Outside the metropolitan centres, Indian society remains conservative

If one were to pick up a pair of binoculars and look at the sweep of the year and quarter since Mrs Gandhi's return to power, what would one discover? Beyond the killings, the blindings, the rapes, the agitations and the strikes the rumbustious Indian version of democracy was trying to cope with reality. And that reality boiled down to growing socio-economic unrest stemming from unfulfilled expectations and sectional demands for a share of the thin slice of the cake of prosperity.Mrs Gandhi remains the central figure. After her triumphant return to power in January last year, she has been imposing her will on the nation even as she has tried to make peace with the causes of heightened tension in the villages, in the factories and in entire regions.Mrs Gandhi's dream of seeing her younger son Sanjay succeed her was shattered in a plane crash last June. But she is still seeking to remould the political structure, a task she apparently hopes to accomplish before the end of 1982. Meanwhile, in practice, the Indian system has already undergone a change even as the Opposition parties and many others fight for the parliamentary form of government.After the second split in the Congress in 1978, which merely accelerated the splintering of parties and factions all along the line, the only truly national party is Mrs Gandhi's creature. The Congress (I)-ruled states are governed by chief ministers at her pleasure. To be sure, in a situation in which personal loyalty counts for more than anything else, there are intrigues and attempts to topple chief ministers by their partymen.India's real problems will not go away. If the basic needs of the people are not satisfied in a reasonable period of time, the prospects for the country can only be described as squally.But these political squabbles in the Indira Congress are the price a party must pay for its supremacy, based as it is on one leader and an army of defectors of various hues and shades. In reality, the Congress (I) has become a unitary structure despite the dissensions that exist and the feuds that are fought.Before Sanjay met his untimely end last year, he had refined his mother's populism by bequeathing a new type of politician, represented by men such as Abdul Rehman Antulay, Gundu Rao and Jagannath Mishra. They are basically amoral men who concentrate on achieving their own and the leader's objectives with an almost total disregard of norms.Propaganda: In the age of populism Mrs Gandhi inaugurated so dramatically in 1969, propaganda plays a key role. If she seeks to impose the presidential system, it must be preceded by a "national debate". If the short-lived Janata government needs to be brought into disrepute, an inquiry must be held into gold auctions leading to predictable findings.Inevitably, the press, which breathed free again after the Emergency, must come into conflict with Authority because the harder the propaganda mills work, the greater the need to discredit the dissenting press. Antulay is at the helm hurling invectives at the Fourth Estate in colourful language more appropriate to an undergraduate. The Government's attempt is to erode the credibility of the press by painting it as "irresponsible" and worse.And yet, despite the Government's efforts and Mrs Gandhi's sway over her party, the firings, killings and agitations impose their own compulsions. Since India's model of economic development has not kept pace with expectations and Nehru's concept of secularism has not built the society of his dreams, economic demands have merged^ with caste, class and ethnic factors.Mrs Gandhi: Seeking to remould the political structureTake the three issues that have held national attention for the better part of this period: Assam, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Assam symbolises the pulls of regionalism and the neglect of problems in a sensitive area. Against the historical Bengali domination of the east, the population pressures consequent upon the subcontinent's partition and the changes brought about in the state's borders, the Assamese fear that they will be squeezed out, culturally and economically, of their very homeland.The cupidity of politicians contributed towards sustaining the agitation that has kept going for more than 15 months. For too long politicians (of the Congress) turned a blind eye to, if not encouraged, infiltration from the other Bengal. And the Bengali tendency towards exclusiveness merely served to fuel the fire of new regional nationalism.Mrs Gandhi tried to resolve the Assam problem by giving the agitators a long rope. Although her tactic would now finally seem to be succeeding, the solution, when it comes, will have been achieved at a tremendous economic cost. Besides, it has already had a fall-out in the entire northeast and the fires of regionalism will continue to flicker in the east and spread to other parts of the country.The farmers' agitation in Maharashtra, symbolised by Sharad Joshi's rasta roko programme, represents another, even more basic, problem: the flexing of muscles of the relatively prosperous middle peasantry. Joshi demonstrated even more effectively than Charan Singh the political power of the farmer. But both the leaders are espousing the cause of the better-off farmer. Their effort is to give the farmer a bigger slice of the cake at the expense of the town-dweller. The poor - the landless of the villages - remain without champions, except for the communists in some areas.Joshi justifies his agitation on the ground that if the middle farmers become more prosperous, part of their new bounty will flow down to the poorest. This has proved not to be the case in the past, although in prosperous areas in the Punjab, for instance, the labourers get better wages. The process will take too long to stem the tide of revolt that must come from the landless.The Gujarat agitation against reservations for scheduled castes and tribes stirs the cauldron of caste to emphasise its continuing hold over the people. The provision for reserving jobs as well as places in educational institutions was based on the unexceptionable premise that those deprived of their rights for ages needed a special dispensation to catch up with the rest of society. Although sections of the lowest castes have benefited, the concessions have been cornered by an upper crust who have come to believe that they are their birthright.As economic compulsions affect the upper castes as much as those in the lower categories, resentment over job and place reservations has been growing in different parts of the country. [t boiled over in Gujarat because the evocative issue of admission to a medical college was involved and the upper caste man refused admission was a handicapped person. Although the Gujarat agitators now want all reservations to go, there is no doubt that the system of adding new castes to the reserved category has been taken to ridiculous lengths.Other events have also usurped national attention during the past year and quarter - the deliberate blinding of undertrial prisoners in Bihar, the proliferating cases of rape, the rash of riots triggered by the Moradabad incident in August last year. Apart from its long history, Hindu-Muslim antagonism has been exacerbated by the cupidity of the Muslim leaders, the new generation of Muslims less willing to accept second class status and economic factors.Muslim political parties have proliferated, instead of declining, and the Muslim leaders are inclined to act as another caste group in India's caste-ridden society, often staking their claims aggressively. In Nehru's attempt to build a secular society, sections of the Muslims, like Harijans, were deliberately favoured to give them the feeling of belonging. This has failed to achieve its objective while inviting a backlash from the majority Hindu community.Brutality: The shock waves generated by the disclosure of how members of the police force deliberately blinded under trial prisoners have now almost died down. But for a time this act of medieval barbarity brought home to the country the two worlds India lives in. There is little justice in the countryside for the poor as the administrative elite and landed gentry combine to impose their brutal methods of punishment.The police, who have never really changed their methods of operation since the Raj, have the impossible task of maintaining law and order over vast areas, with the country's clogged judicial process breeding frustration. Besides, members of the police force must make compromises with the politicians as with the rich in the countryside to survive.Outside the metropolitan centres, Indian society remains conservative. Not only is the woman's place in the home, but the values of a male-oriented society make her the victim of many indignities of which "'wife-burning" is only one manifestation in lower middle class homes in the north. Rape is the ultimate expression of male superiority, and the conservative mores of a society which segregates sexes while feeding on the sentimental mush of the traditional Hindi film encourage men to satisfy their lust at woman's expense, particularly one belonging to the lower castes.In this social, political and economic milieu, opposition parties and politicians, humbled by Mrs Gandhi, must perforce stoke the fires of dissent and agitations. In seeking to give voice to the demands of dissatisfied sections, the Opposition is trying to discover its own relevance. The concept of "left and democratic unity", of obvious advantage to the communists, does not hold out much promise.The Opposition: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), ostracised by the others because of its links to the Jan Sangh and the RSS. was the first to find its feet by organising a big gathering in Bombay. A. B. Vajpayee has now self-consciously donned the mantle of the Opposition leader. The Janata Party has followed suit, though less successfully, while the Congress (U) get-together proved to be a disaster.Apart from the BJP, which is trying to consolidate its hold in its strongholds in the Hindi-speaking belt and is cultivating new pastures in the south, none of the other non-communist parties promises to set the Jamuna on fire. Indeed, Charan Singh's Lok Dal has been in the throes of crises. The process of reorganisation of parties and their merger will take time.The communist parties are in a different category because, apart from the purely regional parties like the AIADMK, they are the only opposition parties in power in the states. Of the two communist parties, the Marxists have the upper hand, being almost exclusively in power in West Bengal and sharing power with the pro-Moscow CPI, among others, in Kerala.The problem for Marxists in particular is how to expand their base beyond their present strongholds; their original plan of striking roots in the Hindi-speaking areas has gone awry. Far from seeking new pastures. the Marxists are being forced by Mrs Gandhi to mind their barricades. The Assembly elections in West Bengal next year are beginning to cast their long shadow and the Marxists believe that the Centre is quite capable of dismissing them before elections are held.Kerala has almost invariably been ruled by a patchwork of parties and the communists' own strength (even counting the two parties together) is insufficient. The communists perhaps realise that apart from the more traditional methods of winning new followers, the state's socio-economic programme will convince the people about their superiority to other parties.In the fragmented state of parties and institutions, the economic factors will primarily determine the outcome. Record agricultural production is a good augury, but industrial production is stagnating. Some of the tensions are inevitable in a developing society in a state of transition. But the pressures from below can only increase if the Government fails to perform. Mrs Gandhi can succeed in changing the form of government and even give her son Rajiv a head start, but India's real problems will not go away. If the basic needs of the people are not satisfied in a reasonable period of time, the prospects for the country can only be described as squally.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Nov 22, 2013 08:27 IST--- ENDS ---

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Outside the metropolitan centres, Indian society remains conservative

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