ExpertDabbler

I came to know through some blogs that some intellectuals are trying to ridicule all the underprivileged sections of the society as grasshoppers – people who are lazy and deserve to be poor.
And the persons who voice their concern for the poor have been made fun of too. In this instance it happened to be Arundhati Roy.

Granted, Globalization has had a major effect on the way the urban dwellers think and live. I am typing this blog in a high end machine sitting inside air conditioned ambience, all because of private enterprise, spirit and IT revolution.

But capitalism is not the panacea of all ills that pervade the Indian society.

It is like trying to treat all types of fever with a dose of paracetamol.

A country like India which has its roots in the villages and where agriculture is still the major source of livelihood cannot be sustained with Broadband connectivity, IT revolution, stock markets, IPOs blah blah. If a government cannot improve the lives of the men and women who are used to living in their own villages peacefully and if it force s them to sell their lands, make them run to cities for mean jobs, the government is sitting on a time bomb and asking for it to explode.

The erstwhile middle class has been split into two – The upper echelons joining the upper strata of the society while the rest are descending to lower and lower standards of living.

Consider the recent example. The Tamil Nadu government in a bid to promote IT in the state has declared the Old Mahabalipuram Road as IT corridor long back. Now efforts are on in a massive way to expand the road to 10 lane (5 lanes in each way) expressway. All the encroachments have been removed. The owners who have had their lands have been declared PAP (Project Affected People) and have been paid compensations – usually it’s a little more than what you need for peanuts.

Now it is all set to revamp the road in a major way.
Time for celebrations.
But think for a moment about the natives who have been living here for generations. They have seen big IT companies come and usurp the land that was their own. They have been witness to the slow and definite degradation of the environment caused by traffic and pollution (Each software company runs a mini transport corporation).
Agriculture? No scope because there is no water. Now we are taking their land in the name of progress by paying a pittance. Tomorrow we will start charging a toll for using the road. Eventually these people will migrate to cities (Oh Indian cities are such a pleasure to live. We have all the basic amenities in place and proper for the next millennium. )

Or will turn thiefs and come to ransack the houses of all the software techies who live in posh areas in the cities.

Progress with a big P.

If victims protest, there will be a Police Lathi Charge followed by widespread threats by businessmen and real estate mafias who have their crores at stake.
This is the way capitalism works.

Now when someone who has the time to think about these people come out and protest, we ridicule them. Who is this Arundhati Roy? Why can’t she sit in a corner with her PC and write the next erotic best seller? Do Dan Brown or John Grisham ever voice their public opinion? Of course not. That is not their business. Their business is to churn out the next bestseller, make their millions and that is why we all love them, don’t we?

On the contrary look at people like Arundhati Roy. They can’t have their hands off trouble. They write about old-fashioned stuffs like Dams, War, Democracy and communalism. Idiots. They don’t know what sells.

In a way, it is not a new phenomenon. The truth has always been the might of the dollar has always been better than the might of ethics and fairness. The courts and its lawyers have always been favoring the rich rather than the poor.But some people have still managed to stick to their fundamental values because that somehow vaguely commanded a respect so far.
Alas but now even that is also being bought and sold in the marketplace.

So folks, as Ernest Hemingway so famously put it “Take your money and run”.

Because nothing else matters.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 23rd, 2005 at 2:04 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.