Trust – The real reason why Indians don’t board flights properly

Much has been made of the inability of Indians to follow instructions while boarding a flight. Just yesterday, an article in the New York Times used it as a symbol of how Indians are inherently selfish and disregard rules without caring about the common good. Having seen this first hand, I can attest to the truth of this. We are without doubt, the worst boarders of flights in the world.

Indians Boarding Flights - A lack of trust is our problem
Indians Boarding Flights - A lack of trust is our problem

But I disagree that it’s because we can’t or don’t want to follow instructions. Indians behave just fine when abroad. When boarding a flight which has non Indians or westerners on it, they stick to the rules as scrupulously as anyone else. When on foreign soil and amongst foreigners, they don’t jump queues or disregard rules. They do it only when they’re surrounded by other Indians. And many Indians are relieved when they come abroad that people follow the traffic laws and that order is maintained in general. So it’s not that Indians don’t like regulations. They love it when everyone else is following them and they don’t mind doing the same.

And here’s the crux. The real reason why Indians don’t follow rules in the presence of other Indians is that we don’t trust our countrymen to follow them! Following rules is good only when everyone around you is doing the same. It’s nice to stand in a line knowing that your turn will come only as long as you have faith that others won’t jump the queue. It’s the same with traffic rules. If you’re the only guy on the road scrupulously driving within the lanes and following every rule to the “T,” you’re at a massive disadvantage. When you don’t trust others to behave properly, there’s no incentive for you to do so.

This is the secret of the Indian’s refusal to follow rules and behave in a dignified way. Which is why the same person when abroad will behave in one way, but when they return to their homeland, they adopt a different behavior. We have a very low opinion of other Indians and when we’re in a group, we sink to the lowest common denominator in our own minds.

This is quite sad really because it’s a self reinforcing mindset. Say you have a set of Indians who all would like to follow rules, not jump queues, and board flights in a dignified manner. If they don’t trust each other to behave properly, they will all break the rules at the same time since the last one to behave properly loses. Then they come away satisfied that their analysis of their countrymen was correct.

If my analysis is correct, it’s time to stop beating on Indians for being inherently uncivilized, rude, or disregardful of rules. We’d like to not be like that. And when we’re in a society where we know others behave properly, we do the same, reap the benefits, and thank our luck for being amongst such nice people. But when we don’t trust the people around us, we turn into the kind of obnoxious jerks we all like to think Indians really are.

So it comes down to how we view ourselves. As long as we think in terms of “Indians are like this” or “Indians are like that,” it will become a self enforcing idea. When sufficient people change and start having a better view of our fellow men, then things will improve. But it’s not easy. Someone has to take the first step after all and be punished for it. I guess we just need to give it time. A lot of time.

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36 thoughts on “Trust – The real reason why Indians don’t board flights properly”

  1. I regret like to say that this also applies to foreigners visiting India. After staying there a few months, I was able to observe the local village boys approach the problem of boarding a bus. They would wait twenty metres up the road and run alongside the bus to jump onto barge-board and grip the guardrails and hang on (to get primo position), otherwise they would be left at the back of the free-for-all fight that would inevitably beak out upon the bus stopping at the official stop to pick up passengers. Furthermore, the advantage of the “running start” was that the upwards pressure of the general melee that always broke out, would helpfully force them (actually propel them) into the interior of the bus, where they could get a good seat.

    Strangely, I found that the little old ladies were the most fearsome fighters for a good seat.

    Trains were more of a problem. The fact that one had a ticket was irrelevant alongside the logistical problem of physically boarding the actual train. Failure to ram one’s way onto the crowded train often meant a wait of many hours or even a whole day for another train. And when I say crowded, I mean, there were sometimes even people on the roof.

    I observed some frustrated passengers (or their porters) throwing their luggage over the heads of the crowd into the train, then doing a flying rugby tackle straight into the crowd,. They would usually wedge their way into the crowd, where they would remain suspended, almost in mid-air. If the crowd was particularly thick, they did a running jump which would ensure they could “crowd surf” like a crazed fan at a rock-festival, onto the tops of the other passengers heads. Or two to four railway porters would grip a hand and leg each side and on the count of three throw the passenger onto the heads of the other passengers inside the train. Soon the thus-propelled passenger would settle down to about waist height and could put feet on terra firma.

    I paid four porters who insisted they could get me on board a crowded train, and tried it just that once, and after the airborne part, it was quite an experience. Hands were coming out of the crushed crowd below me and I recoiled, threatened. But they were just trying to make friends. I recall the bespectacled owner of one friendly hand…”I am Sharma Gupt, Calcutta University. Pleased to meet you, sahib. Have you been in our country very long?”.

    Looking back at this arrogant and youthful folly, I feel deeply ashamed for my behaviour. It was a case of “when in Rome” not being the right way to approach the problem at all.

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  2. We Indians also have a tendency to misbehave with others when in India. Last week, while checking-in at Delhi Airport, a person was carrying a hand luggage that weights 15 kg. When the airline staff ask him to either reduce the weight to 10kg or put it as a check-in luggage he started arguing. Finally, after collecting the boarding pass the guy swears at the staff and left. I wonder, whether the same would have happened abroad.

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    • In reply to Raj

      It most definitely wouldn’t have happened abroad. Perhaps we have an inferiority complex and feel that other Indians are also worthless and not worthy of respect.

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      • In reply to bhagwad

        True, I have observed this inferiority complex among many people. I wonder what is the reason for this? Further, is this behavior only common among Indians or is it true for other countries?

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  3. > If you’re the only guy on the road scrupulously driving within the lanes and following every rule to the “T,” you’re at a massive disadvantage.

    Well Said. Happens with me all the time.

    Sometimes I get pissed off and say to myself “Why the hell should I be the only one who follows indicators and lane mech religiously.. it anyway doesnt work in India”

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  4. Unless Indians get reformed , 8% and greater economic growth rate will become meaningless. We all want India to be a developed country. To arrive there, our fellow citizens should start behaving in a civilized way, because being a developed country does not mean only economic prowess , but also the ability of its citizen to lead a productive life in a civilized and law abiding fashion.

    We are generous , intelligent and hardworking people, with a history of most refined culture. Let us hope that a social reform will happen. Who knows, if that happens , even our politians will change.

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  5. I agree that the “desis” are unruly when the boarding begins, but it has to do with the unintelligible announcements made by the airline staff (also desis).

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  6. You are wrong about Indians ! Indians follow rules in a developed country because of the FEAR of getting punished in a foreign country… period !!! . If the same Indian go to an under-developed country (say Ethiopia, Somalia, etc) they will piss on road and do all non-sense as usual.

    Indians (say 80% of them), by nature, do not have self discipline and are highly selfish. So within India its chaotic everywhere in roads and in queues. Everyone thinks “why should I follow rules if others are not”. This leads to a barbaric situation on roads.

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  7. I wouldn’t say “breaking” the rules, it is “bending” the rules. Hey, Indians are intelligent. They will bargain, argue and deal. What is wrong with that? If an employee agrees to, say, let a person line jump, then let him line jump, why not?

    I don’t think Indians misbehave nearly as much as you may state. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve seen much worse travellers than Indians. I’ve seen some white families that drive me nuts on airplanes by breaking rules and such.

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  8. I am an American and do notice this kind of behavior from some Indians here in the United States. I’ve had them cut right up to the front of me in grocery stores (pushing my stuff back and putting theirs down and then glaring back at me like -I- did something wrong), cutting me off in traffic and not stopping for people in crosswalks, encroaching on my personal space to the point where I would have to move or cause a collision, etc. In none of these instances would any of these people have lost anything by behaving like a civilized human being (perhaps a few seconds of their time). And they always act like they have been infringed upon somehow, on top of it.
    I was once on a 14 hour non stop coach flight next to one of these ‘ladies’. She had a stiff, cold, haughty demeanor to begin with, and when she found out the attendants did not have a registration for her vegetarian meals, the proverbial you-know-what hit the fan. She became loud, confrontational, wildly gesturing and arguing, and would not stop until I told them she could have mine (I did register for a vegetarian meal ahead of time, when booking my flight, as they offer you to do). So she stopped being insane at that moment but was still rude and grouchy for the whole flight, and you know she did not even say thank you to me. She did not even -look- in my direction. I skipped my meals and subsisted on snacks and trying to mostly sleep, which I guess was worth it for a relatively peaceful flight (already long and uncomfortable), but I do not want to see our society turned into a place where I would have to do that all of the time or be like her. Please don’t make the US like that too =( We are nice people who will do what we can to make sure everyone is treated properly, but that street goes both ways.

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