{"id":260,"date":"2005-02-10T08:53:26","date_gmt":"2005-02-10T13:53:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/server97.snhdns.com\/~ravik\/wp\/?p=260"},"modified":"2005-02-10T08:53:26","modified_gmt":"2005-02-10T13:53:26","slug":"what-does-the-middle-class-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ravikiran.com\/blog\/classic\/200502\/what-does-the-middle-class-think\/","title":{"rendered":"What does the Middle Class think?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dilip D’Souza, who has been time and again trying to generate outrage among us apathetic middle class types by comparing the slum demolitions with the tsunami, makes this extraordinary assertion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So because they are poor, it’s OK to pull down their homes. Why is it that not one middle-class block of flats has been brought down that I know of, even though so many of those are built flouting FSI and other building regulations, are built paying bribes, are paid for using illegal money, and often have illegal extensions?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Surely Dilip knows that this is wrong? Oh I am sure no “middle-class block of flats” has been brought down. But the demolitions have been reputed to be remarkably evenhanded. For example take this<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

After a month that saw the razing of 65,000 shanties, the demolition squads are now firmly targeting the city’s richer, more powerful inhabitants: owners of restaurants, five-star hotels, office blocks and residential high-rises. The targets are secret to keep violators from getting last-minute stay orders. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

or take this<\/a><\/p>\n

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation demolition squad raided Filmalaya Studios in suburban Mumbai on Tuesday and pulled down illegal structures on its premises.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

and<\/p>\n

The BMC also cleared some 750 square feet of illegal construction on Hotel Shalimar’s premises in Bandra on Tuesday.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

or this<\/a><\/p>\n

IT WAS Day 4 of the civic body’s demolition drive against illegal constructions of the rich.
\nAnd the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) hammer brought down an illegal restaurant, a gymnasium and a wholesale fruit market. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Did you hear about the middle class getting “outraged” at these demolitions?
\nNo?
\nNeither did I. If anything, the middle-class I am familiar with applauds<\/i> them. <\/p>\n

I was told the story, probably apocryphal, of T. Chandrashekhar, the then commissioner of Thane (and now co-ordinator of the MUIP) who, when shown a stay order by a restaurateur, tore up the order and proceeded with the demolition. The story wasn’t told to me in outraged tones. It was recounted in gushing tones, by a typical middle-class person who hero-worships T Chandrashekhar. <\/p>\n

If Dilip has actually met a real middle-class guy, he would know that the typical middle-class guy considers himself disadvantaged because unlike the poor, he isn’t a voting bloc and unlike the rich, he cannot bribe his way through. He sees himself as stuck in the middle. <\/p>\n

Dilip wants the government to build houses for the illegal slum-dwellers. Surely he should know that this was done earlier? He should also know what came out of it. Most of these houses were sold off and that slum-dwellers went back to living in slums (because the slums were located at a more convenient place). Where it didn’t happen, the areas vacated by the slum-dwellers were quickly occupied by other slum-dwellers hoping to cash in on the bonanza. <\/p>\n

What do you think a typical middle-class person, who has to work off his whole life repaying a housing loan, will feel when he sees people getting houses for free? Dilip thinks that the middle class guy doesn’t care about the poor because he is far away from the suffering of the poor and doesn’t know the extent of the suffering. That is why he thinks that comparing the demolitions with the tsunami will tug at the middle-class guy’s conscience. That is simply not true. The middle-class guy knows<\/i> what is going on and has inured<\/i> himself to the suffering of the slum-dwellers. <\/p>\n

You can hammer away at tsunami comparisons till kingdom come, and it won’t faze the middle-class woman who travels by second class on Mumbai’s locals to get to her workplace, where she probably works as a clerk. Her income, small as it is, would nonetheless put her in the top 10% of India’s population. Will that make her count herself among the rich? No it won’t. <\/p>\n

But every morning, as she nearly suffocates in the local train, she sees shanties lining the rail route. She knows that those shanties are protected by a court order, and that is what is holding up the extra railway line that would enable more trains to be run – trains that would give her standing space and enable her to breathe. You think comparing the demolition of those shanties to a tsunami would jolt her out of her comfortable existence? <\/p>\n

The point of the post was not just to point out flaws in Dilip’s understanding of middle-class attitudes. It is also to point out the perils of coming up with policies based on the logic of class-warfare. It is<\/i> possible to solve the problem of slums, but it will never be done. That’s because, you see, all the measures needed would involve benefiting the rich. Hence it follows that they won’t get enacted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dilip D’Souza, who has been time and again trying to generate outrage among us apathetic middle class types by comparing the slum demolitions with the tsunami, makes this extraordinary assertion. So because they are poor, it’s OK to pull down their homes. Why is it that not one middle-class block of flats has been brought […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ravikiran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ravikiran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ravikiran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ravikiran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ravikiran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ravikiran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ravikiran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ravikiran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ravikiran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}