THE IDEA OF INTEGRITY: A LAYMAN’S EXPLORATIONS
Author: Asok Kumar Mohapatra
Heritage Publishers 2017
Pp 155
Rs.595
Integrity! Worth noting is the astonishing anxiety of civil servants over this elusive term, which carries as many interpretations as it has interpreters. The author of the book under review is a retired civil servant and it is heartening to note that at least he is not indulging in what seems to be norm among many retiring civil servants: reveal all. Rather the book is a near-erudite essay on the concept of integrity; the sub-title of the book is unnecessarily self-effacing.
The concept of Integrity is basically quite simple. Every human being has something called conscience, which comprises of all the learnings through the years of growing and maturing into adults and combined with our natural instincts (gut feelings included) about what is right and what is wrong. This conscience, by whatever name it may be called, forms the basis of the decisions one takes in life and in our self-sustaining activities, in our relationships (trust, loyalty, love) or in the use of our skills/knowledge in earning our daily bread. Integrity demands that those decisions/actions are congruent with our conscience. So, when the decision/action taken is strictly as per the dictates of one’s conscience, a one-ness is manifested between what we know and what we do. “One” displays an integer, a whole number, integral in its own peculiar way to being whole and complete in itself. Thus, it is that one-ness between one’s conscience and one’s action/decision that is displayed as integrity. Therefore, all the words used in dictionaries to explain integrity only serve to show the various aspects of the state of mind that amounts to integrity.
“We will examine,” says the author, “the nature of wholeness [of integrity], and why on account of that wholeness the idea of integrity has a far wider meaning than its conventional synonyms like honesty or ethics. “True integrity, which we may call moral integrity, reflects a person’s whole character and conduct in every situation he confronts in life”, he says in the introduction, and goes on to expand on the basic thoughts, traversing through the context of Democracy, the State, Bureaucracy, Business and Religion. On the way, he analyses the idea of integrity with reference to what he calls “collectivities” – where politicians and professionals either fail to use or misuse (consciously or unconsciously) their skills/knowledge, leading to betrayal of public trust, quarrels and wars. Mohapatra also brings in the concept of open and closed integrity – based on Henri Bergson division of morality into Closed and Open, in his book “The Two Sources of Morality and Religion.” The former is the exercise of freedom of the individual without being fettered or guided by any law or norm, the latter is subject to such legislated controls. The latter is a law-abiding citizen, the former is “human”.
What we do not find (and that is a refreshing feeling), is any reference to the concept of “integrity” as it is covered in the Conduct Rules applicable to the All India Services or the Central Civil Services; in fact, those who look for a definition of the term, as applied in the aforesaid Rules, will be disappointed here, unless they have the patience to analyse each of the near-axioms that fill the reasoned presentation. The chapter titled “Bureaucracy and Integrity” may be of some help to them, though not in a straightforward manner. Mohapatra suggests that the bureaucrat “…as a person of integrity, should not surrender his deep convictions only to remain a part of the bureaucracy. That will be betraying his convictions. The call of integrity demands that he should respond to the call of his moral conscience.” A little further on he says: “…if his views are not accepted and he still strongly feels against the policies, he can choose to resign” and “When he feels compelled to resist such orders openly he must first go out of the system.” How many “bureaucrats” can we expect to actually resign – and if they all do, how many will be left to serve the Nation?
Mohapatra admits that ultimately “it is the individual who is the sole author of an act of integrity and the sole arbiter of what values and reasons should govern his decision”; and that most people take decisions in their daily life without much analysis in their minds. In the subsection on the Layman’s Role he says clearly that “conscience does not need philosophical theories or scientific analysis”. And there’s the rub. Decisions are taken without detailed analysis, actions are taken without much thought: which in effect means that conscience is given the go-by and integrity is a whisper in the wind. But Mohapatra does not lose hope. Integrity, he says as a final statement, is not a pious wish existing in the world of ideas only. For persons of faith and moral courage it is a reality in the practical world.
It takes faith and courage to write about integrity. Perhaps Juvenal said it better in the beginning of the 2nd Century AD: Integrity is praised, and starves.
