The Indian common man and the road the happiness

Indian Express

04-06-2025

On April 28, Hariman Sharma, a farmer from the hills of Himachal Pradesh, walked up barefoot to Rashtrapati Bhavan's Durbar Hall to receive the Padma Shri from the President of India. He had developed a new variety of apple that could be cultivated in tropical or sub-tropical climate regions, potentially enabling it to be grown almost anywhere in our country. Sharma is not a government scientist or a researcher in a multinational biotech company. He is a common man.
What does it mean to be a common man in India? A battle to make ends meet? Stealing moments of happiness before harsh reality creeps up? The World Happiness Index 2025, an initiative of Gallup, the University of Oxford and the UN's Sustainable Development Solutions Network, ranked India 118th among 147 countries. The ranking is based on people's self-evaluation of their lives. So, we have ranked ourselves lower than most of the world.
A large portion of our economy thrives on our perceived unhappiness. From Bollywood to the health-supplement industry, everyone wants us to believe that they can bring joy into our lives. This pursuit of happiness is fuelled not by an inner striving for emancipation but by a confluence of images which seem to suggest a lack of meaning in our lives. With the information revolution, a new and powerful driver of unhappiness has emerged: FOMO. Our addiction to social media keeps us always wanting to not just keep up with our peers, but do better than them.
In One-Dimensional Man (1964), Herbert Marcuse prophesied a world in which consumerism and mass media stifle originality. They create a 'blissful slave' , who is kept preoccupied due to the creation and pursuit of 'false needs'. He wasn't completely correct. We are far from being blissful. The pursuit of false needs hasn't been an entirely fulfilling affair. What we need in our lives determines our happiness, and unfortunately, we haven't really been good at identifying these needs, let alone planning a path towards achieving satisfaction. Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal ruffled a few sentiments when he chided Indian start-ups for concentrating on food delivery apps when their Chinese counterparts were developing deep tech. What exactly is the need10-minute delivery apps are fulfilling? The need for instant gratification?
In contrast, people like Sharma are quietly working towards fulfilling real needs. Hailing from Paniala village in Bilaspur (HP), Sharma observed apple seeds discarded in his backyard take root and grow into a fruit-bearing tree despite the warm, unfriendly climate.
This set him off on a journey of experimentation that led to the development of the HRMN-99 apple. Similarly, Arunachalam Muruganantham designed and produced machines that produce low-cost sanitary napkins — these have benefitted 13 million women. He has created over 25,000 jobs with his invention. The movie, Pad Man (2018), winner of a National Award in 2019, was based on his story. Muruganantham was conferred the Padma Shri in 2016.
Yanung Jamoh Lego from Arunachal Pradesh has popularised nature's herbal remedies. Her methods offer affordable and culturally rooted healthcare. She has helped revive traditional healing, empowered local women, and promoted sustainable health practices. Over 300,000 patients have been reported cured using her medicines. Yanung was conferred the Padma Shri last year.
These stories have another thing in common. The National Innovation Foundation, an autonomous organisation under the Department of Science and Technology, nurtured their innovations. It has funded and supported 13 such common men and women who have later won the Padma Shri. Our society needs more such organisations. The theme of the World Happiness Report for 2025 is caring and sharing. We need to find more ways as a society to start caring for others around us.
The writer is an Indian Revenue Service officer Views are personal