If the rural is poor why is the urban not rich?
Hello Readers. I hope my title finds you well. The constant tassel between the western and the eastern or the severing of ties between the literate and the educated about how far development has uplifted all our lives is a battle that does not seem to settle for good anytime soon. It baffles and surprises me on the notions of how development is measured by some. When economists say building tall super structures will cut out the bad rulings of the society and all the inequalities it holds within its clutches, are they essentially freeing the human mind or promoting a different kind of inequality in the name of a modern future?
Do not get me wrong, I have no intentions of stopping the construction of another Burj Khalifa or another bullet train in Japan. For those are the things that should connect us better and help open up new avenues to explore the depths of knowledge our mind is capable of. But it is not pragmatic let alone being completely colonialist to downgrade a section of society that contains no faults but is not included in the good books only because it fails to give in to the capitalistic market. There is more to life than the economic gains alone. There has to be.
India is a developing nation. It suggests that there are many areas that still have to pick up the pace if they wish to be known in the good books of a few. There are many traditions and culture still ingrained in the genetics of our people that suggests discrimination on so many levels that it is disheartening to keep a note on that. From women being ignored in the household for their contribution to looking down on someone who was born into a family that practiced a particular religion or performed an essential job that nobody else had the stomach to bear. Apart from all the negatives which you can find if you sit in front of the television for less than two hours and those that need our prime attention without any denial, there are many things which people are unaware of that should equally see the light of the day.
Capitalism is such a nuisance that you cannot ignore. Even when I am a consumer and heavily dependent on the society that runs on capitalistic mindset, I will still any day stand against it for all the things it not only does wrong but also those on which it deliberately intends to. I have always taken an offense at the remarks made about the backwardness of our society and how it needs to be changed completely without any regard for the things it believes in. May be it is because of the place I was born in and the places I grew up in were not on the radar of progressiveness as defined by the half hearted intellectuals of the society, or because I have never liked how the country has always been looked down upon for encouraging the beliefs barring the evil ones of its people instead of humbling down to someone else.
Striking at the beliefs that create a space for discrimination and humiliation is encouraging and acceptable. But when you strike at the principles that are credited for their ability to sustain generation after generation, it is not only unnecessary and narcissistic but also sets a ground for misdoings and suffering. When industries were set up in the urban and the rural were asked to migrate, in search of better employment, health and well being, why was there no mention about how many of those will be left to belong in the lowest strata of economy and essentially will be left with a right to speech but without a voice to speak about it.
What kind of ideas and dreams are being sold on the ideologies that have failed to establish equality when justice was promised for all? Striking at the heart of discrimination faced in the rural to lure people who are seen as workers by the wealthy to satisfy their greed, they essentially established institutions that left people devoid of anything to establish their identity. If the social structure of the rural is so bad then the economic structure of the urban is disastrous. If people in the rural were subjugated to the atrocities by a few powerful men, then people in the urban have to tolerate the torture of the economic burden that was thrust upon them by a similar group of few powerful men. So are we destroying inequalities or simply creating new forms of it in the name of development?
I know it is a long debate and many will argue against me as they have the right to. I am not putting my points to discard anybody else’s opinions. But my idea is simply to paint a picture that exists among many others and just because it is difficult to take a stand for it, it is not widely discussed since it does not favour the few powerful who dictate the rules of the game we are in. I hope Readers you make an attempt at understanding what I have tried to convey without undermining my opinions to yours if you hold anything different. You can be rich or you can be poor, but why should someone else decide that for you? You can be rich in your experiences and knowledge. Or you can be poor with your money and wealth. You decide.
Until next time, Readers❤
