I watched 5 mins of big debate or fight something on NDTV. It had Mani Shankar Aiyer, MP (RS) talking about how every 60 years or so after birth of industrialisation or some form of large scale economic change, there was a revolution. He gave examples of French revolution, the collapse of Soviet regime and even the changes in downtown London since Oliver Twist asked for more.
I (and Mani) immediately realised that India too was close to something like this. Mani thought that this was manifesting itself in villages as Naxal attacks and that middle class should wake up to the fact before the Naxals come calling in the cities.
But I think Mani was a bit is wrong. Naxalism is how the villages are handling it. Feeling of helplessness, loss of control and the general apathy in the cities may be for different reasons but just as strong as in the villages. We have stopped bothering with participation in elections. Power is out most of the day, many middle class household send out their children to fill containers of water from the local borewell or water tankers, you need to pay a bribe for everything from getting a ration card (state government), running a shop (local police station) to government hospitals... and as far as real estate goes, children are participating in singing contests to win a house not money. Middle class is taxed heavily. Kaun Banega Crorepathi? You cant buy a house in Bangalore! Half the winnings would go in taxes and the rest in stamp duty for the house. You cant write or express what you feel as you may hurt the sentiments of the a particular community. Cant say Tamil Nadu has a point on the water sharing issue in Karnataka as Girish Karnad found out. Cant say Rajnikanth's Robot is the biggest flop since Atlantis. Everyone in city knows money is not enough. It can be taken away with a phone call from Ravi Poojaris and Dawoods. Power, control and freedom are in short supply nowadays. The situation can very easily reach boiling point. A friend of mine said Indians don't complain enough. But we sense the injustice. If we don't or aren't complaining, it is going to eat into our psyche. And it will express itself.
Revolution may be closer then we think and the enemy would be us.
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