Two India

I have been visiting our ancestral village Mandhar (in Chattishgarh, near Raipur) on Diwali for the last two years after an interval of  around 30 years.  The present village is very different from what it was before.  Industry has come in the village, which has provided jobs to some youths of this village and the neighbouring villages.  It has brought pollution (plenty of carbon ash) and cash in the village.  More cash is bringing in more liquor and gambling.  More money does not necessarily mean good life. There is no desire of learning, no interest in politics or culture.  Not even desire for better schools for children, hence better life for them.  I was surprised to see that the villagers are not even interested in local politics.  People do not read newspaper.  There are too many issues like road, water, better education, health care, sewage system, etc. to fight for, but there is no talk about it.
Urban population does not quite understand this.  In metros, people have wider exposure and ambitions. In smaller towns, youths want to study harder for better jobs (to go to metros, e.g.).  This is not the case in villages, as far as I can see, at least in Chattishgarh. The two India theory is correct!
It is interesting to contrast this behaviour with those at earlier times.  There was a societal or feudal order.  The individual rights were curtailed.  Women then and now do not have much liberty in villages.  But the youth have broken free from family or societal order.  In feudal system, they would have typically followed family profession, or what elders would have told them to do. Religion played a sobering role in the past, which is not the case at present.
Now we are making a transition to new society where individual liberty is respected, which is a welcome step. There is no other option but to make a transition to the new order.  A flip-side however is that the village youths are on their own, but with no ambition or motivation what they wish to do.  The new societal order where citizens are part of a bigger system has not set in villages.  I believe that the present politics is not training them for the future and the new societal order.  Providing cheap rice and easy employment does not provide dreams.  Rather, it appears to kill it. Food and shelter is a must, that must be provided to all citizens, but a human life is more than that.   We need to provide education and dream to all, which is not only to earn living, but to lead a happy life for oneself and for others in the society.  Can our educated class, politicians, and policy makers do that?

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