Background Context

The Criminal Law Convention on Corruption defined bribery as “promising, offering or giving by any person, directly or indirectly, of any undue advantage [to any public official], for himself or herself or for anyone else, for him or her to act to refrain from acting in the exercise of his or her functions.” (Strasbourg)

But as the article says, “Do the payments produce harmful results? If not the underlying policy environment should be reformed, perhaps by legalizing payments.” (Rose-Ackerman)While bribery is viewed as wrong in the American conscience, it is common in India, so common in fact that it has come to be expected.

A 2005 New York Times article was titled “Letter from India: Bribery so common, it’s a laughing matter” (Gentleman) and detailed an incident in which 11 Indian Parliamentary members were found taking payment for asking questions in parliament. Rather than becoming outraged, most people just laughed at the situation. The article went on to describe how if the Indian public was really surprised, “it was less at the politicians’ readiness to sell themselves than at the low prices they were demanding for their services – as little as $200 a question.” (Gentleman)

When this sort of payment is so widespread, citizens simply become used to it. A Transparency International survey published the same month stated that 98 percent of the Indian population believes corruption is prevalent throughout politics. (Rose-Ackerman)While nearly all of the population doubts the honesty of its politics, high government is not the only place where bribery has taken hold.

In an Enterprise survey of Indian business firms, 47.9% of firms expected to pay informal payment to public officials to get things done, 52.45% of firms expected to give gifts to get an operating license, 52.32% of firms expected to give gifts in meeting with tax officials, and 23.79% of firms expected to give gifts to secure a government contract. As evidenced by this survey, the Indian reaction to bribery is not simply a glazing of their eyes in response to the actions of those far away but engaging with a system that requires bribery or “informal payment” to get things done. (Corruption)

An NPR story about the ordinary nature of low level bribes detailed the process one man, Gagan Singh, went through in starting his own business. In order to attain the required licenses without hassle, Gagan was forced to bribe a local official and 10 to 15 other people, and while at first he questioned this system, he realized that “every system in India works on this note. You cannot run away.” (Kestenbaum) In India, the very system of interaction with local officials, policemen, and other authority figures is based around bribery, so much so that while it is officially legal, nearly everyone engages in it. To get out of jail, one bribes a judge. To evade licensing hassles, one bribes a local official. Michael himself stated that in India, bribery was simply “payment” for a job to be done efficiently, and everyone needed to be paid. (Interview 9:10)

In an environment where corruption is such an accepted fact, those who refrain from engaging in bribery are the deviant ones.