The sudden and unprovoked attack by MNS activists on some poor hawkers and taxi drivers in Mumbai is currently been hotly debated. Without going into where these hawkers and taxi drivers people come from, let me simply say my experience shows that poor migrants often have no country, no caste, no religion, no family either. They could be from the debt stricken villages of Bihar and UP or they could be victims of starvation from the equally debt stricken backyards of Vidarbha—Maharashtra's own shame. They are the forgotten children of our new India, left to fend for themselves and, in times of unreasonable violence, they are the ones who bear the brunt of every attack.
In caste wars, it's not the weaker castes that suffer, as is often projected. It's the poor of all castes who get killed. During communal riots, it's the same. The poor and the defenceless are the first to be attacked, be it in a Jogeshwari slum or in a bakery on Mohammed Ali Road or under the thatched roof of a rural church in backward Orissa where adivasis cower in fear. They are the soft targets. When the Assamese attack migrant Bengalis, they do the same. So the MNS is actually following a typical pattern. All such grand ideological battles are fought over the dead bodies of poor people who do not have the power to defend themselves.
How can they? In this complex, multicultural, multilingual nation where many faiths, castes, communities coexist, each with complex variants, it's no longer possible for the poor to understand where they stand. For the fragile ecosystem of public expectations currently holds together three concurrent trends all of which are actually in conflict with each other.
The first is globalisation. This has co-opted the youth and the business community who have realised that economic reforms alone can help them escape the clutches of a corrupt and manipulative political system and its vassal bureaucracy. An India integrated with the world will be busy competing, not paying haftas. Most young Indians believe globalisation will make life better for them. They will no longer be judged by caste, community, region or faith. Merit will take over from reservations. The stranglehold of old style politics will ease. Whether that happens or not, a new India young, aggressive, ready to take on the world has clearly emerged. And it is rooting for globalisation.
The second is nationalism. Whether it's on the cricket field or in business, a new, edgy nationalism has suddenly emerged. A cricket match is no longer just a cricket match. It's war. A border skirmish is no longer just a skirmish. It's a call to double your defence budget. Poor Sania Mirza. You saw how she was harassed for "disrespecting" the national flag. Narayanamurthy too. The man who was being pitched as the next President of India got clobbered for "disrespecting" the national anthem. This obsessive nationalism is trying to grab every available opportunity to assert itself, on every platform. Every national party wants to ride it. It is the prism through which we are currently trying to test every algorithm of our past, present and future. No wonder we are distorting every aspect of our traditional culture because India was never one nation. It was always a loose federation of beliefs, ideologies, cultures, geographies.
The third is regionalism. As we ride globalisation and assert our national identity, we are (in effect) submerging our regional cultures, our local identities, our personal histories. This is what is causing so much of tension and anxiety. Telengana, Assam, Nagaland, Mumbai: the roots of regional conflict lie in the same sense of loss. Loss of cultural identity. Loss of perceived job opportunities. Loss of history. The disconnect is sad but only natural in a society like ours, so swiftly morphing. Hence Valentine's Day becomes a symbol of cultural colonisation. English signboards at the airport are found offensive
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