Shantaram Principles Quotes

Karla's a thinker, and she is more realistic than our idealistic Lin. She knows that sometimes acting on pure principle with no regard to the results of our actions can do more harm than good. Sometimes trying to change something just for the sake of trying can really cause trouble.

Lin doesn't get why everyone tries to kill each other looking for a seat on the train, and then suddenly gets insanely polite as soon as the train starts rolling, until he realizes that it's all about necessity. Whereas the free-for-all determines your position and comfort for the next several hours, the politeness makes it bearable to be with all those other people for those hours. Actions change according to context, but the underlying principle doesn't.

But what about the people who commit really bad or really good deeds? Khaderbhai seems to be slipping away from any sense of responsibility with his ethical philosophy. Lin is convinced—at first. There might be something to this idea, though, because such a belief is what allows Khaderbhai to see goodness in Lin, a man who has committed very bad deeds.

Johnny Cigar is offended by Lin's request that he watch his stuff while he's gone. Underneath his anger is the deep principle that guides slum life, which basically says, "we take care of each other." That principle is also one of necessity, like the one Lin learned on the train (see the quote above). The slumdwellers have got to be able to trust each other with their unlocked huts, or they'd slip into chaos lickety-split.

Lin draws the line at murder, and while he loves to brag to us about knife fights and fist fights and all other sorts of brawls and bravery, every time he gets the chance to finish someone off he decides not to. It's his personal principle, but not one that he shares with any of Khaderbhai's guys.

Qasim Ali, the head of the slum, is a wise man and applies his principles willy-nilly, making every problem a teachable moment. For him, justice is a real tool, not just an abstract law. He uses it to find proper punishments that not only make people really sorry they made a mistake, but also teaches them why it was wrong and not to do it again.

Chivalry is all about principles. It's a whole system of rules and regulations for knights. In this case, the slum-dwellers are acting chivalrous, protecting "their" women from dangerous rivals. This, in turn, reveals a startling way of looking at women, as property.

Say what? Yeah, we know this is a bizarre quote, but we kind of just have to agree with it, and also the guy says it more than once, so you know it's important. What's this got to do with principles? It's about knowing what's important. In the case of the blue bear handlers, they're willing to go through all sorts of pain and suffering out of love for their bear.

And here's an example of what principles aren't. Basically, if you'd be willing to break a rule, for a price, it's just that, a rule. It's not a principle. Principles are values that are so deep that you wouldn't break them for anything or, if you did, you'd feel really bad about it.

The people who live in the slum work, as Lin (and we) said before, on the principle of necessity. They take care of each other because they realize that their own survival depends on the survival of their neighbors and the slum as a whole. The collective becomes as important, or more important, than the individual.