According to Osho, India drifts toward lawlessness because centuries of political and spiritual slavery conditioned people to obey outer authority instead of growing inner consciousness. With the British gone, the external enforcer vanished, and an imported, rootless democracy exposed a vacuum of personal responsibility and guidance—so unfamiliar freedom degenerated into disorder.
People were trained to follow orders, not themselves; when the rulers left and democracy was copied, there wasn’t inner self-rule, so freedom turned messy.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Osho, why is india drifting towards lawlessness? Are indians the most lawless people?
So the very next day Willy went onto the course, found some partners and began to play. At the fourth hole, however, after a very careful swing, poor Willy missed the ball completely. Instinctively, he let out a holler, 'Oy gevalt!' he shrieked. Suddenly realizing what he had said, Willy smiled broadly and added with a flourish, 'Whatever that means!' A tale is told of a certain countess who was half French and half English. When she was in labour with her first child, her husband was beside himself with anxiety. The doctor tried to calm him down. 'She's got plenty of time to go,' he said. 'Let's play cards.' So he dealt out a hand, but then suddenly a cry came from the bedroom, 'Mon dieu! Mon dieu!' The count jumped up from his chair. 'Not yet, not yet,' soothed the doctor. 'Keep on playing.' So they did, but…
Osho, won’t this create disorder if we don’t obey any law?
No, no, I’m not saying that. What I’m saying is exactly what will bring order. Disorder spreads because of rigid rules. Suppose we decide never to step out of this house, and tomorrow there’s a fire—then disorder will spread. But if we have decided that in case of fire we can go out, no disorder will spread. It is stiff, dead disciplines that always produce disorder. When needs change and the rules don’t; when the situation changes and the rule doesn’t—then disorder arises. Disorder is the name of disharmony between rule and situation. But if our rule is elastic and changes with the situation, disorder never spreads. The anarchy in the world is because of those who are crazy about order. They make order so rigid that life changes every day while their order doesn’t; then life breaks their order. If order is elastic, flexible, disorder will never spread. As…
Beloved Osho, what are the causes of poverty in india, and the downfall of the economic condition? How can india come out of this mess and create richness?
Don't harm anybody, but don't let anybody harm you. Then only can a nonviolent person survive in the world, and not become a coward. Jesus says, "If somebody hits one of your cheeks, give him the other cheek too." Christians are hypocrites, they have never followed it. They have been killing, they have been murdering, they have been burning living people. They have been doing everything which goes against Jesus -- and still they go on preaching Jesus in the churches. And no Christian raises the question: "Our lifestyle for two thousand years is absolutely against the teachings of Jesus." The West has made an arrangement: a teaching is a teaching; it is good, pay respect to it. The Bible is holy -- but your religion is Sunday religion, only on a holiday. You go to the church and that's all. Six days do everything wrong that you can do;…
Osho, these days the papers are filled with reports of communal riots erupting all over india. No real reasons for this violence and destruction of property are being given, just vague references to "anti-social elements," whatever that phrase means. Can you throw any light on what is happening in this country, on why there is this obvious and angry unrest?
Hindi speaking people start killing non Hindi speaking people; non Hindi speaking people start killing Hindi speaking people. The Gujaratis start fighting with the Marathis, the Mohammedans with the Hindus the Jainas with the Hindus, the Sikhs with the non-Sikhs. Anybody is ready to fight with anybody else; just a small excuse, real or invented, is needed. The fight happens first, then later on we discover why it has happened. People are gathering so much poison, anger, that these flare-ups are bound to happen. And then politicians have no understanding, so they simply go on dumping the whole thing on "anti-social elements," as if these anti-social elements appear only once in a while and then suddenly disappear. They are always there, but the riots are not always there. For years these anti-social elements become very peaceful and very Gandhian, very non-violent, and then one day suddenly they erupt, and they…
Question: OSHO, HOW CAN INDIA BE FREE WHEN HER WOMEN ARE NOT? India is suffering from a very ugly and rotten past, and the problem is that Indians go on praising their past as golden. The whole world, except India, believes in evolution; India believes in INvolution. Now it is an absolutely accepted fact of science that man is evolving, becoming more and more mature, but India still lives under the illusion that the highest has already happened; now we are falling, deteriorating. The modern man, according to Indian ideology, is the worst. The farther back you go in the past the higher the quality of humanity you will find this is putting things absolutely upside-down, this is not so, and unless this whole idea is shattered, destroyed, burnt, India cannot be really free. The very idea is depressing; one loses all zest for living.