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The Great Indian Divide - Part 1


Have you combed an Indian metro recently? What struck you as the blinding flash of the obvious?

The shining India? AND also in a few meters, a POOR nation caught in the slip stream of capitalism?

An economic divide? AND hence a cultural divide?

In short, did you notice the Class Conflict?

It’s the same class conflict or “alienation” that Karl Marx saw in the late 1800s. This has been a cause of my reluctance to move back to India. Because common sense and history tells that such class conflicts will result in social unrest and ugly revolutions as small as “mangalore bar attacks” (google it) to something as catastrophic as the French Revolution.

What is the cause for this great Indian divide?

The answer is “Knowledge Economy” and the “Knowledge Workers”. Let me dummify these terms first. Think of a line (like the poverty line) called the machine line. You are above the machine line if machines are your slaves. For example, a biotechnologist or a banker who uses a computer to get his job done. Notice that, it is not the machine but his knowledge that contributes to his productivity. Hence these are knowledge workers.

You are below the machine line if you are a slave to the machine. A machine operator in a cotton mill or a telephone receptionist, for example. Lets call them “task workers” or in Marx’s terminology, the proletariat. Notice that these people have to put long hours behind the machines for their productivity.

Without getting into much history, I have to tell you that NOW is the era of knowledge. And knowledge workers command a premium naturally. And the task workers gets alienated and exploited. Because no matter how many hours he puts in behind a machine, he is dispensable and hence a poor pay (compared to that of the knowledge workers).

Hence the class conflict!

So is a revolution inevitable in any near future in India?
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Comments

  1. aasamyJune 18, 2009 at 2:33 PM

    And?

    You better finish this quickly before I write something nasty... and no.. it cannot be wash you hands with your favourite soap.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Raja SPJune 18, 2009 at 3:03 PM

    Hahha. Sure, i have my conclusion. But its a open ended question and I am looking for your comments and opinion on the question.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownJune 18, 2009 at 11:24 PM

    well ..I am sure you are thinking in line with what you are reading.appreciate it. .But who said the "proletariat" are dispensable. "Domestic helpers" / "baby sitters" who are obviously not knowledge workers are the most indispensable these days :)) Anyway hear me out mate " NO ONE IS INDISPENSABLE"... that is reality !! having said that question for you -> So you expecting ugly revolutions and not relocating to India..? Impressive !!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Raja SPJune 19, 2009 at 11:07 AM

    Vino, I have reached a stage in reading where I don't consider anyone's words as absolute truths (whether it comes from Peter Drucker or Adhi Shankarar). I only accept the loudest words (which are mine. hehe).

    Service workers (maids/baby sitters) or Task workers (factory workers) are dispensable because if one goes, you can train another in few days. But it takes 5 years to teach and 2 years to train to produce a decent building architect. That is where the difference is.

    Having said that I agree with your comment "NO ONE IS INDISPENSABLE". This man called Frederick Winslow Taylor proved in 1870s that there is no such thing as a skilled work. His is a scientific method of breaking down work into small components which any non-skilled worker can manage. Assembly lines come from his theory. He lead to the demolition of craftsmen who kept skills as secrets. Those days even making wine barrels was a secret craft and i read in the news that there is only one "barrel master" left in the world now. Rapid industrialization. Knowledge work will also reach this stage soon and then such workers become truly dispensable. Anyway more on this subject in the next post.

    My thinking on the plausible ugly revolution - also later.

    ReplyDelete

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