This blog will encompass stray and sundry revelations about the Indian civilisational character and mores. Just snippets, which make one aware of aspects of the Indian mind.
Haggling
Here in Antara, I am currently selling personal possessions as I downsize my material existence. An obviously affluent and articulate, charming Indian couple surveyed the items on sale. They selected some, but, disconcertingly, throughout the lady kept alluding to \”gifts\”, \”complimentary prices\”, \”friends\” etc. The whole was revealed when they had made the decision to buy four items, and she bluntly asked if I would give her a \”special\” discount.
I know the culture of haggling, its antecedents and expressions and practices from Beirut (by far the High Priest of this commercial approach), Tripoli, Central Asian and South-East Asian cities to India. However, this was totally unexpected from someone of their professional and personal backgrounds.
Frankly, I was furious. Contained me. I wish I had had the presence of mind to tell her that if she googled me, she would realise that I was no shopkeeper. She took my (negative) silence sportfully and without rancour. A pleasant parting followed but left a bad taste in my mouth.
Here is the CQ angle. Haggling in the Indian civilisational mind is partly a reflection of the inbuilt propensity for argumentation. (See Sen\’s \”The Argumentative Indian\”.) There is a need for a \’win\’ however peripheral and ephemeral. So one aspect marks the Indian mind whether it be the foreign policy or commercial deals: Indians know the immediate price, not the eventual value.
And that brings me to Oscar Wilde, who famously noted that most people know the price of everything but not their value. Indians are best at it; happy to take an eventual loss in favour of immediate price gain. I have been addressing this issue in CQ workshops for companies wishing to enter the Indian market for two decades.
I should have explained to her that I was transferring value as I measured it (intrinsic, emotional, history,), not selling it. And if that was not how she measured the item\’s value of what she was buying, it was best not to buy at all. Asking for discounts betrays one\’s ignorance of what gives satisfaction and what does not.
Analysing India
I have argued elsewhere that one should never make jusdgement son India based on events or series of events. the only way to study is India is to look at long-term trends. They represent the truth because they represent consensus. Th Hindu way of life is to achieve consensus in political, economic and social issues. this takes time to achieve, but once achieved it is rock hard – for the simple reason that another meandering exercise will be required to achieve another consensus.
