In Quest of the God of Small Things

I have mentioned in one of my posts that as a thinker, I am greatly influenced by postmodernist theories.  Postmodernist theories stem out from the premise that the objective truth is impossible. We are born to a system and beyond which we can’t exist. Which other system is universal to all societies other than gender? Class. In third world countries and especially in the Asian societies, this class structure is very rigid. When I speak of class I do not mere talk of the purchasing capacity of a group or indulge in that Marxian debate of proletariat and bourgeoisie. Class, this is especially true for the Indian society, comes with a set of values. It is this distinction that forms the oeuvre of the social commentaries and novels of that kind. Class divides, and these divisions become stronger when they are overlapped by any other such system of differences. For instance, in India caste is easily the determinant of your class. Studies prove that the lowest of the castes are the poorest of the country. Want to get a better example for overlapping differences? Consider the term: ‘Black Poverty’ in the context of America. These overlapping differences segregate a group from the rest of the society and in some extreme cases, it leads to a point where the parts no longer see themselves with the whole. The class structure of our society aided by the notorious caste system has caused deeply rooted divisions in our society. Class, dear reader, is a poignant force. The greatest of revolutions of the History of the Modern World are result of aspirations or anger of a particular class. And in our country elections have always been an implicit form of class struggle. The middle-class has been an effective force in this LS election across the borders of religions and creed by being victims of propaganda, the elite class by funding parties and the lowest class by voting in it. The top level plays, middle class loves to get played and the lower class is usually played upon.

One of the major events of my life was the discovery of the Russian Literature. It is literature of a century and a half before, when Russia unlike the Western Europe was an absolutist regime, which is my favourite.  Russia might today be a super power or as a totalitarian regime of the Soviet Union a big player in the world politics, but then it was poor and underdeveloped though large enough to be of significance. For those who want to read difficult things, try CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, and I swear by my pen, that if yours is a brain that thinks, you’d never be able to get over with Dostoevsky. It had this character Sonya, who owing to the difficult circumstances of her family had to resort to prostitution.  Russia was a society of tradition and had the same set of rigid values about sexuality that the rest of Europe had (though not equal to the Victorians) yet the characters were more than accepting about her. I am not talking about the University enthusiasts and radicals, but the ladies who were little better than an illiterate. While talking to a wise man about the book and this beautiful oddity, he said to me that those who are at the lowest strata in the society are the most open-minded. My experience since then has assured me that there was wisdom in his words.

The society that gives its members a second chance and treat them with understanding especially those who are abused in as traumatic a manner as Sonya was, deserves applause. We Indians have so many taboos about sex that the only reason that I think it is tolerated is procreation. While reading an article about the great crusader of rights for sex-workers, Sunita, I read as to how difficult the integration of the victims of sex-slavery is to the very society that at first abused them. The only examples of successful integration and that includes having a partner, were from the lowest strata of the society.  They were the people who worked with or and in some cases, married them.

I came to a conclusion. Taboos or any such abusive outlook only exist where they can be afforded to. If you do not have the luxury to entertain them, you’d not. Look at the figures of the victims of domestic violence, the majority of them who spoke against it were women who struggled to make ends meet.  I’ll give you another example, and this one is bang on. The first of the thirteen British colonies was planted in North America in the early decades of the sixteenth century. If you read the early history of the continent and how Europeans tried to survive in the wilderness of Prairies, you’d find heart rending tales of survival. What kind of society can be formed where you have to start from the scratch? I’d tell you one thing and you’d understand as to how hard America was: America was a land to be deported to for crimes. Now let’s get back to my question. The answer is very simple when you start from the scratch you have no time to entertain warts.  And so, marriages in America were arrangements, and also theirs were the first of the ladies to walk out of bad marriages. What would be the base of the society whose members have no possessions? They’d have nothing to guard and everything to earn, and to them ability is the only answer. So they were the first to have the feminist movements, divorce and concept of American dream (i.e equal start for everyone).  If you’ve read David Copperfield you’d recall that even a woman like Emily who had been totally lost by Victorian standards, could live with dignity and appreciation in the far-off land of Australia.

There’s this person of whom I am reminded of as I talk of lesser of the beings. I met her few months before and she won brownie points from me when I heard that despite of being an orphan, poor and uneducated the lady had guts to leave her alcoholic husband. Marriage, dear reader because of the importance that mankind has given to this institution, is quite a determinant of your character. The reason why you enter into it, why you stay in it and how you function while being in it, tells a lot about what a man or woman thinks of himself / herself. I’ve found best marriages in that stratum of the society. I am reminded of someone else too. This one came to take his aunt from our place one day, and in the fashion of those wagging tongues of the gossips, I picked up that he had married a woman of different faith. I could not help liking him for my diary records at least two love affairs that ended because the lovers belonged to different faiths and castes.

One of the many reasons as to why this class of the social structure is so accepting and accommodating is this that they move. This movement is not only physical but mental. A commendable feature of the otherwise saddening phenomenon of rural to urban migration is that these migrants when they come to a new society lead their lives entirely on their rules. Community might inspire words like ‘belonging’ in you, but it is beyond a second thought, in practice an enclosure.

I began by talking about elections and shall resort again to it. The power to vote is the best assurance of security that a state can provide to its citizens. No matter what wonderful connotation that people may attach to the Constitution like that it is the instrument of their empowerment or the result of their values and ideals, it is best defined as a security against the exploitation. This is the definition that I believe in. In practice, our judicial system (since we are talking about exploitation alone) is class conscious. I don’t say that poor aren’t given justice but they’re not allowed to overcome victimization. The extremely time consuming nature of our judiciary contributes greatly to it. Do you want a proof of it? Just see the number of under trials. They are a large number but they are small things for the state to be bothered about.

I am no authority on politics, my fame rests only on my good sense. I have grown up hoping for a better India, and comparing ourselves with those who are better off. I have learnt that the only parameter for evaluating a country’s state is the state of its citizens. Ours is deplorable.  Majority of Indians struggle to make ends meet, and so all our economic policies must be chiefly aimed at them. They say India is a land of resources, but I say, India is the resource. The only resource that a country can’t do away with in order to survive is the human resource. Yes, those large figures but small things! Rest everything, natural gas, petroleum, coal, flora or fauna is secondary. India’s large population is not a problem. Just a convenient excuse for all maladministration and chaos that we choose to live with! We do not invest in our human resource. We do not tend to those small things.  I read a lot about communism for almost a year, before coming to a conclusion that it talked more of domesticated animals than a thinking man. This quite naturally led me to think of something that’s the opposite of it.  A friend of mine is an active supporter of capitalism and he advocated capitalism for India. Most of us have grown up seeing the prosperity of America and have developed a favoured outlook towards it which I suspect is the case with my friend. On paper, capitalism makes sense. But remember one thing when you talk of capitalism: It is never just about the business. Big capitalists have always been king makers, and so do not be surprised if you find major parties taking hefty funds from prominent business groups. I would always have problem if my leaders are influenced by anyone but me. The result is not surprisingly, that the world’s largest democracy is the most people-unfriendly too.

A little time before when the newly formed NDA government released its railway budget, our gardener came one morning looking disgusted. My mother questioned him. He told her that now he had to think thrice before taking his family to his parental village. With the great hike in fares, it was impossible for his family of six to make more than two visits in a year. It is never easy to survive in a city for an emigrant for the cost of living is usually high. A cousin with marked apathy towards the fellow remarked that he should’ve never brought his family with him. For haven’t wives and children lived with their in-laws and grandparents respectively before? Let’s keep the fact that an urban setting provides better educational and health care facilities aside for a while, and think again what we are truly asking from the man. How can you possible ask a man to live for months without his family, and to become nothing but an ATM for them?  Then they complain about the rise in crimes and especially the sexual ones. Sex is a great relief and recreation. If you keep their partners away and continue to suffocate them with that pressure of urban life without a release, these sexual crimes are bound to happen. I know that rise in fares is justified and as they said necessary too. But there’s larger truth to every policy or political move. It is always about people.

To think that someone is lesser than you merely because he or she does not have as fancy a life as you have, tells that you’re incapable of reason. I am neither less than any man who sits in an SUV nor more than any one who walks for miles because he can’t afford a ride. The only thing for which you are allowed to be proud of is your character. Nothing else… 

I have worked in an NGO and, have seen families leave their children in shelter-homes because they are not able to provide for them. It is heart rending to see that desperation and helplessness. I am neither a charitable person nor kind. But I am just. Of all the forms of justice known to societies the most underrated ones are economic and social justices. India of my dreams is a just society. By denying that god of small things, we’ve given birth to devils. Let’s hope we are not devoured by them.