As an offshoot to liberalised economy, post-1991, India is on the path of rampant economic growth. It has drifted India towards a major transition where millions of families who were entrenched in poverty have been uplifted, are now been placed in metropolis and have resulted in a new middle class. By 2025, India would achieve the status of the fifth largest consumer economy and in coming two decades its household consumer economy will get tripled. It is the illustration of the fact that India is marching in the realm of economics that is not only strengthening this new middle class but is also fortifying it. The middle class of any country is very significant as it introduces human capital, new innovation and struggle.
Consumerism has come in the limelight in the aftermath of the neo-liberal policies where India emerged as a potential consumer economy and this trend is on an upward move. The economic prosperity of India and neo-middle class share a two-pronged promising relationship. On one hand, it is benefiting India with an improved standard of life, and on the other, it is maturing the sense of political representation and creating a new sphere of assertion of this newly emerged middle class.
India has imparted a new sense of a rejuvenated nation where it has become centre of attraction for the world. This sense of getting exalted is new to India as well. India’s growing economics can be elucidated from a fact that when world was entrenched into the catastrophic phase of its worst recession India was commemorating its continuous annual growth of nine percent, though it is on a speedy decline nowadays.
The economic advancement has not only resulted in the uplifting of socio-economic conditions but has also surged the level of consciousness and awareness among people and they have become more concerned about the frame of rule and political order. This concerned middle class aspires for potent assertion in the political order of its polity.
The movement of Anna Hazare against corruption is the best explanation of the above-mentioned phenomenon where neo-middle class is endeavouring for its acknowledgement. The modern middle class is a post-1991 development in India. It can be regarded as the third phase of the evolution of the Indian middle class, which has briskly changed and improved the socio-economic conditions in rural polities, imparting a new and better standard of living, but this group neither comes in elite nor on bourgeois. This class of society has got tremendous economic weight but it lacks political representation on all counts.
There has been a significant shift where small cities are becoming centres. Remote and secluded areas are also getting affected with this wave of modernity. In the near future, this neo-metropolitan bourgeoisie is likely to expand itself, as more and more areas would be incorporated in it. The economy is likely to be monopolised by the big metropolitan centres but emerging cities like Chandigarh and Ludhiana with their increasing per capita incomes are likely to capture attention in coming future. There are some other cultural spectres that augmented the rise of neo-metropolitan bourgeoisie, as throughout the history of India it remained aloof as an isolationist state. It was the ideational construct of Hindutva that got translated but with the economic rise of India and its growing significance across the globe, it has become a lucrative place for the world and it impels India to redraw and reorient its concepts and constructs. It has intensified the belief of India, made it confident internationally and has given it space to assert regionally, which is strengthening and consolidating the structural basis of India.
Democracy in India has got its own issues and drawbacks as well where there is immense participation but voters have been commoditized and everything comes under the capitalistic interests. Democracy has been inextricably linked with the free market and those who are not a member of this chain do not matter too much or have been extricated from the system. The Indian political order is also facing many challenges. Most of the people who are not sponsored lose elections. The elite-dominated frame of rule has captured, rather tightly gripped India, which offers a little to the middle class. On who gets maximum share in power capabilities dominates the system. It can be regarded as an elite-monopolised system. The dominance of a single party in a functional democracy is perplexing and is making Indian democracy a stagnant one. The incumbency factor is also playing its role. The hurdles in legislation, corruption at large and issues of non-governance are tarnishing the face of Congress, which might suffer a blow in the coming elections.
The access to modern means of communication along with massive awareness makes people think whether democracy means deliverance or just holding procedural ballots. Corruption is a shared paradox of post-colonial states and India is also facing the same predicament. Many embezzlements and scams have been reported in the recent years where corruption seems to be systemised. There are powerful individuals and groups who favour status quo in India for their interests like many other countries where state dominates over economics. The disparities among the masses propel them to assert themselves, as Jan Lokpal Bill in India has become a symbol of discontentment of the Indian middle class.
Apparently, the middle class’s politics, activism and dynamism are offshoots of rapid socio-economic change where the participation and concern of the Indian middle class along with electoral dynamism has fuelled this disgruntlement. Anna Hazare is merely a lexicon of this activism that does not necessarily represent the cognitive structures and constructs of the Indian elite. It is a changing pattern of political dynamism in India and a symbol of involvement and politicking of Indian middle class. Democracy in India would remain intact, as it has got deeply consolidated, with structural roots in a society where democracy is embraced as a religion. The middle class ostensibly projects the altering pattern of political dynamism in India.
The writer is a lecturer of Defence & Diplomatic Studies at the Fatima Jinnah Women University and can be reached at [email protected]