Turbulent Times

Trapped in some dingy police cell and disowned by family and state, terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab must be wondering what he had done to deserve his lot. And perhaps he is, in a sense, a victim of his circumstances. His is the story of a poverty stricken runaway who walked into the trap of fundamentalists, got indoctrinated and hardened with the use of arms, and sent on a vile suicide mission. And the lesson from the story: that terrorism feeds and thrives on a diet of poverty and illiteracy. Let us remember - 70% of India still lives in her villages, where life is dictated by monsoons and caste lords.

If values get easily tossed out of the lives of the economically disadvantaged among us, the story is not very different at the other end of the spectrum. The middle and upper middle classes, dazzled by the glamour of a globalized free-spending economy, have found their value systems subtly changing. The aggressive cultivation of the ‘what’s-in-it-for-me’ and ‘learn-to-say-no’ attitudes has led to self-absorption and self-indulgence, the likes of which has never been seen before. Malls, multiplexes and money have become the focal points of our lives.

The other side of India – poverty-stricken, caste-ridden, unemployed, illiterate – seems to be falling out of the purview of the radar of our uppity middle class urban youth. It took a tsunami to open Urban India’s eyes to the social alienation and economic backwardness of our invisible masses.

And now the recession. Young Urban India, in spite of all its slick comfortable life, has been going through troubled times. The recession is in the process of snatching the money out of the hands of our free-spending youth, and showing up the weak foundation of our economic and social systems. The Satyam fiasco suddenly showed up respectable captains of industry as having feet of clay. To watch iconic industrial houses and entire economic systems crumbling like a pack of cards can be a mind-blowing experience.

Obviously all is not well in India, rural or urban. Do we have the courage, the strength, endurance and resilience to take these momentous and disturbing changes in our stride? Do we have the resourcefulness to think, plan and act for the entire population of the country and not just our small peer groups? Do we have the compassion and sensitivity to take our entire population under our protective wings? Does our education system equip our children and youth to meet the challenges posed by this strange new globalized world, with its disturbing attractions and even more disturbing swings in fortunes? Does it help us contend with the economic divide and give us the vision to think of ways to bridge it?