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| Living Statues Of Liberty | | Liberalisation has made the middle class assertive. Now shed cynicism, and it can produce model citizens. | | PAVAN K. VARMA
When I wrote The Great Indian Middle Class almost 10 years ago, this class was emerging from the shadows of the socialist era, and beginning to revel in the new consumerism to which the reforms of 1991 gave both legitimacy and opportunity. Most middle-class Indians had only paid lip service to notions of Gandhian austerity and had little faith in the efficacy of Nehruvian socialism. In those early days after liberalisation, their self-assertive materialism was spontaneous but tentative. There was still a reticence in completely disowning the ideological imperatives of the past.
The middle class has surged, gained pride. It's showing its first signs of public consciousness, aversion to communalism.
The middle class sensed that its time had come, but was not quite sure whether it should say so emphatically. Its members were adjusting very well to plastic money but a little less well to the ballot box which had empowered so many of the unwashed masses below them.
What has changed in the last 11 years? Firstly, the class has grown in numbers. If a decade ago it was in the vicinity of over 200 million, today I reckon it is closer to the half-billion mark. Secondly, it is a more confident class, more assured about its ability to swim in the waters of a more globalised and commercially competitive India. Thirdly, there is no longer the slightest tentativeness in its aspiration for the good things of life, and certainly, to satiate that thirst, there is much, much more on offer. And lastly, it is a more proud class: proud about the fact that India is perceived to be an emerging global power, proud of the country's nuclear prowess, proud about the respect that certain sectors of the economy now command in the world, and proud that Indians have done so well abroad.
In addition, there are two specific areas where I think there has been noticeable change in the way this class now reacts. The first is to communal provocation. When the agitation against the Babri Masjid was at its peak in the early 1990s, a great many middle-class Indians were effortless recruits to communal forces. Secularism was the official credo, but under its rhetoric was a great deal of angst against the perceived appeasement of the minorities, and this made for a great deal of private belligerence about religion. Today, Gujarat notwithstanding, this class seems to have largely seen through the use of religion by political parties. Most of its members want to swim away from the islands of religious exclusiveness towards the dividends of the secular mainstream, and just get on with their lives. The difference in the way the middle class reacted in Bombay to the bomb blasts in 1993 and in 2003 illustrates my point. Less middle-class Hindus are joining the RSS or the Bajrang Dal; and more Muslims at the conservative Darul Uloom at Deoband are studying computers and English than ever before. Instability caused by religious strife militates against the middle classes' unwavering focus on upward mobility. Political parties have been forced to contest the secular ground to woo middle-class Indians, and this is all for the good.
The second area relates to civic engagement. Undoubtedly, the middle class is still very insular, oblivious to any interests outside its turf. It remains, as in the past, socially insensitive to issues of poverty and deprivation. But, there is, however faint, the first glimmerings of hope that educated Indians are willing to break from their individualistic insularity towards conscious and collective action in the public sphere. Signs of this can be seen in the new activism of some Resident Welfare Associations in the capital and the bigger cities. The Jessica Lall murder case showed the willingness of middle-class Indians to organise themselves for a larger public good. The new technologies for communication—mobile phones and television—have become potent tools for mobilisation.These are still early days, and, certainly, the motivation is self-interest, but the trend is visible. The question is whether this civic consciousness, and the ability to follow up on it through concrete action, will strengthen or get submerged by cynicism. If it is the former, India will benefit; if it is the latter, middle-class Indians will continue to prosper, but remain poor citizens.
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