PhotoDiary-8, The Colorful People of India – Individuals (Images and Reality)

Almost all the subjects in the photos below are from the lower classes of Indian society. Wherever you travel in that vast country, these are the people you will see most often. (As I will clarify below, about 80% of India’s population consists of the lower classes, owing to the country’s caste system and its great wealth gap.)   

The population of India comprises a very diverse mix of people. It includes over 2,000  ethnic groups speaking hundreds of different languages and following a number of different religions. There really is no other nation that has the range of ethnic and cultural diversity that India has.  

India’s Massive Income Disparity 

But none of the aforementioned differences in Indian society compare to the nation’s massive wealth gap. The disparity in wealth and income is the major distinction in Indian society. In terms of Gini Coefficient (a measure of the wealth distribution among a country’s residents), India ranks 135th, far below China, Russia, and Brazil, and even below the Philippines and Vietnam. And just above 136th place Cambodia. 

In terms of income, the top 20% of Indians (Quintile 5, in the below graph) account for close to 45% of all aggregate household disposable income in the country. On the other hand, the bottom 80% (Quintiles 1–4) earn only 55% of that total.   

So while the top 20% accounts for close to half of all disposable income, the share of income for the next quintile (61%–80%) is suddenly cut in half, meaning that they account for only 22.1% of the income. And the bottom 3 quintiles (1%–60%) earn the remaining 33% of household income.  Without a doubt, that leaves only meager incomes for those on the lower parts of the scale.  

Essentially, the few people at the top have plenty of money. The many (indeed, very many – over 1 billion people) have much less. As we go down the scale, the number of people increases, while the amount of wealth decreases – exponentially, in both cases.

No Middle Class 

When travelling the country, and when walking about on the hot, noisy, and dusty streets, you will not see many of the top 20% of Indians – that is, the white-collar, English-educated elite. Those fortunate few are comfortably ensconced in their tall condos, or in their large, 3-storey, air-conditioned homes, or else riding in their air-conditioned cars on the way to the nation’s new, air-conditioned malls or office buildings.    

Essentially there is no middle class – at least, nothing like the middle classes in Europe, North America, and other developed nations. If any Indian claims to be from the middle class, he’s probably ranked somewhere in the top 80%–95%. And he can conceivably be grouped with the wealthy 5% above him as part of the elite. He may call himself “middle class,” but he lives in comfort, and has a cook, a cleaning lady, and someone to wash his car every morning. That’s really not middle class. In any other society, it’s close to upper class.   

Some will say that India’s “middle class” comprises the uneducated, primarily rural population. But again, that is not really how one normally defines middle class. So, it’s reasonable to say that India consists of an elite comprising the top 20%, while the bottom 80% consists of a massive underclasses. With no middle class to be found anywhere. 

Caste System ­– Perpetuated by Who? Whom? Humans. 

To a large extent, the vast income inequality that separates Indians from each other is based on the caste system. Anyone born in India is immediately ranked in the caste of his parents and his other progenitors, and nothing he ever does will change his position in society.    

There are four main castes. The highest and most dominant is the priestly Brahmin caste, while the lowest is the Shudra class of laborers. Within those four major castes there are many sub-castes. As indicated above, you cannot escape the caste that you were born into; if you were born into a Shudra sub-caste of street-sweepers, then it’s pretty certain that you too will be a street-sweeper.   

This discriminatory system has its roots in ancient Hinduism, and consequently, today’s Hindu majority is often criticized for perpetuating the discrimination (practically, if not officially). But in fact, the Hindus are not the only ones who are responsible for the abhorrent caste system. Both the Mughal Empire and the British colonizers found the caste system to be a very convenient way of keeping the people in their place – and in check. 

Essentially, the caste system was established by and has been perpetuated by humans, against other humans. 

Conflict and Violence 

With such a diverse population as India has, there have inevitably been conflicts. In the northwest, there’s conflict between the Hindus and Kashmiris, whose region is essentially occupied by the Indian armed forces. In the northeast, it’s the mass migration of Bengali Muslims into Assam that has caused resentment and instability. 

Since the partition of India from Pakistan, it seems that there has been no end to the tension and the violence in India, whether it’s anti-Muslim violence, anti-Hindu violence, anti-Christian violence, or any other type.   

Even in the land of Ghandi, one of the world’s prime purveyors of non-violent resistance, there are many of all stripes who turn to violence when they feel that they have been subject to injustice.  

The Liberated Ones 

The one group of Indians who are not subjugated by either the caste system or the wealth gap, and who are not the victims of any racial conflicts, are the sadhus. A sadhu is a religious ascetic or holy person, usually of the Hindu or Jain faith, who has renounced the worldly life and is striving for spiritual liberation (moksha). 

These sadhus have no permanent home, and travel from place to place. They are generally respected by most Indians, from whom they received small donations on which they subsist.  

One evening in the town of Rishikesh, just outside my guesthouse, I met a sadhu who spoke English. As we chatted, I shared some of my Old Monk rum with him, and offered to buy him breakfast the next morning. He slept in his blanket on the sidewalk outside the guesthouse (his choice), and the next morning, we met up and went to an open-air shop for breakfast.    

He declined my offer to buy him food, and told me that all he needed to start his day was a nice hot cup of chai, before he got on the train to his next destination (the holy town of Pushkar). When I offered to give him a bit of cash for train fare, he again declined, saying that sadhus were generally allowed to ride the trains for free, and therefore he had no need of my money.   

I never saw him again. However, as he travelled round northern India with his small bagful of possessions, he would occasionaly phone me, just to say “Hello,” and maybe to tell me where he was living at the time. I would invite him to drop in at my home, so that I could treat him to another cup of chai or maybe even a full breakfast. I would have loved to meet up with him, but unfortunately, we never did. He remains one of the finest people I met during my 4-year stay in the country.

The Wealth Gap, Revisited 

The above numbers (regarding the income disparity) do not take into account the population figures of those 5 quintiles. The current population of India is 1.324 billion. Simple math indicates that 80% of that is still more than 1 billion people.    

Most of that 80% live on less than half of the elite’s incomes. And many of them live on just a tiny percentage of what the elite make.    

As the following graph states in no uncertain terms, “92% of Indian adults have wealth of less than $10,000.” And, without a doubt, the bottom portion of that 92% are eking out a living on far less than $10,000.   

The Builders, Producers, and People Who Get Stuff Done 

The people of the underclass are the ones who built India. They are the ones who constructed all its buildings and all its infrastructure, and who produce all its products and manufacture all its goods. They are the ones who work on the farms and in the processing plants, who grow all the food that feeds the country, and who distribute and prepare the food.

To a large extent, they are also the ones who prepare all the food; clean all the homes, offices and shops; repair your cars and appliances; drive the cars and taxis and busses and trains that move people around; and do all the dirty, dangerous, and laborious work. And they do it all for only a very meager percentage of the country’s wealth. 

The Booker Prize-winning writer Arundhati Roy once stated that, for all intents and purposes, India’s elite have seceded from the nation. In many way, that is true. The top percentile live in their comfortable, 3-storey homes or in large, imposing condominiums with landscaped gardens and swimming pools. Their neighborhoods or condos consist of gated communities, with several guards on duty round the clock, lest anyone from the underclass dare to step, uninvited, into their private territory. And as the elite seceded, they’ve taken much of the wealth with them.    

But the top 20% could never take the heart and soul out from the country’s bottom 80%. Nor could the elite ever erase the brilliant colors of the “rich” lives of the downtrodden. 

Sources –

http://www.livemint.com/

http://www.livemint.com/Politics/AvHvyHVJIhR0Q629wkPS5M/Indias-richest-20-account-for-45-of-income.html

http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/income-gini-coefficient