Games the elite play

From religious notions about dirt, South Asia's preference for women leaders to patronage in a democracy, DIPANKAR GUPTA resolves many of the paradoxes of contemporary India in Mistaken Modernity - India Between Worlds. In the process, he makes a damning indictment of the elitist middle class and shows how it is not modern in areas it considers itself to be. Modernity, he argues, is not about technology and consumption, but about attitudes. Exclusive extracts from the soon-to-be-released book.

THE Indian elite derive a lot of their swagger from the traditional divisions in Indian society. That they cannot be relied upon to usher in modernity is because they adhere to symbols and norms that heighten the distance between people. In this chapter, we will take a close look at this phenomenon by first examining what snobbery is really all about and then going on to show how this attitude is reflected in various social arenas, and how it has become a dominant motif in various aspects of our everyday lives. Sadly, we do not recognise such consequences of elite snobbery when we see them. This is because our socialisation never really critically questioned values and norms that have come down from pre-modern times. The effects of elite snobbery can hardly be isolated for, as we shall see, they spread all the way from the choice of our national anthem, to the fascination for cricket, as well as to how the underprivileged, particularly the handicapped, are treated in our society ...

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The law breaking elite

Observe a queue in front of a railway station or the outpatients' department in a general hospital. Mainly people who are poor to lower-middle class will be waiting patiently for their turn amidst flies, spit and the stench of human bodies. Enter a middle class or upper-middle class person, and before you know it, rules are being broken. This man is jumping the queue, leaning across the counter, calling up contacts, sending his card in, or just plain forcing his way through.

People who usually break the law in this country belong to this so-called elite class. It is another matter that prison statistics do not reflect this fact. Given the elitist disposition of our law makers and breakers, it is hardly surprising that our jails should be stacked with thousands of poor people whose crime may have been something as insignificant as saying a wrong word, or straying into a landlord's fields.

Members of the middle class upwards are brought up to believe that it is their privilege to flout the law. Given this fact, it is hopeless to look at this stratum to usher in either modernisation or enlightened citizenship. Modernisation has an early tell-tale sign: everybody is actually equal before the law.

Regardless of the growth of consumerism, technology and whatever else, it is substantive equality before the law that has been the first distinguishing trait of modernisation. This aspect is often lost sight of when we discuss issues relating to modernisation and development in India.

To ensure that people are in a true sense equal before the law, it is necessary to have law enforcement officers who have sufficient autonomy, dignity, integrity and self-respect. Only then can they perform their duties without fear or favour. It is not as if people spontaneously submit to the law. It is in human nature to seek shortcuts everywhere. The famous anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski recorded that even in faraway, pre- industrial Melanesian islands, customs and traditions were broken quite routinely if nobody was looking (Malinowski 1926:30).

The principal reason why road traffic in Western societies is orderly is because the fear of the police strikes everybody equally. If an affluent American were to be pulled up for a traffic violation, you will not hear him barking at the policeman: "Don't you know who I am?" But in India this is exactly what an affluent Indian would spontaneously say to the cowering policeman. Such a swagger would compound the charge several times over in the West.

In India, the law enforcers are beholden to political patrons and the effects of this run all the way down the hierarchy. To be answerable to the public is translated in this country as being answerable to political bosses. Politics here is not so much about representing people but about extending patronage. It is then not at all surprising that law breakers take precedence over law enforcers. After all, what good are patrons if they cannot break the law? If a patron cannot do that much, why have a patron at all? Anybody can stand forever in a queue, anybody can swat flies waiting for the doctor to show up in a general hospital.

There is a great demand for patrons because of the huge divide between those who call themselves "middle class" (quite erroneously, though), and the rest. The middle class upwards strata actually constitutes the elite of Indian society. But this elite sector stands out not because of its many accomplishments (remember the snob) but because those below them live in such desperately unenviable conditions. Frayed white collar class families struggle and save to buy a scooter; those who belong to the dirty white collar sector are in debt up to their ears trying to marry off their daughters or to give their children a half- ways decent education. Once we go below this segment of the population, the situation is really quite abysmal. Chasing after buses, cycling for miles to work, pulling rickshaws, slogging in sweat shops, and it just keeps getting worse.

What the Indian elite class lacks in material and intellectual resources is compensated by the high status it enjoys in this country. This is why in whichever field the middle class dominates, rules and laws are flouted with abandon. The business world is full of greasy palms and dirty fingers. This is so well known that it hardly needs any elaboration. Private schools and professional colleges in our country are notorious for taking bribes during admission. This has become so much a part of middle class lives that nobody even flinches at the thought of bribing one's way even into an institution of learning.

Politics is corrupt because from Laloo Yadav to the Gandhis, the constant effort is to emerge as grand patrons. Politics in India is democratic only to the extent of holding elections. But apart from these grand episodic events, governance, or administration, is thoughtless in routine, and patronage-based when caring and motivated. Those who have ambitions and believe they have a reasonable chance of attaining them stay close to political patrons regardless of party labels. These ambitious people are usually members of the middle class whose dreams of upward mobility are stoked by nearness to positions of influence.

Thus while democracy and elections give the impression of representation, governance at all levels is oiled by connections. There are too many deprived people and too little wealth to go around. Second, disparities being what they are, members of the middle class cannot make common cause with the rest. Neither do the poor have the temerity to oppose them as they too could do with a little patronage coming their way. This is what allows patronage to be replicated all the way down, till a point comes when there are not enough resources to be a patron or disburse patronage.

For the middle class in our country, patronage works both ways. Members of this class seek patronage above and hope to be patrons of those below. The evils of patronage are thus concentrated in this class no matter which way one looks at it, from the bottom or from the top. For the middle class to find clients to patronise is also a marker of prestige. But there are other important considerations too. Giving patronage to those below them allows the middle class to stay away from performing mindless menial jobs themselves. Standing in a queue, buying one's rations, getting cinema tickets, etc., are bothersome things whose tedium a little patronage can alleviate.

It should be noted that patronage is also competitive. Competitions generated by patronage thrive on breaking rules. If there are no rules to be broken, there is no scope for patronage. The other kind of competition, the healthy one, is when the contest is bound by a firm set of rules. Patrons and their clients find this very suffocating. The only rule that patronage allows for is that all rules have to be broken. Patronage not only brings about competition among patrons, but also competition among the patronised. As both these aspects overlap in the case of the Indian middle class, it is not at all surprising that members of this stratum are least trusting of others, and most willing to break the law. How can this class then ever usher in modernisation or citizenship?

What is worse, they cannot even devise a true national anthem that respects the culture of the majority of our citizens.

Mistaken Modernity - India Between Worlds, Dipankar Gupta, HarperCollins, p. 240, Rs. 295.

Dipankar Gupta is professor of sociology at the School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal University, New Delhi.

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