A friend of mine recently confronted me with a very controversial statement:
“Indian Middle Class has a complete utter lack of ingenuity/innovativeness.”
He goes on explaining that Indian poor are very creative. Within minutes of start of a public gathering, you can see several hawkers set up their shop to sell beverages, chat, trinkets etc. Nobody needs to inform them that there is going to be an exam in this location, a procession or even a traffic jam. A visit to any bicycle repair shop will show you how these people fabricate their tools and crafts of the trade. A piece of scrap railway rail works as an anvil etc. No wonder recycling is a very profitable business in India and unlike the rest of the world does not survive on subsidies.
The rich are also quite ingenious. Hell any person who prospers under the tyrant dictatorship of Indira Gandhi has to be creative. If you look around, you will realize that they have not lost their touch.
In most developed countries it’s the middle class that created the most wealth. The reason being, they had the best of the both worlds. They had the aspirations of becoming rich which motivated them and the dedication of the poor which enabled them work long hours. They had the skills and education which helped them to be able to execute their ideas and manage it.
However it’s the middle class that is dragging the country down. They force their thoughts on their kids by cutting down on the playtime, reducing the social interactions and replacing all with a huge burden of books. Rather than pursuing their interests, the middle class goes for Engineering/MBA. The irony is that the best engineering/mba institute is not great because of the education/faculty/environment. They are great because of students who apply in 100s of thousands for the limited intake.
Although his arguments look convincing, I still have inhibitions before agreeing to his outcomes. After all MNCs are coming to India in hordes just to get a chance to cater to the worlds largest middle class.
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3 replies on “A plague called Indian Middle Class”
i agree with u
i think he is overdoing steriotypes a bit. the biggest problem is middle class is mid of centre and docile.
ps the illegal stalls do get advance information for which they have to pay good money to the dumper truck assistant or municipal ward sub officer or engineer
we have a well oiled corruption engine promoted by indira gandhi
indian middle class bashing is the favorite sport in town nowadays or maybe it is just introspection. something good hopefully will come of it.
@prax…
i know there is a whole system in place for these temporary stalls… what i amaze is how responsive are these stall owners to the needs of the people.
@madhu…
well i am sure next season people will find another scrape goat