By Samhita Barooah
According to Saul Alinsky there are three types of people haves, have-nots and have-little-want-more types. As a child one is made to believe that their family is part of the haves with everything available at hand. Once we grow up we realise our ‘have not’ status when we compare ourselves with others and then when we have nothing to begin with. Gradually we try to build our lives with the bits and pieces that we have and end up in the most absorbing and stimulating layer of social stratification which is called the, ‘have little, want more’ category. Popularly this class is known as the middle class in our social context. Within this category again there is upper, middle and lower middle class. Interestingly some people enjoy a ‘have’ status within their middle class status, while there are some ‘haves’ who define themselves as ‘have-nots’. Now it is not so important which class one belongs to or whose lineage rests where, but, it is more important to know what bothers us in each of these categories. In a casual conversation with a middle class family member some very interesting concepts emerged. As a middle class conservative patriarch, he said, “For us we want the good things to be conserved. Whether it is customs, traditions, culture, sanctity or values we want to conserve society. We ensure monogamy and stability of relationships. The rich and the poor do not bother about such things.” My question to him was, “Who defines good things?” He refused to answer after that and our conversation ended.
Sometimes class consciousness is about the choices we make for ourselves rather than the money, literally. People bother about costs and rising prices in the middle class. Upper middle class bothers about vehicle and flat price rise, ‘middle middle’ class gets worried about train fare, essential items and tax rates increase while the lower middle class gets angry with fuel, gas and vegetable prices increase. Ideally what really bother the middle class are daily use commodity pricing, pay cheques and increasing bills. Investment plans of middle class people lies in health, life, accident and travel insurance plans. Very few people with middle class background would invest in the stock market, horse racing bids and auctions of any sort. But lottery, gambling, betting, housie and card games with money are common place for middle class to earn that extra little from any other source outside their salaries. State authorities are primarily catering to the middle class category in all the three layers through a socialist model of functioning. But lately privatisation of all essential services and practices has led to a changed scenario.
Salaried people plan their services from the beginning to the end in such a way that they have enough to sustain for a span of thirty years before retirement and another thirty years after retirement. They are hardly part of any social deviance or stardom within this mundane struggle for existence. It is only in the entertainment industry that instant stardom makes way through the middle class through multi-talented people in their families.
So then what actually bothers the middle class? People are bothered by the length of the skirts and dresses of women, colour of the skin for prospective brides and grooms, length of hair of men and marks of school going children. These days of course people are bothered about the bank rates, ATM charges, EMI instalments, hospital bills, lawyer’s fees, teacher’s salaries and bus ticket fares. Middle class people can afford to spend money in gifts, food and luxuries like family holidays and adventures but they reserve their resources to do all this after their retirement. Unfortunately either their health or their age restricts them from enjoying their lives during their lifetime. Social sanctions and norms are such traps for the middle class that they end up becoming victims of their own rules and regulations. They are driven by religion, kinship, tribe and politics everyday in their lives. Their socio-cultural norms are defined by their class boundaries. All those who have breached those boundaries turn into social deviants. Gender remains an elusive context for the middle class which is frozen in time and doesn’t give enough space for shifts. For the middle class honour and culture remain a life threatening tool of control, domination and discrimination across all genders. In the light of these realities, middle class gets trapped between living another life in reality and projecting a completely opposite life within the so-called public space.
In recent years of digital world, middle class solidarity has got strengthened through social media and the internet. Cyber space has been able to create innumerable ladders for social mobility which again bothers the middle class. Social, political, cultural and economic solidarity seems to be the most important element in the middle class digital world. But most of the youth within the middle class have moved to free chatting spaces. Mobile phones have penetrated across ever social class. Such penetration has added to the list of class conscious commodities. Owning a mobile phone is no longer a class issue but owning a particular brand has become a class issue.
Middle class does bother about sustainability, better futures for everyone, equality of opportunities, environment, peace, status quo and justice which brings them to the street and sometimes puts them behind bars as well. Their identities are entangled into the ceaseless wars of struggle and survival yet their pain never gives way to despair. Somehow they have the instinct for withstanding the unimaginable. Sometimes just a cricket score, taste of the curry and colour of the skin can keep the middle class really engaged. Wondering if anybody bothers?
(The writer is a Researcher)