WRATH OF THE MIDDLE CLASS

Sasika Sassen, a feminist writer, in her book ‘Global Street’ writes that in the present scenario,  revolution by the middle class has become a universal global phenomena. There is a new world order and a new geography of privilege and dis empowerment that cuts across the old divide of rich and poor countries, or north and south. And the ones that are emerging as the contesting actors, are the young men and women of the middle class. They are the ones who are losing the most, who feel that the ‘social contract’ with the State is broken.

Social Contract

Why is the ‘social contract’ with the state broken? This is because although the middle class is a ‘consuming class’, their indignation roots from the fact that most of the benefits of the various resources of the State are being utilised to help the poor and the elite. The State helps to bail out banks and ‘sick PSUs’, provides land to the corporate honchos to build luxury projects, etc. Also there is the irrational subsidization policy, the public healthcare centres, hospitals, schools, electricity provided to the BPL families using the money provided by the middle class in the form of taxes. Hence the social contract with the liberal state is broken. 

The New Middle Class

Previously the middle class was considered infallible and mostly represented as one that was a symbol of stability and continuity. Today the middle class considers itself as the prime arbiter of social change. The self anointed ‘in-betweens’ finds itself mediating between a very large number of diverse forces. It is interesting to ponder the reason for such a transformation.

The social and economical mobility in terms of commercialization and consumerism has catapulted their value to a different level. Nobody can condone and subvert the great Indian middle class market anymore. The media projects them as the ‘articulative section’ of the society, which has further augmented the probability to represent, reassure and reconfigure their own class. Further, the expansion of society with more communities entering this stratum ( inclusion of peasant class into the urban middle class) has rendered them to be the new ‘vote banks’ in the political sphere. These ‘vote banks’ are more inclined to the right wing parties, condemn quota system, support the ideology ‘justice for all, appeasement of none’ and are ingeniously concerned by the sophistication attached to ‘brand India’.

Constructing Brand India

What is brand India? It is the approximate summary of the country, highlighting the good things and shedding all that is undesirable and burdensome. Hence instead of being seen as a limited self-serving agenda, the so called brand India gets sheen of patriotic urgency. But how does the middle class help in conserving brand India? Pre 1991, the middle class was defensive as the idea of middle class values was used as a protective shield to insulate it against the fear of change(change was considered a disruptive force). But over the years, with shifting of paradigm and introduction of new variables, the idea of middle class means an inclination to consume and that ‘middleclassness’ is seen to confer legitimacy to this propulsive quest for progress, marked by acts of consumption. The educated, self-conscious middle class today decides the nature and meaning of brand India.

Global Middle Class and Its Anger

A few years ago, the emerging markets and middle income developing countries were considered to have a rosy future. The rising middle class was going to usher in an era of stability, democracy and mass consumer markets that would lead the world economy. The global middle class is growing, but the imminent smooth democratic transitions have not occurred. Instead what we have seen is the animosity between an angry middle class and democratically elected governments; quite a paradox indeed. The two sides are at loggerheads with each other with the people loathing the State for breaking their faith and taking them for granted. The ‘Arab Spring’ witnessed in the African Arab nations, was actually started when a Tunisian fruit seller was beaten by a corrupt official. The Tunis, experiencing grave unemployment, couldn’t burry the insurmountable frustration and vented their anger against the government. Mohamed Morsi, the leader of the first democratically elected government in Egypt, had to meet the same fate for not being able to fulfil the expectations of the people. Hence it can be concluded that the revolutions were not subjected to only authoritative despotism or dictatorship, but also to the institutions democratically elected by the people themselves. Hence although the revolutions (agitations) such as the Arab Spring, the Anna Hazare movement, the Occupy Wall Street movement did not fetch the desired goals, they can be deemed as successful movements due to the immense participation of the middle class.

In the last few years, we have seen some emerging countries (including India) rocked and maimed by massive urban protests due to the transgression of meta physical faith of the people on the government. These have put doubt over the future of the political parties and leaders that had previously seen unassailable. The callous nature of the government and the impudent manner of conducting business won’t be tolerated anymore. A certain degree of accountability is demanded from the political class. The Anna Hazare movement gave a voice to the anger of the people. The people who flocked at the Jantar Mantar, were mainly the middle class people. They were the most affected by the crony capitalism, corruption, nepotism and whimsical attitude of the government.

What is the reason for the violent protests that have emerged nearly simultaneously in Ukraine, Bosnia, Thailand, Brazil and Turkey? The emancipation of the middle class from its protective shield and emerging not merely as passive consumers or docile voters, but demanding governments to start acting like true democracies. When the rulers of emerging democracies remain visibly corrupt or treat crucial foreign and domestic policies simply as their personal choices to make, they are provoking waves of anger and mass protest. The discernable message that is being conveyed through their acts, which they do with absolute impunity, is highly despicable.

From New Delhi to Sao Paulo, from Istanbul to Kiev, we are seeing a similar phenomenon. These are movements of the angry emerging middle class in countries at crossroads. If we examine the background to the recent events in these countries, we find that despite the geographical distances that separate those, these countries are remarkably similar. All the countries are middle income emerging markets and just arrived at a point where the vast majority of the population is literate and expects the government to provide a sound economy, jobs and decent public services. The social security, the future of themselves and their children are of paramount importance. And the mere farcical policies of the government on paper wouldn’t satiate them anymore. In sum, all these countries are at a point where limiting corruption and increasing accountability are imperative for the country to continue pursuing the living standards of richer countries, or fall back to the standards of the poorer ones.

The short term economic performance of these countries is not as important as where they stand in the transition, having escaped dire poverty and knocking at the doors of modern style security and prosperity. Many may argue that such a glib scenario of the educated mass is a result of the ‘economic growth’ entering into a downward slope phase. But this short term economic performance is highly misleading. In 2010, just before Egypt erupted into a turmoil, the nation’s economy had enjoyed a 5.3% GDP growth; also in 2010, Syria’s economy boomed with a 6 % GDP growth. Similarly, India post global economic crisis, still managed healthy economic growth. The problem is that these short term overall growth rates tell us nothing about how prosperity has been distributed, about the gap between economic growth and political exclusion or the amount of corruption. It is the irretrievable breaking of trust, put by the people on the political leaders that hurt and anger them. The grafts involved in the 2014 football world cup in Brazil, the decision by the Turkey Prime Minister to close Gezi Park(a deeply valued urban refuge) gave rise to protests.

Indian Perspective

Given that people are protesting not out of sheer poverty, but their anguish is against rulers they see as stealing their chances to move forward, it should be of no surprise that these countries are also rated highly corrupt. According to Perceptional Corruption Index compiled by Transparency International (TI), India ranks as high as 94 in the list. The UPA government lost its credibility when a plethora of corruption cases came up. The people felt betrayed seeing an economist PM with such impeccable image, running a government of corrupt leaders.  The commonwealth games, the 2G scam, the coal scam,etc has dented the image of the PM and that of the political leaders. The government was mired by a streak of malicious attack from the opposition and the common man. Not only this, the proprietors of such decision making process and the perpetrators of such obnoxious practices were left unscathed and scot free. The dismissive disparaging of the Delhi CM by countered with a governor post in Kerala. Also tainted leaders being rewarded by party tickets is a justification of the apathetical and amoral culture prevailing in the Congress party. The repercussions of the culpable, repugnant actions of the government is already being witnessed in the recently concluded assembly elections and may soon be witnessed in the general parliamentary elections.

In the present scenario, there are various issues that confront us today. What kind of social and political formations(changes in terms of mentality, perspective and institutions) are we likely to see in response to the emerging world which puts ‘aspirations’ at its apex? Are the new modes of representation allowing more room for self expression or are they cramping the imagination in pre-fabricated structures? How is the middle class negotiate a relationship with the past, given its new found mobility? Is the idea of a ‘single middle class’ still relevant anymore? Only time will be ableto answer these questions.