On the Ethos of Present Day Indian Middle Class

I joined the managing body of the owners' association of the housing campus where I live in a major Indian city. This was to be my “baby” step into politics. I wanted to put my feet in the public life in this tiny way, and see how people think and act on community matters. I also wanted to influence the community life in whatever way I could.

The experience brought home to me certain aspects of Indian middle class ethos and I would like to share them here.

The place where I live is one of the richest campuses in the city, perhaps in all of India. You will find the elite of Indian society living here e.g. CEOs of top multinationals, rich entrepreneurs, top notch professionals, and so on. We were lucky to buy a place here cheap when this place was not much thought of or else it is unlikely we would be living here.

The governing body has nine members. It concerns itself with community issues, e.g. maintenance of the place, interaction with builder who still has some stake in the campus, formulating and enforcing bye-laws etc. All members are very rich (I being the only exception !), some quit the corporate world early in order to be free to work as they like.

They are all highly educated of course. All of them have seen many countries in the world. Some have also lived for extended periods in developed countries.

Unlike people who have never seen what a developed country looks like, they are unlikely to say that something is not doable. For instance, if a suggestion is made to the association body that we should ensure landscaping quality improves, no one will say that this being India, “ye chalta hai”. They will at least express serious intention to improve things and try to act all they can.

I have seen them take up and implement a number of initiatives. They show a good degree of perseverance that is needed to execute anything new. I have also seen them act on emergencies such as water shortage and implement measures that improved life for all of us.

However, there is a deep flaw in their behavior and perhaps values. Before I explain the flaw, let me give a quick primer on societal ethos and how these influence society's progress.

I believe that societies' ethos plays the most important role in it's progress. I believe that there are good ethos and bad ethos. I also believe that at any point, a society has an entrenched ethos. This ethos is primarily a set of values – what the large body of people consider right and wrong. But the ethos is more than values. It is also a set of habits. The habits are learned through experience of individuals in their interaction with others. The habits may be completely nonsensical, but once learned, individuals figure out a way of justifying the habit.

I would like to give an illustration of a society's ethos, how it can be utterly wrong and why an individual need not accept something only because it is part of the society's ethos. Of this, there can be no better example than caste system and untouchability.

Let us go back to pre – modern India, say middle of 19th century. The society's ethos at the time had, amongst other things, a firmly entrenched caste system. Untouchability of certain very “low” people was part of this caste system. It affected the society's progress in that it seriously weakened the society and enabled enemies of India to overpower us more easily than they could otherwise.

Let us assume there be an individual in this India who feels passionately that untouchability is wrong and should be abolished. What chance would such an individual have of convincing any significant section of Indian society of his views ? How much support he would get for his views of how society should conduct it's affairs ? We can safely say that in pre – modern India, such an individual would be alone, cut off from the rest of the society.

So, the point is – society has a sense of right of wrong and that sense of values may be utterly wrong. For an individual, the implication is that something he believes is not wrong only because society won't accept it. Of course, in such a situation he would need to figure out ways of managing pressures because of his being different from society. He would also need to understand if and how much he can push his views. But he won't be wrong only because all else believe otherwise.

Now, let us come back to our rich people's campus. One of the responsibilities of the association body is to enforce the bye-laws formulated in line with authority given by the general body.

I find great reluctance amongst all members to enforce the rules as soon as it involves any kind of confrontation. Every time a matter comes up whereby the body members have to confront a resident about violation of law, it is as if there is an elephant in the room no one would like to face. If the issue is forced into discussion by pesky members like me, you immediately get to hear fluffy talk such as “we should resolve everything in a good – neighborly fashion” or something like: “we want a peaceful campus where everyone is happy” and so on. This, mind you, for small violations such as dog owners not clearing dog poop or someone playing music too loud.

There are more serious matters such as coercion by local (outside) thugs not permitting all to freely provide services in this rich campus. On these matters, there is not even a desire to bring up the matter. As if the very mention of the matter gives everyone a fear and embarrassment. At most, the body would like to ensure that the thugs don't conduct their fights inside the campus.

It has been very disheartening for me to observe this rich Indian class. All they seem to want are secure enclaves for which somebody somewhere ensures there is peace and order. I do not find one of them willing to take responsibility for law enforcement. Supposedly, the police is to do all enforcement. But they would not like to face the question what a body such as this can do within the confines of the law. There is much that is possible, but it takes a little courage to confront the matter and be willing to get into unpleasant situations. Rich India would not like any of that unpleasantness.

This is not to say that they do not ever face unpleasant situations. There have been occasions when body members did face thuggish people and made an attempt to stand up to them. However, I find they go to great lengths to avoid any confrontation and it needs to be forced on them for them to be involved in one.

It is a deep flaw in Indian ethos. If those in leadership positions want only a secure cocoon, without having to pay any price in terms of dirtying their hands to create security and peace, then we leave the political field wide open for crooks and thugs and also for the enemies of the country. Our “secure” people, living in their shells then endlessly complaint about politics being the haunt of crooks alone and good people being absent from politics if not public life.

Such is the ethos of leading India that has made us into a soft society and state. I am not at all surprised that they always vote for someone who is ambiguous in everything he says and does – men like Atal Behari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh, rather than one who will formulate clear policies and do what is needed to implement them, such as LK Advani. Let us face it, it is because of our ethos that Pakistan is able to nearly get away with horrific terror attacks. Those who would face such problems and try to solve them not only do not get support, but are actually reviled as unnecessary confronters.

What should an individual do when faced with society nurturing a sickness such as this ? Now again let us go back to our Indian in pre – modern India who opposed untouchability. What should he have done ?

It is unlikely he could have changed the society. He would actually struggle to simply remain part of it. The best course for him would be to remain in the society with minimum compromises on his principles. He should advocate his views at every forum. He should try to win as many followers as possible and if nothing else, he should leave a record that he opposed his society's ethos. Those records would be inspiration for future generations.

This is what I try to do now. Oppose the values and behaviors of our body when possible and advocate a different approach at every opportunity. But I tell you, the pressures are significant and it is not easy on me !!