many personal drivers steal fuel, contractors delay and pilferage, good acts and service now expect a tip.
Decay
Traditional Indian values emphasized dharma and community, but post-1960s influences like Western consumerism, media, and education focused on individual success have eroded them.
The breakdown of joint families into nuclear ones means less moral guidance from elders. Political patronage protects the corrupt, normalizing dishonesty.
Invaders set the stage for exploitative systems, but independence didn’t fully uproot them. Instead, lack of strong institutions and public tolerance let corruption spread. Neighbors are less friendly now because urban stress and inequality breed suspicion, not concern.
It’s not that Indians were inherently more honest before – early scandals existed – but structural changes amplified dishonesty. Duty and community became me-first materialism.
Small and medium business owners and service providers aim to make bigger margins than corporations for shoddy work. Urban anonymity, regulatory failures, economic pressures, and shunning of earlier practices created a perfect storm. Reversing this would need stronger institutions, better enforcement, and a cultural pushback, but trends show it’s deeply entrenched.
This isn’t about bad people; it’s systems, practices, and our tolerance of them that broke trust. We had issues before, but changes made them far worse. Food safety today focuses on chemicals that do not technically harm the body, instead of mandating organic. To fix it, we need real accountability, better rules, choose slightly longer wait times and a return to community.
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