Jugaad is seen as a clever workaround using limited resources. Indians frame it as being some profound philosophical aspect about navigating their culture. But what it can be more accurately described as is having no scruples and exploiting things for your own gain. For example, with the water pipe problem, you contact a cousin of a cousin, you bribe the right official and now you can have a new water pipe connected to your house. Jugaad is celebrated among Indians as being resourceful or inventive, as you're beating the system with your own ingenuity. Pulling off a 'clever' jugaad scheme is a way to earn yourself Izzat.
But when your jugaad doesn't play out the way you want, it's a loss of Izzat because you look stupid. Izzat is about the ends, not the means. It doesn't matter if your jugaad is ripping off a charity or scamming a dementia ridden grandmother of her life savings. If it achieves the ends you wanted, then you're celebrated.
As for the cow shit worship thing, I honestly have no fucking idea. It's probably some autistic hangover from Hinduism about the sacredness of cows or whatever. As I said before, you are permitted to get away with just about anything provided you can win Izzat disputes. Maybe someone starting eating cow shit and murdered everyone who criticized him, so here we are.
Quick aside, I know Jews get accused of all the shit indians do, but there's a big difference, and it is why Indians have a hard on for us.
For Jews, due to the millennia of persecution, the Jews have developed a parallel system, as well as we need the same things non Jews also need (Doctors, tradesmen, lawyers, etc), add in the fact that historically, if the gentile population faced too much competition from the Jews they would kick them out or blame them for their problems. So the Jews made their own schools, hospitals, training centers, etc. And also would hire other Jews, as they know they can trust them (for example, you know that the Jewish carpenter you let into your house for work won't use the knowledge he gained to steal your valuables and burn your house down when the next pogrom happens). This "parallel society" allowed us to become very successful in Western, enlightened states, because when the barriers were removed, we just "reintergrated" back into society. The indians see what the Jews did and assume that we act like they do with Jugaad and Izzat, but like
@GluttonousManSlob points out, it's all short-term. We didn't "cheat the system"; we "played the system" by its rules. It's why Israel, despite being smaller and poorer than most other nations and lacking resources, can punch above its weight class, but India barely can install toilets. The indians/people of the region cannot grasp that honesty and hard work go much further than Jugaad and Izzat. The arabs (and most muslims) think the same way, for them its all about perception not power. It's why Israel, the USA, and the West could win wars, but they never can. Do take notice, when countries invite more of this shit into their lands, ever notice how they no longer care about actual power (number of tanks, how good are tactics etc) but the perception?
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