Friday, October 15th, 2010 Globalization and the De-nationalization of the Indian Middle Class

Description

Coincidentally or otherwise, the process of globalization in India has been accompanied by the still more momentous process of Manadalization involving transfer of political power to and the general empowerment of the hitherto marginalized (in North India) middling caste groupings known as Other Backward Classes (OBCs).From the point of view of the upper castes, the most unpalatable part of Manadalization is the reservations in government jobs and more importantly in government-funded educational and professional institutions. While the upper castes had rightly been made to feel guilty for the treatment meted out to the erstwhile untouchables, now known as Scheduled Castes (SCs), and atone for it to the extent possible, newly introduced reservation for OBCs is seen as usurpation. If globalization had not occurred, it is very likely that Mandalization would have eventually produced an equilibrium state in which the upper castes would have willy-nilly accepted a diminished role consistent with their actual numbers. Globalization has disrupted this social process in the sense that the upper caste-dominated Indian middle class has chosen to effectively distance itself from the new mainstream and attach itself to the West.

The philosophical basis for the defection of the middle class to the West was created 200 years ago in the form of Indo-Europeanism whereby Europeans and upper caste Hindus were declared to be brethren to the exclusion of lower castes and others. I shall be discussing this phenomenon in some detail with special focus on how the De-Nationalized Middle Class is carrying out a multi-stage exercise to establish its identity and acquire legitimacy.

—
Professor Rajesh Kochhar is currently a CSIR Emeritus Scientist at IISER: Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali, Chandigarh 160019 . He is the vice-president of International Astronomical Union Commission 41 on History of Astronomy. He is working on a research project ” Modern science in India: Colonial compulsions, nationalist aspirations and global circumventions”. He obtained his M.Sc. Honours School in Physics in 1967 and Ph.D. in 1973, both from Panjab University, Chandigarh, where he began his career as a lecturer. He was a Professor at Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore, in 1999, when he moved over to New Delhi to take charge as Director NISTADS: National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies, New Delhi (CSIR). He has been Professor of Pharmaceutical Heritage in NIPER: National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (Government of India), Mohali. At NIPER he was additionally in charge of Communication and Soft Skill Programme.