The
report is making a mistake made way too often. It is ignoring the
intersections of caste, class and religion. It assumes that all Tamil
people eat curd-rice, i.e. they are vegetarians. Sorry, not true.
Except for the upper caste people [I don't mean just Brahmins, they
are a very small percentage of Chennai's population, and almost
invariably belong to the highest socioeconomic categories. A lot of
better off brahmin progeny are also to be found abroad.] most other
groups are very much non-vegetarian. So, let us ask another
fundamental question: who are the people more likely to have multiple
houses or flats, or houses big enough to let out portions on rent?
Who has the resources to buy or build and own houses? Mostly, upper
caste, upper class people - not a complete overlap of caste and
class, but an ominous enough one.
So,
when someone conducts a survey of how house-owners respond to diverse
food habits, or religions, they are basically surveying only select
communities in the city. It does not mean that the survey is not
significant. If certain groups are more likely to be houseowners in a
city which attracts multitudes of migrants from diverse backgrounds,
then knowing something about their attitudes and worldview is most
important. I am only objecting to the report's assumption that
Chennai is the land of curd rice, or of vegetarians. It is not.
In
fact, it is important to understand and discuss the intersections of
class, caste, religion when one is trying to analyse atmosphere and
attitudes in a city. It is important to acknowledge that resources
have not yet been distributed at all equitably - whether it is land
and housing, education and employment, or social status. And, so,
attitudes become even more important and so does representing them
correctly. It seems to most of us middle class, educated people, that
splitting hairs about caste, class, gender etc is against India's
supposed secular credentials. But, if we really wish to
understand and address the problem of intolerance and inequality, it
is most important to unpack what groups harbour what attitudes
towards the wide socioeconomic and cultural spectrum in
India.
Because,
ideologies, values and views do not always work in explicit and
clearly visible ways. They work through everyday decisions - who we
talk to and don't, who we trust and don't trust, who we employ and
who we won't even consider, whose children we consider appropriate
company for our children, and which children we won't let into our
inner sanctum. Whose writing, ideas and vision is acceptable to us,
what papers we read, which news channels and TV programmes are
welcome into our living rooms, what kind of movies attract us, and
which we consider irrelevant and boring...these are the everyday
decisions which reflect our biases, our values, our tolerance or lack
of it. Most importantly, we do not just make these decisions as
houseowners, neighbours, fellow-travellers or colleagues, we
also make these decisions as employers, policy-makers, teachers,
entrepreneurs, and as professionals in many other fields. That is
why, which sections dominate various professions and spheres of
public life, and what attitudes they have, are indeed important
questions to ask.
So,
when a news report in a newspaper I trust more than most others,
discusses the secular credentials of a city, I expect it to do a bit
more digging and tell me which groups are more and less secular. That
is, which groups consider some people more equal than others. I
expect it to unravel some more details and tell me clearly if it
surveyed a representative sample or only the more resourceful in
Chennai. I am not implying that the paper deliberately misinformed
readers; like many others, it just ignored certain fundamental
hierarchies along which society is ordered. But, then these are
inequalities that we don't talk about in a growing neoliberal India.
Finally
though, my own limited personal experience, and Human Development
Indices for the state say that Chennai is far less conservative than
many other cities in the country, particularly in north and central
India. TN does better than many states when it comes to ensuring
opportunities for, and delivering on rights for women, for people
from lower castes and classes, for minorities.
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