Why are Indians Comparatively Unhappy?

I believe that being happy is one of the chief aims of life, if not the chief aim of life. Hence, I look forward to reading the World Happiness Report (WHR) every year. Unfortunately each year, I am disappointed with the low rank of India. If the report is to be believed, India has suffered a catastrophic decline in happiness over the last decade, comparable to the worst war-ravaged countries. I am therefore intrigued with finding possible causes of the same.

The WHR is based on Gallup World Poll data. The poll is based on the self-evaluation of an individual's life. People are asked to evaluate their life on a Cantril ladder with 10 indicating a perfect life and 0 indicating the worst possible life. The WHR also uses six variables to explain the variance in happiness. The variables are real?GDP per capita; social support; healthy?life expectancy; freedom to make life choices; generosity and perceptions of corruption. Contrary to what is reported in many popular articles, these variables are used to explain variances in happiness, not measure it.

On average, the six variables do not explain around 1.8 units of variance in happiness across countries. In statistical parlance, we can call the unexplained portion residuals. A perusal of the size of residuals across countries suggests that it is not randomly distributed but is larger for countries with higher average happiness scores. For India, the residual portion in this year's WHR is unusually small at only 0.77 units. The residual portion of India is not only smaller than the global average but it is also comparatively small even when compared to countries having similar levels of happiness.

This suggests the question: Why does India have a low residual? Possible responses include: (1) The survey is biased; (2) The sample size is inadequate and (3) Some India-specific factors depress happiness. The questions regarding sample size are legitimate as1,000 respondents may not be enough to represent a country of almost 1.4 billion people. However, if the sample size were the issue, we would get inconsistent measurements across years rather than a consistent decline.

The questions of biasedness cannot be answered either positively or negatively. However, my broad position in life is that allegations need to be proved, not disproved. And stating that a poll is biased is an allegation. Hence, in the absence of any evidence, I believe in not entertaining questions of biasedness. Not believing in biasedness does not mean accepting the survey as structurally perfect. Biasedness means there is a deliberate effort to make the survey yield certain results while structural imperfection implies non-intentional errors in data collection.

If biasedness and structural imperfections can be ruled out as the causes behind India's poor show, this leaves only India-specific depressors of happiness. I believe this explanation to be correct based on my limited interactions with people. Many Indians seem to nurse discontentment regarding their past This discontentment can stretch over from events of their childhood to events dating back a few centuries. Along with this resentment, another factor that probably contributes to low happiness among many Indians is a lack of acknowledgment, and perhaps willful ignorance, regarding the blessings life has showered on them. This lack of acknowledgment leads to a lack of gratitude towards life and distorts our perspective. This lack of acknowledgment may be linked to the perceived hyper-competition in Indian society which blindsides the privileged from accepting their privilege and being grateful for it, due to the fear that acceptance and gratitude will be construed as weakness and lead to loss of their privilege. In a hypercompetitive society where all are at war with all, the poor will feel righteous anger for being denied opportunities systematically while the comparatively better-off will experience a siege mentality where their hard-earned gains are under threat. This situation is certainly not conducive to happiness.

Hence, if my prognosis is correct, Indians need to perceive less competition in their lives, if they want to be happier. If we do not perceive that an invisible war is going on throughout their lives, we may also be more open to living with the real and imagined tragedies of their past. The media and government can certainly play a role in ensuring the same through targeted campaigns. And the much-derided "freebies" can have an important role in the same by reducing anger and providing a basic safety net.