Going beyond the Indian heart over mind

I had written an article for business standard and mailed it to the paper.

Earlier I had started an academic work for Prof. Rajen Gupta of MDI, Gurgaon but was unable to complete it. Later I felt the same is better less academic. Hope BS will publish it.

Going beyond the Indian ‘heart over mind’.

Sabnavis’ article on heart over mind (1st May 2009 BS) provoked further thoughts on the subject of ‘the Indian mind’. Surprisingly the word culture was used sparingly in the article. While we call shared values, beliefs and assumptions of a group of people as the culture of the group, it also means the typical ways in which we respond to things, situations, people, themselves and others. While the mind heart distinction is useful to analyse business processes, culture is more comprehensive in import.

Culture has been variously called the programming of the mind and the lens though which people tend to see. In gaining insights on the implications of culture on business practices, the conventional way of looking at a large country like India as a single cultural entity seems to be too generic. This is because the political entity that is India is largely a result of some historical antecedents and geographic reality. An examination of the cultural differences is an imperative due to a number of reasons. This article aims to point out certain observed nuances both behavioral and linguistic that are likely to yield insights into the differences across the Indian states/regions. While some arguments for looking at the different states or regions as culturally separate entities is put forth, it is hoped that similar nuances and thereby underlying cultural programming can be provoked from researchers and academics of other linguistic groups as well and thus overcome the inevitable limitation of few individuals knowing one or only a few languages and similar insights. While the development of culturally congruent management interventions is a supposed outcome of such thinking, it may also serve the larger interest of reducing stereotypes and prejudices among the Indian states.

The mind heart distinction is a useful way of looking at differences. Culture provides a much wider canvas to work and yield further fine tuning beyond the duality. In this sense it may also be possible to look at not just the Indian mind but also finer distinctions between the states or regions. Many with a certain degree of exposure to India would notice the subtle differences across the different states.

Culture is identified as having four elements; values, symbols, rituals and heroes and has been studied extensively by many. Differences in symbols, heroes and rituals are apparent across the many Indian states or regions. An example would be differences in dressing (symbols) festivals (rituals) and the conception of ideal men as in say, popular cinema or politics (heroes). The differences may not be as stark as when comparing ‘Indian culture’ in general with other cultures. Nevertheless values that are deeply embedded and are unobservable like the other three elements also are likely to show the same subtle differences given the vastness and heterogeneity of the country. An incisive study can reveal many subtle differences across Indian states in terms of values as well as symbols, rituals and heroes.

In the contiguous sense, culture can also be conceived as a bridge from the past to the present. In the same vein, culture is the meeting point for modernity as in business organization-technology structure with the behavioral-social evolutions from the past. The twin realities of the modern world are the ubiquitous nature of and dependence of society on organizations and the indispensability and evolution of technology. There is also a tentative postulate that societies may move to convergence in the modern techno-organizational mould as a result of globalisation.

This postulate is on the one hand in terms of a possible leveling of diversity into a bland uniformity across different cultures and on the other hand a specter of societies or parts of societies who miss the bus as to be marginalized. The suggestion that India is a single cultural entity needs to be examined against this backdrop. Is it really a single cultural entity? Wouldn’t it be more useful to think otherwise as a hypothesis to be tested? Is it not necessary that the cultural diversity be examined more scientifically so as to identify, preserve and nurture the diversity? Also since the value part of culture, changes less rapidly than the symbols, is it not proper to fit the organizational structure, systems, procedures and practices to the culture rather than the other way around? If the different states or parts of the country are culturally different, or if we gain subtler insights into the variations, then is it not necessary and desirable to design the fit to suit the different cultures? In any case, even if from an instrumental point of view, as in influencing the mind or the heart through advertisements as was the gist of the article by Sabnavis, wouldn’t it be further desirable to look at the subtle differences to yield further usable insights?


From a functional perspective it may be necessary to develop a congruence between the particular culture and the particular techno – organizational structure. Consciously or unconsciously this is at the heart of any change intervention. Since, as already suggested, culture is difficult to be ‘changed’ what seems to be appropriate is a change in the techno- organizational structure including say, designing an advertisement.

A prerequisite of developing a fit is an identification of culture as the collective way of a people. In this sense studying culture is useful for the organisation and conversely organisations can facilitate greater understanding on the cultural front. An organization as a humanly constructed, system is a very specific domain where because of the meeting of technology, organizational science and culture and in turn the very organizational resources, yields itself to an experimental crucible where studies involving culture can be effectively taken up. For instance, the study by Hofstede leveraged the advantage of a globe spanning organization, IBM to develop specific insights into national cultures.

India provides a vastness and linguistic-political demarcation that lends itself to such an examination. “India is arguably, the nation with the longest historical encounter with the dynamics of cultural plurality.” (1)


A potential area for research from the Indian point of view could be the cynical way in which a society or people approach things especially in the face of ideals or ways in which actions are to be taken. In terms of religious rituals it appears that the age old and laid down patterns are more or less adhered to. However, one suspicion is whether less developed societies such as India approach technology and the concomitant appropriate habits of discipline in a much callous manner than warranted by the very same technological sophistication and complexity. One could design a superhighway, but can it be assumed or assured that the society that uses it will follow the traffic rules as demanded by the increased sophistication of the highway?

This line of thinking has been expressed by thinkers though not placing the issue as one of culture. For instance C. K Prahalad in one of his speeches talks about dysfunctional behaviours associated with developing countries. “There is absolutely no reason for not having disciplined traffic, absolutely no reason for keeping our airports dirty, no reason for us not to be concerned about time. These have nothing to do with resources but sheer attitude of mind”. That the attitude of mind Prahalad mentions is in the collective sense and therefore by extension the reference is to culture as expressed in behaviour is obvious.

An observed nuance in this vein is the strict following of operational sequences by the more advanced west, while the Indian mind set allows for skipping many a step in the sequence as routine. Stories about obeying red light in spite of no traffic by the more system conscious west versus callous disregard for red light even in heavy traffic in the Indian roads are legion. In the face of the behavior required by the same technological imperative, the two societies behave in two different ways. This many a time in spite of the same training! The difference could be attributed to a certain different value orientation. What if we could study this apparent contradiction of strict religious behavior vis-a- vis the not so strict observance of technological imperatives and take a new approach in say, training programs and other business processes such as advertisements. It is conceptually only a matter of transferring the disciplined behavior from one domain to another. Also while the Indian system may be chaotic, recently it was also observed that the apparent chaotic ways of Indian traffic are actually a better way of using space and time! At no point in time was any space left unutilized in what is apparent as chaotic traffic. Can it therefore be identified as a certain value that may be places the individual judgment above rules and systems as is the parallel case of ‘zubaan’ versus contract which Sabnavis mentions in his article.


Though India is politically a single entity, the reason for its political unity is the historical antecedent of having been a British colony eventually united at the time of independence. The continuity and unity is also argued in terms of Hindu mythology that spans, overarches and influences all corners of the country. However, when a person is out of his home state he usually seeks affiliations not based on his religion but on the basis of his language! The linguistic affiliation is more powerful than the religious one. This indicates that language as a unifying force is more powerful and therefore an analysis of the different Indian states formed on linguistic lines is likely to yield many valuable insights. Moreover it is interesting to note that a person from the south to be able to communicate to another from a neighboring southern state will have to use either the northern language Hindi or English as a lingua franca. It may also be postulated that the languages belonging to the same linguistic family in its development may have retained some of the original value programming. Also it may be of interest to decipher what differed and what was retained in the process of splintering into different languages within the same family.

The conventional acceptance of India as a single unit is largely attributed to its colonial past. In terms of the cultural transference that trade and commerce facilitated, the coastal areas must have had a different dynamics from the hinterlands. Similarly while the interiors were cut off, the northeast for instance stood chances of contact with the south eastern countries as also with the Chinese. Thus had it not been for the political unification facilitated by the colonial past, the cultural diversity would have been much starker.

Language provides an insight into the inner programming of a cultural group. Take for instance the fact that the Eskimos have many different forms to denote ice. The geographic peculiarity of cold climate is at the bottom of this wide a facility in the language. However, compare the English ‘brother’ with the specific single word appellations, for instance in the southern Indian Dravidian language, Malayalam of ‘chettan’ to denote elder brother and ‘aniyan’ to denote younger brother. Hindi however has only one word ‘bhai’ to denote brother. What is at the bottom of this higher facility in some Indian languages and the lack of it in another? Can we discern some equivalent to the cold climate of the Eskimos that necessitated multiple terminologies for different types of ice in their language? Since no one person can be an expert in all the Indian languages, only a systematic study by experts from different linguistic groups can decipher the evolution and the possible explanation. Another example is the use of reverential expressions in Hindi like ‘aap’ to denote a respectful you and ‘thum’ and ‘thoo’ to denote reverence of lesser degrees. In the Malayalam language though such gradations are available, it is noteworthy that in normal day to day conversation the reverential form ‘thankal’ or ‘angu’ is rarely used and mostly in very formal occasions as in a speech. It may also be used in a dramatic performance involving the classics. Similarly Tamil also provides inbuilt facilities to denote respect as in ‘irukkara?’ ( reverential ‘Is he there?’) and ‘irukkutha?’ ( non reverential ‘Is he there?’). From here it is only an extrapolation away from the implications for instance for ‘power distance’ (one of the cultural dimensions) among the various linguistic groups.

The lack of facility available in Malayalam mentioned above is made up by intonations, body postures or a reverential avoiding of ‘you’ altogether. The point is, these are interesting pointers to the different programming which if delved into would provide a new direction to our insights on subtleties in culture. In any case thinking in these lines will be the beginnings of fine graining the existing tendency of looking at India as a single unit.

Similar is the case with certain body language peculiarities noticed in the north and the northeast where the giver as in the one who serves the food or the one who lights the lamp holding the giving or the lighting arm’s elbow reverentially with the other hand. The absence of this gesture among many others may look awkward or non reverential to the ones who practice this gesture. While the ritual is fairly perceivable, the values and the value differences underlying these rituals are more fundamental and less obvious.

In the Malayali ethos calling a stranger from behind with a whistle like ‘shhhh’ is considered very normal whereas across the border in Tamil Nadu the same would be considered insulting and a cause for quarrel even for an absolute stranger. To say the least, while these nuances pose several grounds for study from the cultural point of view, mere cross cultural awareness may generate greater understanding among the different states.

If underlying meanings do reveal the underlying cultural patterns, then comparison of equivalents in various languages can be used to understand them. Feedback patterns are a necessary feature in any language and therefore serve as equivalents for comparison. For example, the inner programming revealed in the English feedback pattern ‘OK’ and the Malayalam and Tamil “shari” are both indicative of correctness. However “barabar” or “barabar?” in Gujarati is indicative of equal ness or a restoration of an imbalance as in a business transaction where one pays for a perceived value for a commodity or service. One is tempted to extrapolate that the underlying metaphorical meaning is indicative of an entrepreneurial or trading ethos in the latter.

Organisational tools like HR interventions seek to modify behaviours to suit the purpose of the organization. Necessity of interventions leading to behaviours that drive initiatives such as strategy implementations, rather than mere putting in place of systems and procedures is an imperative for the next wave of impetus for the field of HR and organisational development. The obvious influence of culture, if not its determining effect on behaviour, point to the need for the study of the antecedent context at various levels of increasing specificity such as national, regional, class and professional so as to design interventions of greater effectiveness.

Culture in this context can be thought of as the context from which one comes from that stays with him/her and guides his/her behaviour. Insights from the host context are valuable in developing specific interventions of greater effectiveness suiting individuals. The individual gestalt of one’s personality can be visualized as being embossed on the template that is culture. One could also imagine multiple planar templates: national, regional, class and professional. While knowledge in national, class and professional culture are fairly progressive, the same cannot be said about regional cultures within a large country like India.

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