I was invited recently by some young men to a dinner party. Normally I am a very reclusive person, and don’t go out from my flat in Delhi, often for weeks or even months on end. But I made an exception, and accepted this invitation, as I thought I should know what other people are thinking about the political situation in India.
I took a taxi to go to the party, and on the way asked the taxi driver, who was from my home town Allahabad, for his opinion. He was all praise for Modi and Yogi, as he was of the opinion that they had provided law and order, and suppressed gundagardi ( hooliganism ), which had earlier been going on on a large scale.
At the party, the young men, all of the middle class, and in their 30s and 40s, ( and therefore much younger than me, a man of 79 ), were of the same opinion as the taxi driver. They also said that India has progressed economically under Modi, and the only way to eradicate gundagardi was the way of Yogi, i.e. to bump off criminals in ‘encounters’.
As regards the chances of a revolution, they said that won’t happen because there was a large middle class in India ( created by the tremendous growth of capitalism and industry in India after 1947 ), enjoying a relatively comfortable life, and this class ( to which they themselves belonged ), do not want a revolution, as they feared it may deprive them of their snug and peaceful existence
