Rules Of The Road, Indian Style
Submitted by David Harp
Traveling on Indian Roads is an almost hallucinatory potion of sound,
spectacle and experience. It is frequently heart-rending, sometimes
hilarious, mostly exhilarating, always unforgettable — and, when you are
on the roads, extremely dangerous. Most Indian road users observe a
version of the Highway Code based on a Sanskrit text. These 12 rules of
the Indian road are published for the first time in English:
Image via Wikipedia
ARTICLE I:
The assumption of immortality is required of all road users.
ARTICLE II:
Indian traffic, like Indian society,is structured on a strict caste
system. The following precedence must be accorded at all times. In
descending order, give way to:
Cows, elephants, heavy trucks, buses, official cars, camels, light trucks,
buffalo, jeeps, ox-carts, private cars, motorcycles, scooters,
auto-rickshaws, pigs, pedal rickshaws, goats, bicycles (goods-carrying),
handcarts, bicycles (passenger-carrying), dogs, pedestrians.
ARTICLE III:
All wheeled vehicles shall be driven in accordance with the maxim: to slow
is to falter, to brake is to fail, to stop is defeat. This is the Indian
drivers’ mantra.
