Recovery, Resistance & Hope

Being an Indian and a student of a law and policy science; I always end up thinking; what made India (an oldest civilizations in the world along with Mesopotamia and Chinese); having glorified days of growth, sustainability, social stability throughout medieval era, turned India into a state; popularly known as ‘Developing’ per se; with  economic marvels happening in between farmer’s suicides and increasing rich-poor divide.

As far as my limited knowledge goes; one can comprehend the social order emerged with time from medieval to colonial; then post independence to modern day societal structure under UN-IMF & WTO regimes; as follows;

In medieval era though critics of Indian ‘class system’ use to say that the Aryan societal order putting Brahmin’s on top as priests, then Kshatriyas who were Warriors at second, then third were the Vaisyas who were farmers, merchants, craftspeople, herder and indigenous bankers to keeps economy flowing by pumping credit and creating private as well as public welfare out of it and at the lowesof t it was Sudras who were farm labourers, servants and sewer/street sweepers; this is a system called ‘Varn [class] Vyavastha [system]’; where Varna also stands for Colour in Sanskrit language (standardised dialect of Old Indo-Aryans) and therefore was portrayed  to be Racists system dominated by few hypocrites; but in spite of this; the reality was completely different then. The well integrated society with Invert looking village economy, having marginal linkage with market at large, use of traditional seeds and strong and prevalent barter system kept the society out of any upheaval. In those days an economically efficient Drought Survival Mechanism was there to stock the grains and food stuff in speculation to hedge the risk of droughts.

Then eventually ‘Caste System’ emerged; whole society became relatively more unequal, institutions of kinship crop up; Community participation which was the soul of the ‘Drought Survival Mechanism’  weakened; which wreaked the production efficiency of these farmers to limited capacity which was usually sufficient for domestic consumption only and this created more vulnerability for agriculturists to suffer from crisis and droughts. Low levels of diversification of labour and capital hampered the innovation and the biggest sufferers of this was now more unequal, illiterate and poor Rural Society.

Then under British Colonial era a, as a result of East India co.’s monopoly over laws and commerce; British favoritism gave birth to feudalistic societal structure where Zamindars’s who were local collectors of revenue on behalf of the Queen; were also granted the rights over property by allowing them to accept mortgages on highly unfavorable terms for credit for farmers; this though hampered cultivators’ private benefits; but gave high returns to these intermediaries and British Crown as they were exploiting India by cheap imports of primary goods to Great Britain and exporting finished products to outer peripheral countries at high costs. India in this process lost its major share in 'value addition' due to cheap exports; thus lost its fortune.

Post-independence India went through much cultural transformation; modern day marvel called as Indian Constitution on the day of 26^th January 1950 gave all the subjects equal rights as any other sound democracy like United States and United Kingdom would give to their subjects. Rural society at that time too suffered a gigantic loss due to failed government policies and bias towards urban areas. Under Fabian Socialist structure advocated by India’s first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru; India did good by building sound infrastructure base for the country to remain independent and without any inside or outside agitation; which followed by Bureaucratic Socialism; where priorities have completely changed, rule of laws, by laws and red-tapism took control of people and state control and interference over resource sharing increased during 70’s and 80’s; surviving through four major wars with china and Pakistan, different shocks like oil price fluctuations, droughts and famines leaving thousands dead; always rural society suffered and survived in the hope of recovery.

 Green Revolution and Land reforms; no doubt; did a lot for Indian society. As agricultural production break new records post 70's; India became net exporter of two primary staples; Wheat and Rice and became an international price setter of Onions and Sugar; recovering from the situation of massive hunger and dependency over huge and costly imports of these commodities form US and elsewhere in 1960’s. But today 85% of all Indian farmers have less that 1 to 2 Hectare of land holdings and farmers with more than 10 hectare of land holding are only 1%; and falling share of bottom 85% in farm production is a serious concern.

In modern days under UN-IMF & WTO regimes; India finally opened up its barriers to trade and investment post 1991; Liberalization, Globalization and Privatization helped India in earning the image of global investment hot-spot, a cost efficient markets and high return ratios. But left farmers at their own; leaving the Annual national farmer suicides rate between 13,600 and 18,300 in India between 1997 and 2007. As a reason for this National Crime Reports Bureau of India cites "Market Failure or Debts" as a reason behind it.

Post 1990; Lower caste people who were holding much of the factors of production; due to increased aspirations went through change in social order; after opening up of the economy they started moving out of rural sector to modern sectors like finance, industries, manufacturing. The process of chaotic urbanization created different target groups for government poverty alleviation programmed; like ‘Urban Poor’ and ‘Rural Poor’.

Upper middle class now try to have western lifestyle; they admire John Mayer, respect democracies like US and UK; student are mad about social media, they even worship Star Wars, and India is now 3rd largest Smartphone market in the world but maintains a lowest level of connections per 100 citizens after Pakistan, Kenya, Cuba, Lebanon, and North Korea. Not generalizing the whole situation so straight-forwardly but according to me the nightmare India had; where hardcore caste and class system has left Indian low caste and minority no option but to imitate majority or upper class in order to classify themselves as upper strata people; and making them aloof from reality. In the road rage of competition and growth; India is becoming highly susceptible to development apparatus set by Developed Nations; the term Demonstration effect used in political science , sociology explains this situation exactly; be it economics or culture; every term is getting dictated by Developed nations which is making India less innovative and more conservative and imitative in nature. Along with all of these things; people are getting more and more Greedy and started believing in exploitative accumulation; mere imitation is neither adding up to private benefits to Indian middle class; nor making any public benefit; which can be cared & shared among deprived once; leaving virtually nothing to deprived ones and this vicious cycle goes on.

Meanwhile Urban middle class and fortune 500 class enjoys a selective advantage towards their due to their hold on money; which these smart people use to drill the system till its core and reap every benefit which was meant to be for all and not for few. This class particularity shows its 'Preemptive Patriotism' during election times and national festivals like independence and republic days; they enjoy dressing up for Christmas as they are celebrating Diwali or Eid. They are so stuck in those urban lives; that caste and class are least of their concern. Ruling class, the top 1%, consists of Politicians, Bureaucrats, Businessmen, Managers, Bankers and Lawyers; in spite of their caste; ensure themselves with heavy personal benefits by way of lobbying and networking.

The Urban-Rural cultural divide; is more dangerous than Caste system based on certain moral or ethical principles. Today Caste has become tool for everyone who wants to use it as a tool of manipulation; where Caste system was a autonomous bodies created by society to conduct the business of social transformation with harmony in Medieval days. Today that transformation is taking place by corrupt practices; but in the end; the world where we live in today; where Money has become a biggest factor for survival; money only decides the ethics and morals of social practices.

Driven by Growth motives; and caught in between conservative beliefs, Indians are getting influenced by every story US or any other developed nation tells; their consumption patterns are becoming more and more poor in their aspirations to innovate something of their own; which India will cherish as its USP apart from Yoga, Great Temple & even more great work force; where everybody is just looking for a good place to be in food chain of capitalism.  

This reminds me of Adam Smith’s famous quote; which says; “The real tragedy of the poor is the poverty of their aspirations”.