The Class Struggle

No, comrade. This ain't for you, though you can continue to read.

Since boyhood, I heard my parents say, we belong to the "Middle Class". (Its still that way !) Time and again, the same categorization has also been emphasized by my extended family and friends. Why were we called so ? Is it because we didn't have a car or because we travelled in side-upper berths in a non-AC train compartment. Gradually, I deciphered that all the reasons why we weren't called the "Upper Class" requires money. Henceforth it was etched in my mind, that class and money are interchangeable.

A teacher of mine said, if you have doubt about an established thought, figure out the etymology of the words that describe it. I resorted to the age old general classification of our Hindu society - Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya & Sudra. The established thought said it was by birth. Could our ancient wisdom be so over-simplified ? The Rig Veda describes the primordial man - "The Brahmin is the head, his arms were Kshyatriya, his lower abdomen became the Vaishya and feet is the Sudra". Nowhere is it mentioned that a person is born to any class. On further investigation, it can be found that the social status depends on someone's deeds and actions. In fact, each of these is a state of life. The Sudra is the person seeking mundane pleasure, someone running without The reason; the Kshyatriya realizes the fallacy and symbolizes the conflict within. The Vaishya is knowledgeable (currently Subject Matter Expert) whereas Brahmin is the enlightened. Ideally a person starts as a Sudra and elevates to a Brahmin. If Brahmins were by birth, why are they also called 'Dwij' or Twice Born.

In ancient times, maybe the Kshatriya really fought those who resisted free thinking and the Vaishya made money owning to his/her working knowledge, the Brahmin relinquished everything to live in the temple and the Sudra kept running around for opportunity. Probably the existing form is an aberration or the Rig Veda was rigged in favor of the the privileged, and from his debris was born the Middle Class.

Not even McKinsey can "status-ify" India more accurately than the Indian Railway express train compartment does, unknowingly - too many people cramped into the General Compartment like you see in slums & MHADA complex, some chair cars for the middle class in waiting, a lot of sleeper class for the gigantic middle class, few air-conditioned cabins for the upper middle class and a large compartment with butlers for the few belonging to the upper class. In fact Indian Railways have been polite to drop the word 'class' which was a British leftover and changed to only General, Sleeper, 2AC, 1AC, etc. like the Americans calling us 'Third World'. Would you have liked if they said 'Third Class' country instead ?

And yes, without a doubt I belong to the large middle class. Because neither am I a genius nor too good a person. But there is a slight caveat if you are either genius or good. There is no guarantee where you will land up - low or high classincome. But definitely not middle classincome.

This will be the class struggle of my life.