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 couldn’t 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, it’s 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 it’s 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 it’s 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 it’s 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 queen’s 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 doesn’t possess legitimate source of power. Its social base is fragile and brittle. Since it doesn’t own means of production, it has to continuously reinvest and reproduce its status through arbitrary sources. Middle class status con’t 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 it’s 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 it’s 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’.