"Open Letter To Indian Change Seekers" by Chetan Bhagat.

[Do_Piaza]

Now, I am not a fan of Chetan Bhagat but believe he made some good points here. Dear change seekers, In recent weeks you have worked hard to make India a safer place. The recent Delhi gang-rape case dominated headlines and received world-wide attention, mainly due to your efforts. However, be mindful of certain worrisome negative aspects of this outrage. What you stand for is worthwhile, justified and necessary. However, the way you are going about it is not. You may create a lot of noise, but not the desired change. It is important to understand India first. India, no matter what your Civics teacher told you, is not an equal country. India is divided into four classes with different levels of power. For simplicity, let us call these classes the Ones, Twos, Threes and Fours (deliberately avoiding upper-lower classification). The Ones are our political masters. They control India, primarily through control over land, resources and laws that govern us. They donÃÕ directly own assets, but control the asset owners, the Twos. The Twos are our industrialists and capitalists. These Twos help secure and increase the power of the Ones. Business magazines honour them with terms like ÃÕhe dynamic entrepreneurs of a new liberalized India? While some may deserve such accolades, most donÃÕ. Twos become big because they serve the Ones well. The Ones allow the Twos to become rich through limited competition and tightly regulated approvals. Real estate, mining, infrastructure or most other sectors, no company in India can thrive without support of the political class. The next class, the Threes, are people like you and me, the primary readers of this newspaper. We are people with a certain amount of affluence and education, comprising around 10 per cent of IndiaÃÔ population. While life is a struggle for many Threes, they do have a basic standard of living and a modest access to opportunities. However, the Threes still do not get speedy justice, accountable leaders or a protective police force. Notably, Threes have recently acquired a new media power. Threes are affluent and buy things advertisers want to sell. Hence, the media caters to Threes. The Threes dominate social media too. Whatever trends on social media, makes its way to the evening news. This power to dictate the news and influence public sentiment is real and substantial. The Delhi gang rape victim was a Three, and the gruesome case made the rest of the Threes feel vulnerable like never before. The Threes wanted the rape to be debated. Hence, for almost a month little else could be discussed in a country of 1.2 billion people. However, in the process, the Threes might have done some damage. For despite the well-intentioned outcry, the Threes inadvertently displayed they care about themselves much more than another huge class they alienated, the Fours. The Fours are the ninety of the country, people with limited education, abysmal standards of living and little hope for a better future. The Fours are our farmers, slum dwellers, domestic helpers and the hundreds of millions of Indians without proper healthcare, education and infrastructure. These Fours get no debates on TV. People wonÃÕ protest for them on India Gate. The Threes either shun them, or impose their newfound modern values on them. For example, Fours may see women-men relationships in a regressive way, borne out by centuries of cultural indoctrination. The Threes, exposed to the latest Western beliefs, will mock them. If you noticed the various debates and opinions on the case, the Threes only accepted ideas in line with their own liberal, modern value system. Nobody could dare say anything even slightly alternative or stress on the Indian reality without being ridiculed, mocked and being termed a perpetrator of rapes. The Threes found a new power, but used it like the Ones and Twos use theirs -- for self-serving purposes. For will we ever passionately discuss the issues and lend our media power to issues that affect the Fours? Will we go to India Gate to help slum dwellers get proper drinking water, for instance? Did we care about the other Indians news in the past month? As we alienate the Fours, we leave them open to be exploited by the Ones. The Ones echo the sentiments of the Fours and throw some scraps at them. In return, the Fours ignore the Ones misdeeds and bring them back to power. Meanwhile, we Threes keep screaming and watch our own self-created reality show. This is no way to create a revolution, or even change. We have to take the grassroots Fours along. We cannot bully people into agreeing with our views. If we want people to change, we should not mock or deride. Instead listen and understand first and slowly nudge people towards change. DonÃÕ just laugh at anyone who says women should cover up and not venture out at night. Suggest that while this old belief may come from a place of practical reality, this lets the perpetrators off the hook and so cannot be the primary solution. I am not saying these people are not regressive. However, if you want change, be inclusive. Threes should also lend their media power to support issues affecting the Fours. IndiaÃÔ poor are a not separate species from us. They are Indians who deserve a better standard of living. If the politicians didnÃÕ protect the Twos so much, we could open the economy further, truly liberalize and create a lot of opportunity. Let us fight for the Fours too. They will join us, and make us a truly politically relevant force. This way, we will be able to take on the ultimate power abusers in India the Ones and the Twos. And then, and only then is when true change will happen.

[Dumbbells]

This topic was already discussed in ICF. I was the first one to raise this here.

[Do_Piaza]

Yes I have been following it here. Bhagat was really comprehensive on the issue so I posted it here.

[jairamesh]

The Fours are the ninety of the country, people with limited education, abysmal standards of living and little hope for a better future. The Fours are our farmers, slum dwellers, domestic helpers and the hundreds of millions of Indians without proper healthcare, education and infrastructure. These Fours get no debates on TV. People wonÃÕ protest for them on India Gate.

There is one politician trying uplift The Fours from poverty, but his work contentiously gets demonised in the media. And contrarians love to take the media position, just because they love being contrarians. Obviously having over 500 million Fours, helps Congress continue ruling for another 50 years under the pirated Gandhi trademark.

[punjabi_khota]

Ashamed to admit that Chetan made sense this time.

[Lurker]

BS article. :bootyshake: :bootyshake: It is rather stating the obvious. Yes we know sacrifices need to be made and the 4th estate needs to be lifted. But instead of the lecture where are the how-to suggestions?? Here is one that I have always wondered about:- Students above a certain age, say 15, can spend a month or two during summer vacation to go to Indian villages and help with education. Any student who does that gets extra credit, or scholarship of some kind.

[Nova]

The lower class needs to be uplifted for sure. Everything he says is true. May be part 2 of this article will come out when Lurker co-authors it.

Students above a certain age' date= say 15, can spend a month or two during summer vacation to go to Indian villages and help with education. Any student who does that gets extra credit, or scholarship of some kind.

Good idea. Volunteering in different areas is catching up in India. It is a well practiced concept in the US. Admission committees tend to look at this favorably. A few years of rural service in the medical profession is also being made mandatory in some states. The central government has proposed a scheme for nationwide implementation but nothing is final yet. Anyone interested in joining this group?

[Lurker]

The lower class needs to be uplifted for sure. Everything he says is true. May be part 2 of this article will come out when Lurker co-authors it.

Lurker is an original, he does not co anything :bootyshake:

A few years of rural service in the medical profession is also being made mandatory in some states. The central government has proposed a scheme for nationwide implementation but nothing is final yet. Anyone interested in joining this group?

This is great!! I hope it really catches on. Would be great for the nation :clap::hatsoff::clap:

[Nova]

Lurker is an original, he does not co anything :bootyshake:

:giggle:

[Prakat]

Interesting perspective. Going with that, we have to get all the threes to think like threes first. Dumbbells on this forum thinks like a four by default when he most definitely is a three.

[Tiger80]

BS article. :bootyshake: :bootyshake: It is rather stating the obvious. Yes we know sacrifices need to be made and the 4th estate needs to be lifted. But instead of the lecture where are the how-to suggestions?? Here is one that I have always wondered about:- Students above a certain age, say 15, can spend a month or two during summer vacation to go to Indian villages and help with education. Any student who does that gets extra credit, or scholarship of some kind.

BS solution Students above 15 in India are already over burdened by tension of exams or entrance tests.Those years are the most crucial years in life of any educated teenager as those years will decide whether he will go to reputed engineering college , medical; college etc or just take admission in local college and join awara sangat.Teenagers of this age group even give up sports so they can have extra time for studies

[Nova]

BS solution Students above 15 in India are already over burdened by tension of exams or entrance tests.Those years are the most crucial years in life of any educated teenager as those years will decide whether he will go to reputed engineering college , medical; college etc or just take admission in local college and join awara sangat.Teenagers of this age group even give up sports so they can have extra time for studies

That's the problem with the Indian education system. Many students are bookworms and don't go the extra mile for extra curricular experiences. Rote learning zindabad!

[Tiger80]

That's the problem with the Indian education system. Many students are bookworms and don't go the extra mile for extra curricular experiences. Rote learning zindabad!

Indian job market only value who have degree from reputed college.If your college in their list of tiers then only they call you for interview O/W just accept a low paying job.It is also the duty of MNC's and private companies to recruit talent from ground level but they just take easy way by inviting students from reputed college.

[vvvslaxman]

Threes should also lend their media power to support issues affecting the Fours. India's poor are a not separate species from us. - What is he saying.. The girl who raped hails from a poor family. The guys who raped her are also from poor family. Why are these guys over-analyzing things like Sanjay manjrekar.

[Lurker]

BS solution Students above 15 in India are already over burdened by tension of exams or entrance tests.Those years are the most crucial years in life of any educated teenager as those years will decide whether he will go to reputed engineering college , medical; college etc or just take admission in local college and join awara sangat.Teenagers of this age group even give up sports so they can have extra time for studies

That can also include Engineering and Medical students. I spent 4 years of summer reading books, playing cricket, chasing girls...not neccsarily in that order. I could have easily spent at least a couple of month in my own state, if not outside.

[Tiger80]

That can also include Engineering and Medical students. I spent 4 years of summer reading books' date=' playing cricket, chasing girls...not neccsarily in that order. I could have easily spent at least a couple of month in my own state, if not outside.[/quote'] You missed my point. at the age of 15 you have to start preparing for entrance tests and for that you have to take admission private coaching center.Yes engineering and medical students can do that if their college allow them , but the students which are in preparations of entrance tests have no time.

[neoripper2]

What they should do is make everyone who turns 18 do one year of service in a poor areas (rural, slums, north-east etc). Its kinda like military service except it is all volunteer work to help the poor. People who want to become licensed doctors in India had to do 1 year of their practise in a rural area because of the acute doctor shortage. But all the rich and middle class families complained about sending their kids there so they made it 6 months rural and 6 months urban. Pretty sad but you know how things are in India. They should do that for all professions when people are young.

[Crookbond]

The lower class needs to be uplifted for sure. Everything he says is true. May be part 2 of this article will come out when Lurker co-authors it. Good idea. Volunteering in different areas is catching up in India. It is a well practiced concept in the US. Admission committees tend to look at this favorably. A few years of rural service in the medical profession is also being made mandatory in some states. The central government has proposed a scheme for nationwide implementation but nothing is final yet. Anyone interested in joining this group?

"Compulsory" does not equate to volunteering.

[Crookbond]

That's the problem with the Indian education system. Many students are bookworms and don't go the extra mile for extra curricular experiences. Rote learning zindabad!

While I would not encourage "Rote Learning", compulsorily making rural service mandatory is the other end of the extreme. The correct way would be to help build a culture which "encourages" such service and rewards the experience. A society built on carrot & stick philosophy only does harm.

[Nova]

"Compulsory" does not equate to volunteering.

Of course not, but don't link those two issues. I gave example of the medical profession as it would help the less fortunate. Mandatory rural service in this case, at least in government institutions, is primarily because of subsidized education (including quota reservations). It is justified, in my opinion.