Suspended between reality and dreams : The Tribune India

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Book Review: Dreamers: How Young Indians are Changing their World by Snigdha Poonam.

Suspended between reality and dreams

India, today, has the largest number of young people in the world, (under the age of 25), that comprise half of the entire population, a staggering 600 million.

Suspended between reality and dreams

The inexorable shift: At 600 million, India boasts of having the largest young population in the world (under the age of 25) that also comprises half of its entire populace. The book defines the aspirations of young India at the threshold of a new world order. The young are highly motivated and refuse to be defined in any way but their own tribune photo:Mukesh Aggarwal



Shelley Walia

India, today, has the largest number of young people in the world, (under the age of 25), that comprise half of the entire population, a staggering 600 million. This is the great 'demographic dividend' touted by Narendra Modi, that's putatively poised to change the world in ways that are unimaginable. Snigdha Poonam has written a timely and insightful book on this largest cohort of youth. Through her travels across India, she confronts a world of reality and illusion, success and failure that define the aspirations of young India at the threshold of a new world order, highly motivated and refusing to be defined in any way but its own. In this struggle for fame and fortune to establish themselves as a force to be reckoned with, some willy-nilly see their dreams fructify into reality while countless others see their dreams shatter.

Limitless possibilities jostle with frustration and disappointment in a society still steeped in the malaise of caste, acute poverty and the horror of prejudice. Though the phenomenal boom in connectivity and a supposed booming economy, point to greater access to all, a growth that's more socially inclusive, where the lowest person can aspire to nurture the highest dream, ambition and access are characteristics of a society that promises to break down any hindrance to power and prospects. This is the struggle that propels an economically backward 25-year-old to dream of an affordable education that leads to sustainable employment, and aspire to being upwardly mobile, armed as he is with the socio-economic resources to realise the dream.

A travelogue of a journey through the multi-headed reality of India takes you through the landscape ranging from “dubious entrepreneurs to political aspirants, from starstuck strivers to masterly swindlers”. Visible here is the dynamism of the wannabe ready to usher in a New India of hope and change but paradoxically aware of the hunger and unbridled sectarianism and devastating corruption that has percolated into the very entrails of our polity. It is this idea of India where the young know what they are doing, having as they are an “idea of success that includes the ability to strike between right and wrong based on what they stand to win and lose.” In the areas of governance, politics and show business it is clear that “few young Indians… had a clear sense of right and wrong, few gave a damn about it.”

Sadly, majority of the youth are “uneducated, unemployed, or unemployable”. Literacy levels are catastrophically low; more than half the students lack the ability to read books prescribed for the much lower grades; jobs are difficult to come by; people with Master's degrees apply in tens of thousands to jobs of cleaners, medical attendants and peons. Though Poonam underscores the success stories born of the ordinary entrepreneurial ingenuity — of a milkman creating his own centre of motivational guidance, a youngster from the slums using the YouTube to train as a model on the catwalk, or Pankaj Prasad, the corrupt ‘fixer’ who is a direct link between the public and the bureaucrat, the scenario is bleak considering the dismal state of education, health, or the undemocratic interference of the state provoking demonstrations across the country. 

Students, no longer willing to accept the laidback attitude of their teachers, rebel at the cost of being called ‘intellectual left’, a neo-liberal right wing swearword that has become a blemish. 

Fundamental rights of free speech, freedom to eat pork or love a person outside your caste/religion are daily condemned by a neo-Nazi setup, harping more on ultra-nationalism than on the constitutional rights of self-determination, freedom to worship or voice dissidence. 

In such a world, the dreamers either turn to innovative entrepreneurial ventures that bring in hefty profits or turn to vigilantism by enlisting in the cow protection brigades terrorising minorities or engaging in arson and loot as a protest against adversarial religious sentiments. Take the case of Kumar in Meerut, a hot-bed of communal free-for-all between the Muslims and Hindus. He hates women owing to repeated rejections and pesters couples of both the communities, a psychological need for winning ‘honour’ and respect though with misplaced machismo: “No matter how poorly placed they find themselves now, they make up the world's largest ever cohort of like-minded young people, and they see absolutely no reason why the world shouldn't run by their rules.” 

Thus, we have two adverse sets of people, one that desire to take the country towards progress and affluence and the other, the venomous senas of militant youth, tearing the very fabric of a secular state. However, on the other hand, many have thrived and earned millions like the Indore-based company run by ingenious young people who have no experience of the west but wangle through the World Wide Web a clientele for goods fetching huge revenues. 

This rosy picture remains an anachronism in a country lacking the infrastructure of educational institutes required to train the youth in basic skills. Around 120 million need to be employed in meaningfully productive industry. Until then, the young continue to have resolute conviction in their dreams and potential though confronted as they are by the dichotomy and quandary of failure and success, laudable talent and brutal thuggery.

Poonam has indeed written a brilliant cultural assessment of the angry young millennials, the wealth chasers and fame hunters in various hues of creative innovations and decadent pursuits. This state of being “suspended between their reality and their dreams” compels them forward where stopping is not an option. Summing up the incredible power of this burgeoning sea of youth, she optimistically visualises a scenario where “No matter where you end up, the sun still shines brighter and the stars are at your fingertips.”

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