In the Chandogya Upanishad, the boy Satyakama asks his mother about his lineage. She tells him: “I was very busy serving many people when I was young, and I had you.” She says that she knows nothing about his lineage.
He goes to the teacher Gautama and repeats her words to him. Gautama answers: “No non-brahmin could speak like this.” He accepts Satyakama as a student, “as you have not deviated from truth.”
Poimaiyum vaaimai idaththa puraitheerndha nanmai payakkum enin. “Even a lie would take the place of truth, If it brings blameless benefit.” This is couplet 292 of the Thirukkural, the classical Tamil book of ethics. It stands in the chapter on truthfulness.
The exception is written into the praise of truth itself.
“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high,” begins poem 35 of Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali, in his own English version. The poem goes on: “Where knowledge is free” and “Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls.” Then: “Where words come out from the depth of truth.”
N.R. Narayana Murthy, a founder of Infosys, explained the company’s approach to investors at an analyst meeting in 2005. “That’s why we use this adage at Infosys and that is ‘when in doubt, disclose’.”
The Right to Information Act of 2005 opens with the statement that “democracy requires an informed citizenry and transparency of information.” Citizens who are refused information can appeal to information commissions.
In October 2025 a report by the citizens’ group Satark Nagrik Sangathan found that “4,13,972 appeals and complaints were pending as on June 30 in the 29 information commissions.” In some commissions, an appeal may take decades to come up for hearing.
In 2014 India passed the Whistle Blowers Protection Act. According to Wikipedia, “the Act has not yet come into force.” Amendments on disclosures related to national security still had to be added.
An amendment bill passed the Lok Sabha on May 13, 2015, but did not become law. The government later claimed that the Act was adequate even without the amendments.
On September 21, 1995, statues of the god Ganesha across India were reported to be drinking milk offered to them. People “spread the news through telephones and word of mouth.” Milk was sold out in hours, and “the news had spread beyond India.”
It was also alleged that the news was spread by organized late-night telephone calls to temples. This remained an allegation.
Rule 3 of the Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules, 1964, states: “The direction of the official superior shall ordinarily be in writing. Oral direction to subordinates shall be avoided, as far as possible. Where the issue of oral direction becomes unavoidable, the official superior shall confirm it in writing immediately thereafter.”
The next clause adds that a government servant who has received an oral direction “shall seek confirmation of the same in writing as early as possible.”
In 2008 and 2009 the Income Tax Department tapped the phone lines of Niira Radia, a corporate lobbyist, for 300 days. In November 2010 transcripts of some of her calls became public. They were conversations with politicians, industrialists and senior journalists.
According to Wikipedia, some of the calls show attempts to “use some media persons to influence the decision to appoint A. Raja as telecom minister.”
In July 2019 WhatsApp said that it had more than 400 million users in India, its biggest market. Indians use the ironic name “WhatsApp University” for the forwarded messages that spread misinformation.