A question of civic sense
Why Read This
What Makes This Article Worth Your Time
Summary
What This Article Is About
Advertising professional and columnist Santosh Desai challenges the popular narrative that Indians inherently lack civic sense. He argues that the causal arrow is being pointed in the wrong direction: poor civic behaviour is not a character flaw but a rational response to a broken system of incentives. Where rule-breaking is consistently rewarded — the queue-jumper gets served first, the traffic violator saves time — people learn that rules are negotiable. Paradoxically, the same Indians who ignore civic norms follow social rules (family obligations, caste expectations) with fierce rigour, revealing that the capacity for rule-following exists but is selectively applied.
The deeper distinction Desai draws is between the social and the civic. Social rules govern relationships with known communities; civic rules govern behaviour toward strangers. India, he argues, has never built the cultural infrastructure to make strangers morally significant. This failure is entrenched by a state that openly institutionalises exemptions — displaying at toll plazas who is above the law — and thereby signals that rules exist to mark hierarchy, not to establish order. The people are vehicles of a systemic failure, not its authors.
Key Points
Main Takeaways
Civic Sense Is Contextual, Not Innate
People follow rules when the system clearly rewards compliance and punishes violation — civic behaviour is learned, not an inherent character trait.
Rule-Breaking Is Systematically Rewarded
In India’s public systems, those who jump queues or force through traffic gain tangible advantages, teaching the lesson that rules are merely obstacles to overcome.
Social vs. Civic: A Critical Divide
Indians rigorously follow rules within known communities (family, caste) but treat strangers as irrelevant — the civic contract with unknown others simply hasn’t taken root.
The State Legitimises Exemptions
Publicly displayed exemption lists at toll plazas and airports openly advertise who can break rules, sending the message that laws mark hierarchy rather than universal order.
Public Space as a Commons of Exemption
In shared public spaces, everyone effectively becomes exempt because there are no social consequences — only strangers are affected, and strangers don’t count.
Failure of Design, Not of People
Citizens are vehicles of a systemic problem; unless rule-makers change the incentive architecture, blaming individuals mistakes cause for effect.
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Article Analysis
Breaking Down the Elements
Main Idea
Poor Civic Behaviour Is a Systemic Failure, Not a Cultural Defect
Desai’s central argument is that blaming Indians for lacking civic sense misidentifies the cause. Civic behaviour is a product of design, enforcement, and consequences — and India’s public systems consistently reward rule-breaking and advertise hierarchy-based exemptions. The people reflect the system they inhabit, and reform must begin with the rule-makers, not the rule-breakers.
Purpose
To Redirect Blame from Citizens to Institutions
Desai writes to disrupt a comfortable social media consensus — that Indians simply need to change their mindset — by demonstrating that this narrative is not only incorrect but harmful, as it lets dysfunctional institutions off the hook. His purpose is corrective and persuasive: to shift accountability upward toward the state and the systems it designs.
Structure
Myth Established → Rebuttal → Conceptual Framework → Systemic Evidence → Conclusion
Desai opens by presenting the popular narrative (Indians lack civic sense), then systematically dismantles it by introducing the social vs. civic distinction, building toward the exemption culture analysis as his strongest evidence. The piece closes with a pointed indictment of the state. Each section deepens the argument rather than merely repeating it — a tightly logical op-ed structure.
Tone
Analytical, Measured & Quietly Provocative
Desai writes with the calm authority of a cultural observer, never moralistic or combative. His tone is that of a diagnostician — dispassionate about the problem, precise about the causes. Occasionally wry (the invisible family ledger, the “commons of exemption”), he keeps the prose grounded and accessible. The provocation lies not in the language but in the argument itself, which inverts a widely held assumption.
Key Terms
Vocabulary from the Article
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Tough Words
Challenging Vocabulary
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People who insist on a certain quality or type of behaviour, refusing to compromise on it even in minor matters.
“Yet, in another sense, we are great sticklers for rules — social ones.”
Expressed grief or discontent about something; lamented or complained about a situation, typically in a public or collective way.
“On social media, this is bemoaned with the diagnosis that unless ‘we’ change as a people, nothing can be done about it.”
An entity or institution that confers official approval or acceptance upon a practice, effectively making it recognised as valid or permissible.
“Instead of being an instrument of change, the govt becomes a legitimiser of the social over the civic.”
Openly disregarded or showed contempt for a rule or convention, typically without fear of punishment.
“Traffic rules are flouted frequently, littering seems to be second nature, queues are not sacrosanct…”
A sharing of characteristics or origins; the network of relationships between people connected by blood, marriage, or close social ties.
“We are born into the social — family, caste, kinship network and religious community.”
Official permission or approval for an action; here used to describe exemptions granted by authority, effectively blessing rule-breaking for certain groups.
“…only for who gets to break them with official sanction.”
Reading Comprehension
Test Your Understanding
5 questions covering different RC question types
1According to the article, Indians lack civic sense because it is not part of their cultural DNA.
2According to Desai, what is the key difference between “social” rules and “civic” rules in the Indian context?
3Which sentence most directly states Desai’s conclusion about where responsibility for poor civic behaviour ultimately lies?
4Decide whether each of the following statements is True or False according to the article.
Exemption lists at Indian toll plazas are cited as evidence that the state treats rule-breaking as a marker of status rather than a punishable offence.
The article argues that Indians feel no embarrassment when their compatriots behave poorly in public abroad.
According to the article, the same person who litters in public will strictly follow obligations within their family.
Select True or False for all three statements, then click “Check Answers”
5What can be inferred about the likely effectiveness of public awareness campaigns urging Indians to improve their civic behaviour?
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
The popular narrative says poor civic behaviour is the cause of India’s public disorder — fix the people, fix the problem. Desai reverses this: the system of weak enforcement and rewarded rule-breaking is the cause, and poor civic behaviour is merely the effect. People respond rationally to the incentives around them. Blaming individuals for a systemic failure is like blaming passengers for a train running late.
Desai uses this phrase to describe how public spaces in India function. Because the only people affected by civic violations — littering, noise, queue-jumping — are strangers with no social standing to enforce norms, everyone effectively enjoys the same exemption: do what you like without consequence. It is a space where unaccountability becomes universal and democratic, ironically making civic failure the great equaliser.
The folk dance example illustrates the “strangers don’t count” principle. When Indians perform group dances in foreign public spaces without social awareness, it is because their audience — foreign strangers — simply does not register as a legitimate judge. Only the dancers themselves matter. Yet other Indians watching feel shame because, internationally, those strangers represent a collective “us” — revealing that the social bond activates only when group identity is at stake.
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This article is rated Intermediate. Desai writes in clear, conversational prose, but the argument is structurally layered — moving from observation to conceptual distinction to systemic evidence — and requires readers to follow an analytical thread built through examples rather than explicit markers. Vocabulary like “sacrosanct,” “paucity,” and “sticklers” rewards active reading. It is particularly well suited for CAT preparation, where social and political commentary articles regularly appear.
Santosh Desai is a leading advertising professional and a long-running Times of India columnist whose “City City Bang Bang” series examines contemporary Indian culture and society. His perspective is notable because he approaches social behaviour not through moral judgment but through the lens of systems, incentives, and cultural architecture — a framework that makes his analyses feel diagnostic and actionable rather than merely critical.
The Ultimate Reading Course covers 9 RC question types: Multiple Choice, True/False, Multi-Statement T/F, Text Highlight, Fill in the Blanks, Matching, Sequencing, Error Spotting, and Short Answer. This comprehensive coverage prepares you for any reading comprehension format you might encounter.
