[Reader-list] A middle class that roars

[Zulfiya Hamzaki]

An interesting read on the resurgence of the bourgeoisie.


*Original - "A middle class that roars" by  Siddharth Bhatia. Link:
http://www.asianage.com/columnists/middle-class-roars-773 *

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*One of* the interesting points that arose during the recent anti-corruption
agitation was the apparent gap between the “middle class” and the
“intelligentsia”. The latter said that the main supporters of Anna Hazare
and his group were from the middle classes and proceeded to analyse the
whole agitation from that perspective. The former, feeling they were being
criticised, hit back at the intelligentsia, declaring that they were
disconnected with the situation on the ground.
This is hardly a new debate; the bourgeoisie and the intellectual class have
always been at odds. Pundits, philosophers and experts think of the middle
classes as being too obsessed with mundane, material issues, while the
latter see themselves as hard-working, honest people who want nothing more
than safety, security and comfort for their families. The thinkers, they
feel, think too much and look down upon the hopes and aspirations of the
rest; they need to come down from their ivory tower perch and smell the
coffee.
But there was a different edge to this age-old argument this time round.
Earlier, the middle class was the silent majority (or minority, depending on
how you looked at it), with no one to speak for them and no way to express
their views. The professionals, government servants, small businessmen and
salaried people were angry with the system but did not know how to express
it. They felt frustrated and unwanted; their votes did not count for much
and the political class was too busy wooing the poor and hobnobbing with the
rich to notice. Between them, the four metros accounted for 25-odd Lok Sabha
seats and there too the urban poor voted. The small towns and second-rung
metros too did not add up to anything worth a politician’s attention.
But the middle class has changed over the decades. In the immediate
post-Independence phase, the educated professionals were totally on board
with the Nehruvian project — there was a commitment to rebuild the country;
many scientists, scholars and academics who had studied abroad returned to
join upcoming institutions. Not that there were no opponents to Nehru and
his ideology, but there was no other political party to rival the Congress.
The Leftists were vocal but their support came from workers, both urban and
rural.
By the time Indira Gandhi appeared on the scene, a new generation had begun
to grow up. The middle class now consisted of those working for the public
sector and the government but also businessmen who had begun to get rich
thanks to several schemes for the small-scale industry. At the same time the
radical Left also sprung up and attracted middle and upper middle-class
youth. Those who could, migrated for better educational prospects, convinced
that India was a no-hoper.
A mutual antipathy developed between Indira Gandhi and the urban middle
class. They felt she was too authoritarian and the Congress had lost its
moorings; she did not care about them or their concerns and went over their
heads to the poor, who backed her repeatedly. The intelligentsia —
academics, think tankers etc — turned against her and towards other
alternatives, from the Left to Jayaprakash Narayan.
After that, the growing educated classes — and the intelligentsia — moved
away from the Congress for a long time. For a few brief years when Rajiv
Gandhi became Prime Minister and opened up the economy (much before P.V.
Narasimha Rao did), the middle class returned and gave him a handsome
victory in the Lok Sabha. But soon the Congress found this constituency
slipping away. They had discovered the BJP and the BJP loved them right
back.
In the 2009 general elections, Manmohan Singh for the first time in 20 years
brought them back to the Congress, but as we have seen, that love affair has
proved short lived.
Intriguingly, as the middle class has grown rapidly — an estimated 31
million households — the intelligentsia has correspondingly grown more
hostile. Part of this is explained by the general Left-liberal slant of
intellectuals in India who tend to see this neo-affluent mass as driven by
consumerism and narrow self-interest and little else. But it was the tone
and tenor of the recent agitation, which was anti-politicians and as much as
anti-politics, that has really widened the gap. Now the pundits are worried
about the growing attachment of the middle classes to authoritarian ideals
with little or no patience with the Constitution and democratic processes.
The middle class is not sitting back. For the first time, it has access to
communication platforms to proclaim its own point of view. Apart from the
new technology and social media, which is democratic and freely available,
they found a champion in the mass media, television. At one time the media
was largely sympathetic to or at least aware of the underdog; today it has
crossed over almost totally to the side of the middle class. So while the
pundits may analyse and scoff on panel discussions, the news coverage of
channels and, to a lesser extent, newspapers, leans in the other direction;
this is largely driven by commercial concerns of advertising and TRPs, but
one could argue that there could be some level of empathy too.

The middle class has discovered its voice and the power of that voice. It is
now bound to use it often. That is not necessarily such a bad thing as many
may contend. But if it is used irresponsibly, without any sense of civic,
social or political responsibility, it will turn into a force of destruction
and nihilism. In many societies the bourgeoisie has played a constructive
role of providing stability; not all its values are bad. Middle classes in
the West participate in nation building, volunteerism and charity. There is
no reason why that cannot happen here. How this facet develops in India will
shape the country for many years to come. As for the intelligentsia, it too
will have to recognise that India has changed from what it was even two
decades ago. The demands of the honest citizen are valid and if the
political class will not deliver, these demands will be articulated,
occasionally in a strident way.