Sagar Sridhara, PhD

A short story to narrate a big problem:

To put across my point of views, I hereby present a fictional hypothetical character, whose story perhaps reflects much of India. Let us call her Asha.

Asha is a teen, growing up in a middle-class family in an urban jungle somewhere in India. Every day she witnesses her parents work tirelessly to not only make ends meet, but to provide their only daughter the best chance to achieve social and financial independence that they have struggled to achieve over the years. While her father is regular in providing examples of academic failures and its long-term consequences: ‘Study well… Or you are going to end up like Mr. Sharma’s son. He has no choice but to go to a call centre to make a living’, her mother goes an extra mile providing an instant dose of motivation by cross-referencing other’s successes: ‘Did you hear that Sarita aunty’s daughter got into IIT, Mumbai?! She has a secure future. Someday, I will brag about my daughter getting into a premier institution’.

Over the many years at school, these phrases from her teachers are a routine: ‘Children, if you end up failing your exams, you will end up becoming a barber or a cleaner! Then you have no choice but to envy your friends for the rest of your lives. If you score well, you can get a Medical or Engineering seat. The choice is yours!’

All she can do is pity, when she constantly overhears her neighbor in a heated conversation with her old maid: ‘Kanthamma… You need a raise in wages? You are after all just a maid, not a CEO.’

A common topic of conversation between her mother and her friends is something like this: ‘Do you know that she agreed to marry this guy who merely has a diploma! Can you believe that?’

To put it bluntly, Asha and many kids of her age are in such an environment where the ladder to success is academic acheivement. The definition of a happy life is rather simple and direct. Should she fail to succeed in getting into that premier Institution that everyone wants to get in, not only will the family reputation be ruined, but she has to settle for a ‘low-quality’ job. In that case she thinks, she is not qualified enough to counter insults and has no chance to lead a decent life. She does not even venture out to think about career opportunities like a start-up or entrepreneurship, for it sounds too complicated and unrealistic.

Quest to succeed:

Most parents and teachers unconsciously provide and promote a biased view about the future prospects to the young minds. They subconsciously believe that only highly sought out careers such as Engineering or Medicine promises a stable source of income in the future and provides the social status in our society. Any unique interests such as Entrepreneurship, arts or a business start up is assumed to be financially far-fetched and unreliable from the aspects of social remuneration.

India is recently making strides in promoting business ventures and entrepreneurship and is ranked among the most desirable places in the world to start one’s own business. Yet, the majority of the population does not seem to be in the mood to grab the opportunity.

There is an undefined ‘hierarchy’ in India, where the farmers, construction workers and artists are unfortunately considered as less valuable than our Engineers, doctors and scientists. The skills such as those required to grow crops, build roads, market goods and providing services are not sought out by today’s youth for they are considered as a poor man’s job. Most parents would want their sons and daughters to pursue a career that provides long term financial security and social recognition. After all, a groom with a blue collar job marrying a bride with a white-collar job happens only in movies and rarely in reality. Speaking of movies reminded me of a scene from the Hindi movie ‘3 idiots’, where Farhan (the character played by Madhavan) is able to convince his father that pursuing photography makes his life ‘happier’ than pursuing an Engineering degree.

Origins of lack of dignity of labour:

Our current modern society is a unique blend of ideas with different origins, different schools of thought and different beneficiaries. Firstly, it has been hugely defined and influenced by the ancient and traditional way of social stratification: the four ‘varnas’ of the Hindu caste system. This division of the social classes was mainly based on the work that groups of people performed. The ‘Brahmana’ occupied the top-tier of the system and was considered a scholar, a priest worthy of leading the society towards an intellectual path. The ‘Kshatriyas’ were rulers and warriors who took pride in claiming to maintain law and order in the society. The cattle herders, agriculturists, traders and merchants were classified as ‘Vaishyas’, while certain groups of people were called ‘Shudras’ as they performed what was considered to be ‘menial jobs’. The group of people classified as Shudras were the victims of the hierarchy-based social system, as it provided a skewed mandate for the other three varnas to exploit them and deny them of a dignified life. The jobs that Shudras were meant to perform, irrespective of their will, were termed ‘menial’ and ‘lowly’ and something that was definitely not sought out. This later evolved into a lack of dignity of labour in our modern society.

The pioneering work of the architects of modern Indian constitution by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and colleagues has had a significant impact in alleviating human rights violation. It has recognized the fact that several groups of people have long been denied fundamental rights and has created a platform for these communities to lead a dignified life. However, our constitution cannot rid our minds of our lack of dignity of labour. Even today, assumptions are made about people based upon their educational qualification. A person having a strong command over his English is considered wiser than a person lacking it. Remember Sridevi playing the role of a housewife with a sloppy English in the movie ‘English Vinglish’?

Influence of the industrialized West:

The West has been instrumental in sounding the alarm and influencing the Indian society to change its ways. The liberal, free society portrayed by the Western culture has caused a direct confrontation with certain ultra-orthodox sects of the Indian society. The West paints a picture that any job is simply a job and deserves respect. The liberal Western way of living has persuaded many urban Indians to adopt its ways, while those Indians living in the rural and sub-urban towns envy their ‘freedom’.

The influence of the western world in shaping the social system of India has been magnanimous, especially since the dawn of industrialization. Although we still see certain segments of our society being influenced and driven by the ancient division of labour, many believe it is outdated and no longer valid today.

Consequences of lack of dignity: Brexit & Trumpism:

The recent Brexit (Britain’s decision to exit the European Union) was based upon a referendum, which simply asked the citizens of UK to choose to either stay in EU or leave it. Although the polls suggested that Brexit would not occur, the world was shocked to realize that the citizens of UK had actually voted to leave the EU. On the other hand, US has overwhelmigly voted for a Presidential candidate, whose statements are associated with sexism, misogyny, xenophobia and racism.

Many people who supported the Brexit, so called the Brexitiers, often construed the facts to have their way. They resorted to anti-immigrant fear-mongering to sway the public opinion. The new US President-elect Donald Trump clearly exploited a social and racial divide amomg citizens to win the election. His words were more appealing to most blue-collar, non-college educated whites.

When one disects these two unexpected and shocking results, it becomes rather easy to identify a pattern. It is clear that more and more people feel disconnected with the mainstream and want to witness a groundbreaking change that positively improves their lives. The compostion of today’s society is more complex than we actually attribute it to be. The society is a complex brew of people with deeply-rooted nationalistic sentiments, people advocating religion-based morality and people with a desire of a modern outlook.

Although Brexit and Trumpism are mostly a phenomenon of the West, it does have implications on the similarly complicated Indian society, that deeply admires the Western way of life.

India is on a path to where the West currently is. One can extrapolate and predict that India may also face such a political revolution, where the most-unlikely event becomes a reality. The root-cause of Brexit and Trumpism was the overwhelming discord among the people. A lack of dignity towards certain layers of our Indian society can trigger a similar situation where a silent oppressed majority decides to pursue a revolution. The revolution is indeed can be deemed ‘good’, yet, it has far-reaching consequences on law and order in the society.

Future prospectives:

Imagine a society, which respects everyone, irrepective of the kind of job he/she does, irrespective of their social class, irrespective of their gender, irrespective of their sexual orientation. That would be a world based upon respect to one another and a willingness to listen to the other person.

In this ideal world, it would be rather easy to address the staggering economic inequality. The person belonging to the top 1% of the richest would realise the need to shatter the economic barrier among people. A CEO of a profitable company would realize that he/she can reap more benefits by distributing the profits among the workers instead of awarding extra bonuses to himself/herself.

In such an ideal world, law-making would be based upon careful consideration of every perspective that its citizens have to offer. The day when we all respect one another is the day when real changes can happen. All we need to do is take one baby step at a time.

We need to encourage children to dare to dream BIG. Their dreams should be founded upon their skill set and not their marks in Mathematics. The creative minds should be allowed to blossom and curious minds to innovate. The aspiring minds should be allowed to pursue and the artistic minds should be allowed to create.

YES WE CAN! Will we?!