search this list's archives for instances. I remember telling people to stand up to their companies and colleges and the response I get is that I may be able to do that, but they can't. Why? Because they're afraid of losing the little that they have.
Well I did that once. Stood up against my college since they were unfairly extorting extra fees from us. I had an entire class with me behind it. The result was that I was personally taken in and was seated in a long board room. I was then grilled by the top brass of my college and then threatened that I would be kicked out if I did anything of this sort (*unionism* they called it) in the future.
I looked towards my classmates for support on this and found that everyone had moved on. I too had to do the same in the end as I didn't want to ruin my entire career, lose a masters degree for the sake of a few rupees.
In the end the college did relent for some reason and we had a bit of a bargain on the extortion fee. But it really didn't feel that good in the end.
I agree with most of what you say. I have never given a bribe my whole life, fought with the authorities (teachers, my managers, seniors) for the right thing and got into trouble for it as well. But your post seems to have missed the crux of the helplessness that a lot of people in India have to go through daily.
We have voluntarily given up some (many?) of our rights for many reasons. Some do it for convenience. Some have no choice as their life or livelihood depends on it. Others are already so much in trouble that they cannot handle anything more. Others worry that they might cause trouble for their family for their individual freedom of choice.
The *little* that you talk about is often someone's entire career, family, daily bread and butter or life.
Siddhesh