Bastian Steuwer in FRONTLINE, 14 August 2024 where the title reads ”Two myths about the Indian middle class” .… segment of article here because the buggers in FRONTLINE want a subscription …. My response here is a form of THUPPAHI protest
They [i. e. the middle class] sustain a politics which does not disturb the position of the privileged few and deflects the focus from larger issues of economic justice.
The first myth is in invoking the “middle class” as synonymous with income taxpayers, investment gains, and so on. Promoting policies for the middle class, the ordinary Indian, or the common man naturally enjoy broad support….. Photo Credit: Rajanish Kakade
Politics is about who gets what.
This definition of politics goes back to the 1930s political scientist Harold Lasswell ,but continues to be relevant. In the early days of the Indian republic, a rhetoric of equality prevailed. B.R. Ambedkar warned that political democracy is in danger as long as social and economic life displays large inequalities. The Congress party spoke the language of socialism and equality and the main opposition parties were the socialists and the communists. The rhetoric of equality was betrayed in practice. India failed to build the infrastructure of a welfare state. Universal healthcare and even universal schooling were dismissed as pipe dreams.
Nowadays even the rhetoric of equality has disappeared. In the last Lok Sabha election campaign, both major political parties distanced themselves from any talk about the redistribution of wealth. The debate before and after the Budget scarcely focussed on ideas of equality. Instead, the government, the opposition, and much commentary in the media appealed to the middle class. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated her ambition as providing tax relief to the middle class. The opposition attacked the government on this ground claiming that the Budget was overburdening the salaried middle class. The business media, too, focussed on the tax burden of the middle class.
.……. Frontline’s DEMAND of a subscription is a travesty for any agency that provides its services free. So — this item is a form of protest. I think Muralidhar Reddy will be churning in his grave.
There is the cult of Modi class and the rest!
Just like Hollywood, Bollywood has got behind the memes and symbols that promote the Hindu Nationalist agenda.
The ‘middle class is whatever Indians are told it is!
That’s funny Michael. Now, you have come to tag the ‘House of Hindu’ folks with the ‘buggers’ label. Welcome to the anti-Buggers’s club with us.
For your reading, I provide a link to one of my essays, posted on Dec 9, 2005. It is,
https://tamilnation.co/forum/sachisrikantha/051227ram.htm
You may not know that, before our generation, even Nehru (though being a Kashmiri Brahmin himself) had sided with us, against these ‘brahmin buggers’. This is what, he had written in his 1936 autobiography
“Among the Indian-owned English newspapers, The HIndu of Madras is probably the best, so far as get-up and news service are concerned. It always reminds me of an old maiden lady, very prim and proper, who is shocked if a naughty word is used in her presence. It is eminently the paper of the bourgeois, comfortably setled in life. Not for it is the shady side of existence, the rough and tumble and conflict of life…” (p. 327)
Michael, you had used that naughty word ‘bugger’. I wish, if you can tell us, what you ‘meant’ by it. The dictionary of ‘Slang and Euphemism'(1982) by Richard Spears, offers 10 meanings, for this word.
1. a heretic. From ‘Bulgar’. Sexual perversion of all types as ascribed to these early heretics.
2. someone who practices forms of sexual perversion.
3. a pederast
4. to perform pederasty
5. a fellow or pal. No negative connotations.
6. a small person or thing.
7. as an oath.
8. a ghost
9. to mess up
10. a bad situation or difficult task.