What makes our happiness? Not a flawed index

The new Gross National Happiness Index has not brought very happy news for Indians as we are now 117th on the list! This means we have slipped a further five places. So what has happened to our natural joie de vivre? What has happened to all those stereotypical descriptions where we were ‘happy in our poverty’? Has our competitive aspirational self, made more consumeristic by a constant assault from media on what we can buy (and usually cannot afford), made us much more aggressive and unhappy? 

Or has our society broken down, and is now sinking further and further into depression? Or are these questionnaires, manufactured abroad, based on values, and services which might have never been integral to us, not really meant to evaluate happiness in a maddeningly diverse society like ours. Is that even possible? India is more than the equivalent of the European Union, and has much more variety in culture and languages. So how could the same criteria apply to each tiny country in Europe as it does to India? 

I am really amazed when I look at the ‘happiest’ country in the world: Switzerland! Really? Small and landlocked, cold and insular, with a tiny population that could possibly equal that of Paharganj perhaps, how could the people there be the happiest? And it has displaced yet another cold country, Denmark! It is thus no surprise that the other top 10 countries named as world leaders in the happiness index are mostly from Europe, except Canada. All of them rank high on issues like social cohesion and security, but comparing them and us is far more complicated. 

I would say these countries, especially in Europe, might have an outward display of comfort and contentment, but actually where do they have the strong bonds and relationships, as one still has in India? In Europe, with an ageing population, how can the index of happiness rise when your deepest relationship will eventually be with your social security caregiver? I was reading how in old-age homes, some countries are encouraging free accommodation to young students so older people still connect with those who are younger than them. In India, we still have younger people spending time with their grandparents, and family life has not totally disintegrated. So how can those societies be happier? 

Far more puzzling for Indians who head mostly for the US and UK is these countries are ranked 15th and 21st, respectively. This ranking is very low, thinking of how long the lines of visa applicants usually are in front of their embassies. But the fact that they are way ahead of India might not surprise one as much as the fact that even Pakistan and Bangladesh are ranked higher than India! And these are countries where there has often been a democratic deficit, where there are huge gender problems, and where, especially in Pakistan, insecurity of life has been a matter of concern. Just this week, we have seen the death of a young woman activist in Karachi. She was killed for questioning fundamentalists. Explosions, suicide bombings, gun attacks are frequent. And yet, people in Pakistan are happier than in India! 

We need to think about our own concept of happiness, and whether we are becoming too fond of a mall-based consumption culture, and too attached to money. Real happiness comes from simple things. And in India, the wonderful thing used to be our joy in whatever little we possessed. 

Don't you remember a time from your childhood, when we played not with iPads, but mud cakes? When travelling by train, eating boiled eggs and drinking milky tea at stations tasted better than the best meal in a five-star hotel. When our first ride in a bullock cart zigzagging through village lanes was almost as fun as eating fresh peas from a neighbour’s garden. All those were simple pleasures. Has urbanisation changed it? But aren't we happy when we spend money? And why hasn't the index reflected that? 

I still cannot believe that we are so low on the index! Something has to be wrong. It could be that we are now a gloomily happy society or happily gloomy one, where we enjoy the daily emotive pull and push, and even get blissful being yelled at by Arnab Goswami! These little nuances of what makes us a happy nation might not be possible for a global index to easily discern, which means that we need an index that is created for us specially. 

Why don’t we create our own index? Because, honestly, this index doesn't even work for an idyllic state like Bhutan, which has been nurturing its ‘happiness’ index for years. It is now 79th on the list. 

No, I don't think that to seek happiness we have to go Switzerland. We can find it right here. We just need a better index.