Will the new institutions of India please stand up?
I am glad that Robert Rubin wrote In an Uncertain World in 2003 because if he had gone to his publisher with a manuscript like that in 2021 he would have got an eye-roll and a ‘No sh*t!’.
Today we are living with an unprecedented level of political, economic, and social uncertainty. There is an impulse to raise the walls, lie low and just go about one's business hoping that your boat isn’t rocked. Bad idea.
First, that’s a pretty sad way to live. Here’s an example straight from the model urban parents handbook *—
“Papa, I’ve been reading about this major crisis in the country — people are protesting / dying/ starving. What are we doing about it?”
“Nothing baby. Just relax. We can’t get hurt if we don’t show up at all.”
“Thanks Papa. I learn so much from you. You make me a better person.”
To paraphrase Mark Twain — you’ll always be scared of death, if you’re scared of life.
Second, the sharp edge of this endemic uncertainty is like a virus. It’s coming for you, sooner or later. It doesn’t care if you were looking at it in the face or not.
But that said, there is a legitimate reason to fear this uncertainty — the institutions that we hoped we could count on to protect us against economic disaster, social strife, and political upheaval look weaker than ever. For those who put themselves in the line of fire — journalists, activists, civil servants, public intellectuals, and even some business leaders, or those who need these institutions for survival — the poor and marginalized, the further weakening of institutions is a clear and present danger to an already fragile life and livelihood.
This is where we need the new institutions to please stand up. But where are they?
They are all around us — and many have shown extraordinary creativity and resilience during the second wave. These institutions need to take the next logical step in their journeys:
- Alumni associations need to go from sharing sepia-toned hostel pics to providing unstinting support when a need arises, or, to go further, defining a shared social purpose and organizing themselves to achieve it. I think about my own alumni network (NLSIU Bangalore) which definitely fulfils the first objective but have not yet defined a common purpose.
- Workforce communities need to go from redefining their circles of care by also supporting their employees in being their full authentic selves i.e. even when employees stand up for political or social causes with a likelihood of blowback. There is a level of risk that the enterprises run and they may have to develop new policies defining such actions but they cannot pretend to be purpose-driven yet narrowly circumscribe the activities of their employees.
- Interest-based communities such as neighborhood, lifestyle, or civic issue communities, etc which are already somewhat purpose-driven, can organize themselves to be more effective, connected and responsive where a member needs support.
- Civil society networks formed from pre-existing relationships between organizations or individuals, or spontaneously created in the face of adversity, can deepen their relationships, create shared resources, and create operating protocols (just don’t call them ‘Toolkits’ :)) that define their conduct in the future. Covid massively accelerated the creation and quasi-institutionalization of these networks. I’ve written more on this here.
They are all around us — and many have shown extraordinary creativity and resilience during the second wave.
In every case, there is a need to meet, reflect, discuss and define. We need intention and deliberate effort.
Huntington defined institutions as “stable, valued, recurring patterns of behavior” and we badly need new patterns of behaviour to replace the formal behaviours we counted on.
There is nothing that stops us from birthing thousands of powerful new institutions by maturing the communities around us. As we lose some certainty that the formal institutions will be there for us or treat us fairly, we need to be able to count on the certainty of these new institutions.
“The Queen is dead! Long live the Queen!”
