Why the poor have no hope in hell in India
The thousands of farmers marching to Mumbai from Nashik share one reality with almost all other economically disadvantaged groups of our country - linguistic disadvantage.
The problem started with colonialism in India. It is a divide that cuts across caste and communal differences in the country. The problem is, however, more pronounced in north India. The English speaking suited-booted "sahebs" and "memsahebs" of the British Raj have been replaced by a band of English-speaking rich and powerful elite in our country.
The best way to divide a country, especially if one thinks in terms of long-term global dominance, is to make its inhabitants negatively conscious of their own identity. The British, who were masters at divide and rule, imposed all sorts of divisions on us and their other colonies. They not only made the zamindars more resource-rich, they also taught them English to the exclusion of India's proletariat.
Today, internet has made deep inroads in the country, however, accessing internet requires a good understanding of English. In bilingual universities, students who otherwise excel in the use of their mother-tongue, find themselves at a disadvantage because most of the text knowledge is in English.
English was the language of the evil empire, but now has become a standard for one's intellect, economic productivity, technological capacity, and cultural refinement. This is an abominable attack on our native culture and has been carrying on for over two centuries.
Anyone who has grown up in an upper-middle-class setting or beyond knows that the oldest trick in the book to combat eavesdropping is to use the foreign language around one's economically weaker peers. Few other nations judge their own culture so harshly. Few other nations have the disadvantaged people of their land also lacking in an understanding of their oppressors tongue today.
The farmers' protest in Mumbai found Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis contemptuously refer to the farmers as tribals, unworthy of the title of farmer. This is but a mere example of the elitism in our nation.
In schools and colleges, one is encouraged to learn to normalise the experience of being laughed upon if he isn't well-versed with English, and one who knows the all-powerful language is encouraged to laugh at the other.
Teachers say this helps the student to learn English better, since according to them, the best way of teaching a lesson is humiliation. Except that this is a national humiliation. The humiliated entity is one's culture, not the individual being targeted. Why on earth should it be considered unnatural that one isn't very fluent in the language of a foreign nation? Those who learn English in their households naturally gain an upper hand in these institutions.
China, our competitor, also has a massive emphasis on the learning of English. But they do not seek to humiliate each other over it. They are continuing to rise primarily because they have melted their own culture into the global pot of assimilation. They may not give their people rights like us, but their old historical monuments and texts, notwithstanding the Cultural Revolution of 1967, are preserved, if only to help compete with English-speaking nations, while growing with them. We, on the other hand, are always forced to choose one culture over another, a key element of a polarised collective mind.
The farmers, labourers, drivers, sweepers, maids, cooks, carpenters, masons, scavengers among others in our country are treated as second-class citizens by the elite socio-political class, even though they are the backbone of our nation.
This is not a feature of "sabka saath sabka vikaas". This is not Ram Rajya. It is in fact, a direct antithesis to both concepts. It looks as if the poor are strategically put in a position to not know the comparatively extremely liberal ideas of the west, since Gandhi, Nehru and others used western ideas to defeat the west. Our leaders today are smarter that way. The best way to control a society is through language, since language and grammar greatly affect one's thought.
The government has promised the protesting farmers that they shall provide a written draft of solutions to their manifold problems shortly. But like a ruling elite in any nation, the words of those in power should be taken with a heavy helping of salt. It is not unwise to suspect those who are so elitist and detached from the masses that even their language and consequent privileges are so distant from the reality of the every man.
The farmers are part of an outfit that is affiliated with the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Whether the party is genuinely democratic may be debated, but what is obvious is that the natural predicament of the common man protesting is with the ideology of egalitarianism, not that of ruthless competition.
There have been movements against making Hindi the national language. There have also been attempts by leaders such as Mulayam Singh Yadav to make Hindi far more prominent in our daily discourse and English all the more less. But to uplift a nation out of a phantasmagorical inferiority complex is like giving therapy to a nation all at once. It shall take time, but until then we must all know that it is a very odd, exploitative, and inefficient situation that we are living in.