Opinion | Is There A Case For Developing Indian Parameters To Measure World Happiness

The surprise here is Israel in the 8th place, a drop from 5th place last year, which is not bad at all considering the fact that it is still undergoing war and faced severe social crisis due to the October 7 2024, violent killings and abductions of Israelis from Nova music festival. Other countries in the next five places to ten are taken by European nations.

Dominance of the Nordic and European nations among the rankings is clear. The rankings have remained constant in the last decade with few changes. However, it is strange that India continues to rank below nations undergoing strife and civil war along with widespread economic disparities like Pakistan (rank 108) and Palestine (rank 99). India is ranked at 118 followed by very few countries. India has been in the bottom 30 nations in the Happiness rankings for a number of years. The US also dropped one rank to 24th in 2025.

India has accomplished remarkable growth this decade recording 105 per cent growth while doubling its economy. This growth has resulted in India eliminating extreme poverty and alleviating stark economic disparity. India showed decline in urban and rural inequality: The urban Gini declined from 36.7 to 31.9 and the rural Gini declined from 28.7 to 27.0 which is unprecedented in the context of high per capita growth (Gini index or Gini Coefficient is a statistical measure of income inequality).

However, this doesn’t seem to have made any dent in the World Happiness rank as far as India is concerned. Therefore, this begs the question if there is an issue with the parameters of measuring happiness applied to each nation as the metrics used to arrive at the Happiness ranking seem to be adversely affecting India missing India’s progress in numerous metrics.

According to the report, the world’s happiest country is based on a comprehensive analysis of Gallup polling data from 143 countries for the past three years, specifically monitoring performance in six particular categories: 1. Gross domestic product per capita, 2. Social support, 3. Healthy life expectancy, 4. Freedom to make your own life choices, 5. Generosity of the general population, and 6. Perceptions of internal and external corruption levels.

However, nations with larger populations and cultural differences will never be able to rank high in the World Happiness Index due to the parameters not being appropriately weighted for cultural and population differences. Sparsely populated nations naturally acquire high rank due to the central importance placed on GDP per capita. Larger nations like India and China might have booming economies worth Trillions of dollars but in terms of GDP per capita they will always be lower than sparsely populated nations.

Culturally India’s concept of happiness differs from Western nations. For example, the Indian parameters of happiness are not individual-centric but family-centric. India must develop its own parameters of happiness suitable for its culture and society.

1. Mindfulness and looking inward not outward is considered the most important aspect of life. Materialism as measured by individual wealth and professional accomplishment is not considered the ultimate achievement of life. Recluses who have left material life to seek spiritual growth are accepted as the most happy people of the world. This places India in complete opposition to the GDP per capita measure which is used as the foremost measure of happiness in the West, which is a measure of outward materialism.

2. India is a family centered society. Most elders stay home and die at home rather than being sent to senior care facilities. Family is the center of life. A Successful grihasta/grihasti (family man or woman) takes care of gurus (teachers/mentors), ancestors and family, and guests (anyone else that may need help). So Indian concept of social support is different; not dependent on whims and services of the government.

3. Health and life expectancy is immaterial for India. Life is just one in a series of many previous & future lives one soul may undergo in samsara (cycle of life). Spiritual teachers of India like Shankara and Vivekananda lived only a few decades but were considered great beings for their accomplished life. Living life without contributing to society in a routine manner is not considered a well-lived life. So, the Western concept of managing to live long is conceptually flawed to understand happiness in India. Happiness comes from fulfillment according to Indian understanding, which should come from enlightened life not from wealth.

4. Freedom to make life choices— India due to its multiplicity and diverse lifestyles offers more freedom to make life choices than the West gives credit, since life in India is different. The recent Kumbh Mela brought people of all walks of life to the forefront as they came to participate in Kumbh Mela. It is impossible to think that as much variety of lifestyles exist without freedom of choice. However, to the Western society millions of young men and women living as recluses might appear as a disaster rather than an achievement.

5. Generosity- who is to say generosity of people in India is less than the West? Indians donate millions of rupees to feed millions of people at temples and ashrams. The generosity of common people to help others is visible in the recently concluded Kumbh Mela where millions are fed and taken care of for the duration of the mela through the service of many. However, the donations to temples or other causes remains anonymous, which does not record the names of donors. Therefore, this might not appear in statistical data and might show India as less generous than it is.

6. Perceptions of corruption. Corruption is widespread across the world. The corruption in the West is not as obvious as it is in the higher levels of society and hidden under the system so might not be as perceptible to the common people unlike India where corruption is pervasive among the lower ranks of bureaucracy and easily perceived by the common people. So different parameters should be developed to address this discrepancy in assessing the extent of corruption in each society.

The problem with the world happiness report and rankings developed in the Nordic nations is that it is tinted with the notions of Nordic concepts of happiness, which are an extension of concepts of Western life. Therefore, no matter how these parameters of happiness index are applied it will always place Nordic nations ranking at the top with other Western nations following closely behind. Therefore, unless a change is introduced into the parameters of measuring happiness India will forever be ranked at the bottom quartile for the fault of being outside of the Eurozone concepts of understanding of happiness.

India must develop suitable new parameters centred on Indian concepts of happiness to produce a balanced report of happiness of the world. These new parameters of measuring happiness of the world might not only help India, but also help other Asian and African nations, which have been assigned abysmal ranks since the beginning of the World Happiness Rankings.

The author is Professor of History and Religious Studies, Department of Social Sciences, Shawnee State University, the US. The views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.