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Predictable, Placid, Timid
By Nonika
Singh
"THE little man seems to have no
firm roots, no sure loyalties to sustain his life and
give it a centre. He is not aware of his history, his
past being brief as it is. He has lived through no golden
age he can recall in time of trouble," writes J.S.
Mills about white collar workers in the West. Other
western sociologists called middle class man, man
of corporation, man of organisation,
a little man up for sale a little cog ready
to be fitted in bureaucratic machinery, with no
history, politically impotent, socially indignant. Others
found him repressive.
In the same continuum, picture these
images of an average middle class Indian. Different
places, different situations, different people yet
bound by a common thread, self-acquiscence. Within the
confines of a plush private bank, a fairly affluent
middle-aged man is snubbed by a pretty young thing behind
the counter when he makes a feeble enquiry about his
balance. He returns after completing a transaction but
oblivious of his balance murmuring I will
find it out next time.
At a telephone exchange
an educated woman is flummaxed by smart alec
sarcasm-laden comments of the official in-charge.
Smirking from ear to ear he blurts: "Well, madam, if
after 50 years of Independence Nehruvian promise of
elimination of poverty couldnt be fulfilled, how do
you expect an inconsequential obligation of granting you
a telephone in OYT category within one month to
realise?" Taken aback by the sermon, she heads
homewards with a heavy heart but without protesting. At a
post office a gentleman demurely gives in to the rather
absurd demand of the post official that he go back at the
end of the serpentine queue if he has two jobs on his
agenda. Inside an air-conditioned cinema hall
where even the hot humid air of fans fails to reach out,
the balcony sitters fret, fume and sweat. But not even in
their wildest imagination would they ever consider taking
up the matter with the management.
The list is endless. The
examples epitomising the docility of middle class
existence could go on forever, probably fill up the
entire eight-page space of this newspaper. Placidity,
impotency, fear of authority call it by whatever
name has become the hallmark of Indian middle
class. As C.W. Right said: "They do not threaten
anyone. As individuals they do not have an independent
way of life". Pawan K. Varma wrote in his book The
Great Indian Middle Class: "A certain placidity
of temperament has conventionally been associated with
the middle class predictable goals, limited
ambitions, the contentment of the humdrum and the
routine, the simple certainty of a job, wife and
family".
Dr Pramod Kumar, a
social scientist, remarks that by its very nature middle
class undermines its own freedom and autonomy. What,
pray, is that special trait? Status quoists as a class,
it resists change, especially if accompanied by conflict
or upheaval. Tried and tested as against foolhardy
adventurism is the essence of life for an average middle
class Indian. Essentially an urban phenomenon, while in
West middle class owes its inception to industrialisation
and capitalism. Closer home, the Indian middle class grew
out of administrative requirements and colonial needs of
British rule.
No single definition
will suffice to contain its many parameters. Lewis and
Maude categorised it as a group with certain
characteristics. They said: "It practises a
particular type of occupation white collar
enjoys a particular level of income above average
and receives a particular level of education at
school or university, and lives in a good comfortable
house in a respectable area". Gurchain Singh dubbed
it as an aggregate of clerks, assistants, civil servants,
doctors, lawyers, engineers, employees of government
firms, cinema, hotels, advertisement industry et al.
Economists define middle class as a group which earns its
living by sharing a part of surplus value by selling its
services in the form of skilled labour. For sociologists,
however, its a class bound by common ideology
not political but encompassing religion,
caste and other notions. Besides, it possess a common
living style moulded by western values acquired through
education. Some also make a demarcation line between old
and new middle class.
However, thanks to its
heterogeneous base, there are several standpoints. Dr
Surendra Jodhka, a professor of sociology, says that
this, very heterogeneity gives credence to fallacious
perception of relative deprivation. Sure
enough, when it looks askance towards upper echelons of
society, there is a feeling of inferiority which creeps
into his internal psyche and he finds it near impossible
to challenge the super value system. But analysts argue
that since system is of, for and by the middle class, how
can it question the very system that ensures its
survival. Varma calls it the single largest beneficiary
of an inequitable socio-economic structure. Ever since
the Directive Principles of Policy were incorporated into
our constitutional structure, middle class interests have
always been protected. Dr Kumar agrees and reasons that
the poor may have the numbers, even a voice, but
its the middle class which controls the mind.
As long as the
institutions act as a watchdog of its ambitions and
aspirations, it supports the system. On the surface
middle class might appear to be at the receiving end of a
corrupt regime marked with red-tapism and bureaucratic
hurdles. But scratch the surface and its middle
class that dictates societal norms, mores and values. To
not so discerning an eye it sure comes across as a
passive group, but the moment its interests are
threatened, its voice can be heard loud and clear. Dr
Kumar cites the example of the Mandal commission which
dared challenge the middle class intrinsically an
upper caste conglomerate supremacy. Not only were
reactions volatile as students went on self-immolation
drive, the fate of V.P. Singh, who rolled the Mandal
momentum, was sealed forever. Dr Kumar adds: "Try to
trespass on its ground and you will be amazed by the
pressures it can generate.
Dr Jodhka asserts that
while in eighties the middle class might have been a
marginal category, today, thanks to economic reforms and
liberalisation, it has transformed into an incredibly
potent group. In his paper he informs: "Even in an
agrarian economy like Punjab, today no one celebrates
agriculture. The general consensus is that the answers to
economic problems faced by the state lie outside
agriculture". So the middle class has returned to
play a key role in a state which traditionally thrived on
rural Jat Sikh identity. Strangely enough it has acquired
a predominant position in spite of its depoliticisation.
In a way its a vicious cycle. While the political
class is independent of middle class, it reciprocates
through palpable disdain towards ruling classes.
But the victory of the
middle class is manifested at various policy levels.
Liberalisation has come as a boon. For the middle class
can now not only dream but can crystallise its dreams
earnings in high five figures into reality.
Culturally, too, the emergence of Laloos and Mayawatis
notwithstanding, it has triumphed. Take its exclusive
English-speaking ability. Whereas the middle class has
always prided itself on this imported asset, critics have
derided it for clinging to a phirang language, for
being a class uprooted from its cultural moorings. Still
state governments, notably West Bengal and Punjab, have
made English a compulsory language, thus echoing the
popular middle class sentiment that upward mobility rests
on knowledge of the queens English.
So how come a class
which dominates the collective consciousness of a nation
perceives itself as a sandwich class squeezed between two
polarised ends? As a sociologist writes: "Lost from
both platforms he remains content in his secure
niche". Dr Jodhka suggests that the dilemma of the
middle class is the shroud of docility. For one, it lacks
the moral courage to be otherwise. Since it has
successfully learnt to manipulate the system to garner
maximum gains, the moral pulpit from which it can shout
and preach is snatched away by its own actions. In
context of corruption, Varma reiterates: "In this
process the middle class is the victim, critic and
colluder, all rolled into one".
Dr Jodhka contends that
the middle class doesnt possess legitimate source
of power. Its social base is fragile and brittle. Since
it doesnt own means of production, it has to
continuously reinvest and reproduce its status through
arbitrary sources. Middle class status cont be
taken for granted and there is fierce competition
more than ever before to ensure the berth in the
middle class wagon for its progeny. The obsessive
preoccupation to find means to retard its downward
mobility and enhance upward ascent takes its toll. The
byproduct is an all-consuming anxiety which pulverises in
two forms of beheaviour.
On the one hand, there
is an overwhelming desire, an inconsummate lust for power
(read authority). On the other extreme, there is a fear
of authority so deeply ingrained that pitted against any
form of authority (however lowly) the average middle
class Indian simply caves in. Says Dr K.C. Kayastha, a
sociologist, "While the American middle class by
sheer force of numbers can usher in a change, the Indian
middle class feels suffocated. When confronted by lower
class, there is fear of loss of ego or prestige. With the
upper class authoritative baton hanging the middle class
is kept down and out". Even otherwise,
sociologically speaking, the middle class has a
tremendous capacity to follow and not lead. A buffer
class which has defied the Marxian prediction of
polarisation and revolution of the dispossessed, it
provides solidarity and continuity to society. While some
see in it a design of the ruling class to divert a
radical movement, others sneer and say its like a
well behaved mistress who will soften the tensions of all
the strata above it and below it.
Of course, in developed
nations where its survival is guaranteed by well
entrenched institutional mechanisms, it invariably acts
as a conscience keeper. Feminism, environment, right to
life, all movements have been initiated by the middle
class. In India, too, it participated actively in the
freedom struggle. Perhaps as of now its retiring in
its private island. Self-indulgent, self-centred, with no
conscience, and for whom poor are merely a part of the
landscape, are a few of its virtues which Varma
enumerates. Undeni-ably, as a class which, as Jodhka
puts, it has come to occupy the ideological space.
It needs to be more
vociferous. Will it break free out of its cocoon? The
rumbling even if not very audible can already be heard.
The recent outpouring of emotions over the Kargil
conflict, which is also getting translated into financial
help, bodes that all is not dead still.
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