No Culture of No

I’ve written before about the people of India, and how nice, friendly and helpful they can be, and how much I’ve enjoyed being able to talk to and meet the people that make up this country of 1.2 billion. There is however, one thing about the people and culture here that I do struggle with, and I think it’s especially hard for me as a Type A personality studying business in the United States.

There is no culture of “no” in India. And by that I mean, there is a strong cultural aversion towards saying no to someone, and towards giving news or information that is considered bad or negative. It’s a phenomenon that I did not really understand before coming here, but now can’t help but notice at so many points in my interactions here. 

To me the most visible example was the schedule during our travels here, which was something I often became upset with throughout the course. Our schedule was constantly changing, stuff taking too long, things being dropped, and in general we rarely had any idea of what would or wouldn’t actually happen. But very little of this was communicated, and rather that telling us that something would be dropped from the schedule, or that we would be getting back later than originally announced, our Indian hosts (and Indian American professor leading the trip) would simply say nothing at all. Coming from a culture where bad news is expected to be delivered promptly and honestly so that adjustments can be made, this was an extremely difficult part of the culture to adjust to.

It was also evident in a couple instances with students in our program attempting to do laundry at the hotels we stayed at. Both students failed to receive a couple items out of the bunch they had sent to get laundered. It turns out it was because in one instance there was confusion over the submission form, and in the other there was a burn in the pants when trying to iron them. But in both of these cases, and from two separate hotels, the hotel staff made no mention of what happened or the missing items. They simply returned the rest of the laundry and hoped nothing would be noticed, the explanation only coming to light after they were pressed for information from the students.

A fellow classmate of mine back in business school at Iowa wrote to us regarding the culture of acceptance here, and how it can be quite detrimental to Indian society. He was originally speaking in regards to the issues of trash and litter in India, but meant it in a broader sense as well. Unfortunately I can see what he means, as the culture of not being able to directly tell someone “no” here, or “that’s a terrible idea”, or “I’m sorry but such and such has happened”, will not help move India forward.

In the business community, and especially within entrepreneurial circles, we are taught to celebrate failure. By doing so, we can learn from these mistakes and find ways to improve, eliminate or innovate around the things that we struggle with in our societies. Without that same attitude, India will still struggle to make larger leaps in cultural, technological and societal areas. 

I don’t know where it stands exactly within the context of a changing Indian culture. I know the youth of India have a more global viewpoint, and especially amongst those who have traveled abroad to study or work, they can see how important changing this aspect of Indian society should be. Perhaps it is already on the move, and I just don’t know enough to see the fruits of it thus far. 

And so I hope, not for my own reasons, but for the development of India, that a culture of challenges and innovation can foster here, and move India forward by championing good ideas and tossing out the bad ones. And I hope one day I can return to India and find someone here who will tell me, “please sir, kindly go to hell”.