The Capitalist in you; Hard work and Unemployment.

(Let's focus on the unemployed youth in the Indian context)

Does your political inclination appreciate capitalism over socialism?

Do you think hard work can lift one from poverty to a decent life?

Do you think a person stays unemployed because heshe is incompetent?

Do you think lazy people stay poor?

Do you think one can't succeed in life without making sacrifices?

Do you agree to 'Where there's a will there's a way?

If you answered 'yes' to three or more (out of the above five) questions, congrats, you're a true believer of capitalism. You firmly think, being a capitalist is the way to succeed in life, and there're no alternatives.

Every motivation speech encourages one to get up early, work hard, sacrifice entertainment, stay focused, and be resilient to struggles, etc. Why do we build a world where only hard work brings you a decent life? The whole point of building a civilization  (that's publicly talked about) is to make one's life easier. If the majority has to work day and night and still have no decent life, what are we even doing? Where the product of their hard work goes to? It certainly has a market value!

Why do you struggle to find a job? to attain economic stability? to sit back and have a relaxing holiday? How many holidays do you have a year? how many hours do you have to work a day to keep your job stable if you're in the private sector? The questions are endless.

Do your govt take responsibility for your unemployment or do they tell you 'be self-employed, the opportunities are plenty'?

If you find yourself hopeless about your future economy or career, it tells something about the uncertainty you face in your daily life. Or rather, the uncertainty you are forced to live with. (I do not mean the uncertainty of winning a Nobel prize/an Oscar, but uncertainty in life after your retirement. uncertainty in the future employment of your children).

In simple words, It's the responsibility of a govt to ENSURE that its citizens have a decent life. You can trust your government if they take responsibility for your unemployment, if they listen to your words and worries than making you work for them, if they revise their budget and manifesto based on the feedback from society, and so on. 

You struggle to find a job not simply because you are incompetent or lazy or for having bad grades. But because there don't exist many jobs or opportunities. It's the duty of the govt to ENSURE that there're fairly enough jobs, and a support system for the unemployed (calculate the average expenditure per month and compare it with the existing unemployment pension. Can an unemployed person afford to have a family, without holding onto the social pressure and norms?)

There is enough money.

For the year 2021-22, the Indian govt has allocated ~14% of its total expenditure solely for defence.

To get a better understanding, for the year 2021-22, when the budget estimate (revenue + capital) for defence was 4,78,195.62 crore INR, it was 1,31,531.19 crore INR for agriculture and farmers welfare. And 93,224.31 crore INR for education. The Indian border is saved and the defence pride is skyrocketing at the cost of your wellbeing.[1]

You don't have to be excellent at studies in order to deserve a decent and peaceful life. Moreover, when you have a decent life, you may be able to focus better on your studies.

There's no way you can be politically educated -good enough for a democratic society- when you're constantly worried about job security or economic stability unless you're an exception. You should be able to talk to each other and get to know how the wealth is distributed, how well the people's voices are heard, how much your neighbor earns in order to have a stylish life, and do the income tax department notice it? Where do the celebrities get so much money to do charity works on a big scale, how much tax do they pay? There should be transparency in income. Otherwise, a poor person can never know if heshe is being paid fairly.

The people should understand the difference between what one is 'allowed to do', and what one can 'afford to do'. When a new airport is built in a remote area with a majority of the marginalized population, we consider it as 'development'. Because even the remote regions are considered for costly projects (from the eyes of the public ofc!). No one bans you from using it, but if you can't afford to use the facility, how is it even a developmental milestone for you?

Are you aware of your rights?

If the people are not well informed about political decisions and policies, how would they even get a chance to know if the govt is misusing the power? Maybe the people can talk about the rotten situations in simple terms like 'corruption', 'bribery', 'favoritism', and so on. But not necessarily understand where the system fails. Does it fail from the design itself (eg constitution)? or fails on the execution methodologies such as general election? or it fails only at the final point after forming a cabinet?

If you are ignorant about your rights, maybe it's your fault that you don't read enough. Or maybe it's because you don't have enough time and energy left after work other than to watch TV and relax. Or because you never were taught the importance of understanding politics. After all, it is easy to blame the public than admitting the people are struggling to live and hence they are forced to remain politically ignorant.

In the day to day life, do we experience the consequences of individualistic life decisions or the consequences of the decisions of the govt more? Your fate beings from the womb of your biological mother. Physical and mental health she had, the air she breathes, the peace of mind she has, what the public health system offers to pregnant ladies, etc decide how healthy you are at the time you were born. None of the above were your life decisions. If you're poor, you are constraint to the quality of the public education system. If you're rich, you don't even have to care how 'public schools' look like. you can spend your money and get the good or maybe the best available teacher from a distant place.

Your fate is decided majorly by the govt you have unless you're an exception.

How good a govt can be?

If we take Keralam, the cabinet is not formed of aliens but the natives, who speak Malayalam. They're the reflection of the same society the voters live in. A cabinet can only be as good as the society it governs. If the population has more capitalistic ideologies (such as hard work will make you rich), it is very easy for a govt to slip into the same track. Do your govt ask your permission before taking a public decision? Do your govt listen to your protest regardless of how silly the topic is, instead of dismissing your voice? if answers are 'no', maybe, they possess capitalistic traits more than you imagine!

If your govt is keener on criticizing something else for the misery than focusing on what they can do, maybe they are not trying hard enough.

Let's sit and talk about unemployment in India!

[1] https://www.indiabudget.gov.in/doc/eb/sumsbe.pdf

India is independent; to whom?

How much meaning and truth there exists when we ‘celebrate’ the Independence of India (or India- Pak partition with an odd time zone assignment) every August 15th?

Unlike the exaggerated terror of the colonial era, which we learn in Indian history classes, it wasn’t all that bad in British India. The golden age of Carnatic music, the Anglo- Mysore, Anglo-Maratha war, and the Thanjavur famine were from the same era.

British India contributed a precious collection to the fine arts, Music, Literature, Movies, etc. They’re still alive in the culture. Such as ‘omanathinkal kidavo’ by Irayimman Thampi(1782–1856), ‘Endaro Mahanubhavulu’ by Thyagarajaswamikal(1767–1847), Swathi Thirunaal(1813–1846) compositions, C V Ramanpillai’s(1858–1922) Marthandavarma are few to name.

'Endaro Mahanubhavulu', a part from Pallavi [picture source]

‘Puddukotta Durbar’ by Raja ravivarma

In the ‘Puddukotta Durbar’ painting by Raja ravivarma(1848–1906) from the late 19th century, you can see how much peace and friendliness existed between the Indian princely states and foreign authorities. His paintings in general are delicate and peaceful. He made copies (lithographs) and distributed them among the public, to encourage fine art.

In 1856, ‘Hindu widow marriage’ was published, written by Ishvarchandra Vidyasagar(1820–1891), A Sanskrit Scholar and an intellectual. He criticized the Hindu practices on Widows. In the 1870s  Bankim Chandra Chatarjee(1838–1894) wrote ‘Bande Mataram’.

Rabindranath Tagore(1861–1941) wrote ‘Amader choto nodi’ in the same year the great Indian Famine began, and a year after the formation of the Indian National Congress, to raise the voice of the natives in the British parliament. In March 1930, Gandhi(1869–1948) began his protest against the British monopoly on salt. In July 1930, Tagore and Einstein had a long conversation on the ‘nature of reality.

nature of reality

A year later, Prem Chand(1880–1936) published ‘Gaban’. The theme of the novel was the falling moral values of lower-middle-class youth in British India. In 1936, he published ‘Godaan’ portraying the socio-economic poverty, and exploitation of the poor.

In 1930, C V Raman(1888–1870) received his Nobel prize for the Raman effect; Raman spectroscopy is still widely used.  SN Bose(1894–1974) and Bosons, multi-talented JC Bose(1858–1937), with his Radio waves and plant science. Srinivasa Ramanujan(1887–1920) and his infinite series were other prominent scientists and/or mathematicians.

There were more than 150 Bollywood movies released just in 1947.

Social distress distinguishes between socio-economic classes in a society. It affects you, based on who you are. While there were famine, wars, battles, murders, bomb blasts, poverty etc in colonial India, there also were art and music evenings, friendly gatherings with the British officials, movies, education, and research.

We claim India is independent and has been democratic since 1947. But to whom India is independent? Who would convince the meaning of liberty, and democracy to a starving farmer? Would they even listen?

...

 

Footnote:

'Freedom of expression’ can be said to exist when you criticize your authority and still feel safe. And that's when an independent state truly exists.

‘Freedom of expression' is a fundamental aspect of democracy. How safe do you feel after criticizing your authority? Let it be the regional political parties, institutions, ministers and government, etc.

We should normalize saying Indian authoritarianism/Indian demagogue than just fooling oneself and others by saying 'Indian democracy'. Literally, it (didn’t and) doesn't exist. Having a mathematics book doesn't make you a mathematician. Likewise, having a democratic constitution doesn't make a nation democratic by default. It needs understanding, effort, knowledge, awareness, and so on... The longer we push the facts away, the more people suffer; the ones from the lower-middle-economic class.

If you are privileged, regardless of before or after the Colonial era, as long as you choose to stay away from the public affair, you could still have gone to movies, concerts, plays, excursions with friends and family, build fancy summer cottages, engage in relaxing conversations, etc just like now, in this 2021.

None of the above-mentioned artists/intellectuals/musicians/writers were a victim of social distress, unlike the lower-middle-class.