and the invisibility of the middle class...
There are two pieces I read this afternoon about Africa. The first was a piece with instructions on "How to Write About Africa" and the second was a piece which asked whether the anti-poaching activists, Mark and Delia Owens, went too far in their efforts.
Together, the two pieces made an interesting read. The piece on writing about Africa talked about all the stereotypes which must be spoken of when one writes about Africa. It spoke of the 'need' to write about Africa's starving millions, about the corruption of government officials, about the great wilderness, about the amazing wildlife, but never about the individual African who may lead a life of absolutely "ordinariness", who may be a middle class person whose life is not full of unspeakable suffering, torn apart by strife and civil war.
The Indian version of such a piece would probably talk about the importance of writing about India as a land of mystery and magic, a land of extremes with its maharajas and their fabled jewels on one hand and its teeming millions which starve on the other. It would speak of the pantheon of Goddesses and the deplorable condition of Indian women – I remember once reading a French text book which described Indian women as being 'battered, submissive and illiterate'. It would probably mention the lack of the comforts of 'Western living', and the wonders which Western influences have had on the country. It would almost certainly talk about seeing elephants on highways, and would probably say something about Indian wildlife. While talking about wildlife, and possibly forests, it would state that it is de rigeur to talk about poaching and the ignorance of Indians... which has lead to environmental damage.
What would often be missing from the narrative would be the Indian middle class. A class that is not starving, whose lives do not involve such things as suicide due to crop-failure, who live perfectly ordinary lives, and who are far removed from the splendours traditionally associated with India’s rich and its riches. This is a class whose lives are possibly comparable to the lives of corresponding classes in the West, with its concerns ranging from healthcare to house loans.
The life of this middle class probably isn’t especially interesting from the point of the view of the Western consumer: there is nothing in the life of this middle class which is vastly different from what life in the West would be like. The result being that the West would neither be able to pity or to envy a person from such an alien middle class, which, as it turned out, wasn’t too different from its own. There would be no tales of diamonds or polo matches or palaces; neither would there be any tales of poverty or starvation or illiteracy.
Perhaps, because the life of the middle class is so ordinary, it is often ignored in pieces about India. That, however, doesn’t change the fact that the middle class forms the a large section of Indian society.
There are two pieces I read this afternoon about Africa. The first was a piece with instructions on "How to Write About Africa" and the second was a piece which asked whether the anti-poaching activists, Mark and Delia Owens, went too far in their efforts.
Together, the two pieces made an interesting read. The piece on writing about Africa talked about all the stereotypes which must be spoken of when one writes about Africa. It spoke of the 'need' to write about Africa's starving millions, about the corruption of government officials, about the great wilderness, about the amazing wildlife, but never about the individual African who may lead a life of absolutely "ordinariness", who may be a middle class person whose life is not full of unspeakable suffering, torn apart by strife and civil war.
The Indian version of such a piece would probably talk about the importance of writing about India as a land of mystery and magic, a land of extremes with its maharajas and their fabled jewels on one hand and its teeming millions which starve on the other. It would speak of the pantheon of Goddesses and the deplorable condition of Indian women – I remember once reading a French text book which described Indian women as being 'battered, submissive and illiterate'. It would probably mention the lack of the comforts of 'Western living', and the wonders which Western influences have had on the country. It would almost certainly talk about seeing elephants on highways, and would probably say something about Indian wildlife. While talking about wildlife, and possibly forests, it would state that it is de rigeur to talk about poaching and the ignorance of Indians... which has lead to environmental damage.
What would often be missing from the narrative would be the Indian middle class. A class that is not starving, whose lives do not involve such things as suicide due to crop-failure, who live perfectly ordinary lives, and who are far removed from the splendours traditionally associated with India’s rich and its riches. This is a class whose lives are possibly comparable to the lives of corresponding classes in the West, with its concerns ranging from healthcare to house loans.
The life of this middle class probably isn’t especially interesting from the point of the view of the Western consumer: there is nothing in the life of this middle class which is vastly different from what life in the West would be like. The result being that the West would neither be able to pity or to envy a person from such an alien middle class, which, as it turned out, wasn’t too different from its own. There would be no tales of diamonds or polo matches or palaces; neither would there be any tales of poverty or starvation or illiteracy.
Perhaps, because the life of the middle class is so ordinary, it is often ignored in pieces about India. That, however, doesn’t change the fact that the middle class forms the a large section of Indian society.
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