Apr 13, 2001 01:47 PM
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''Vatan ki fikar kar nadaan
Musibat aane wali hai
Teri samjoge to mit jaagoe
Ai Hindustan walon Tumhari
daastanon tak bhi Na hogi
daastanon mein''
................. Iqbal
This is how the book starts.. Well, I dont want to translate, ;coz translations like comparisions are odious...
After reading a host of depressing fiction ,it was a great relief to lay my hands on Pavan Verma's non-fiction and finish it in one sitting. The book describes how the middle class in India evolved from the time it got Independence till its 50 th anniversary; from the days of idealism and socialism to the days of cynicism and liberalization.
According to the author the middle class in any country plays a major role in its development and he thinks the middle class in India could have done more. He analyses how the class has subverted Indian polity and society to subserve its vested interests. The book is divided into ,rather prosaically ,four chapters, 1)Relevance of Beginnings, 2) Age of hope, 3)End of Innocence, and 4)Inner landscape.
In the first chapter ,the author highlights how Gandhi and Nehru enlightened self-interest in the middle class which not only won freedom but also a system of governance which could be tolerant and liberal.
The Nehruvian ;Age of Hope ;brings forth the ICS aristocracy and the rich educated elite who miantened their feudal lifestyle within their ;comfort zones;. As Varma puts ,it was a compromised state ,radical at the level of polity ,self-serving at the level of practice.
The end of innocence ;came with the 1962 military defeat with the collapse of consensus. The author could have gone into more details at this ,particularly on the aspect of hoe Indira Gandhis leftist leanings or how Sanjay Gandhi reversed the trends.. Middle class really became assertive&; ,if not;'Great' after the Mandal episode ;where-in they felt the need to govern ,both from within the government and from the electoral polity.
The author doesnt have any praise for the middle class anywhere in his book, but doesnt dare to drop the self-glorifying adjective 'Great' This new aggressive class unleashed a fundamental revival with Ayodhya crisis .It was left to Narsimha rao to open up the economy,advising the mandal deprived ,non-democratic ,middle classes ;
''dont worry; leave government jobs and political offices to the lesser mortals of the Mandal raj; you come and partake of the privatized economy where there are more jobs and riches''.
With hardly any reprsentation in politics, the middle classes were becoming not only apolitical but also anti-political .Varma fears ,rightly so, that this anti- politicalism could degenerate further into a hatred for political system and a threat to democracy .Opinion polls have shown that these classes would not mind a military dictatorship if it could deliver the results.
Veteran Journalist, Kushwant Singh ,who picked this work among the four Indian books for the special mention best describes Varma's book as a daring analysis of what is happening in the country today .He shows that the middle class was ignoring its duties and would land itself in trouble in near future.
This book is a must read for anyone even remotely Indian .
Maa tujhe Salaaam !!!
Jai Hind