Subject: An idiots guide to enterprise Indian style.
One of the complexities of living in a place amongst people of different cultures is the continual miss match between what is thought and what is said. The ritual of structure in a society such as the Indian society, cut and dissected into layers of patronage and prejudice by the system of caste is its foundation is beyond western apprehension.
The normal assumptions about how to understand and react to a socioeconomic nightmare (the caste driven determination of who you are) desperately full of contrived guile designed to make all parties achieve some sort of self respect are difficult to fathom brought up on a diet of so called social opportunity for all. The tricks and subterfuge within the society at large are played without too much malice and are part of the theatre of getting by in a land of such grotesque variances.
We struggle in this country to understand how people born on what we colloquially call "the wrong side of the railway track" can be cast out with few life chances and yet in India it is endemic, part of the twisted ladder of life with all its predetermined outcomes.
The feigned concern we in the west proclaim for the underprivileged is but a charade which we play to the wider audience. In reality we distance ourselves from the outcome of being born into an unjust society. We say the right things to ease our conscience. The reality and the enormity of bridging the gaps in understanding are fudged when the chasm between us makes understanding a relatively meaningless concept is played out ad -nausea on our media and in Parliament.
At least in India there is no such concern and the pyramid, one of the strongest geometrical shapes, is intact and given sanctity right through the different layers. The tonga-wallah, or the 'untouchable' enduring mind clotting work, takes relief in disconnecting the work function, which is deemed enough, from the actual absurdity of keeping things clean. He does not engage in the actual "overview" of what is the desired outcome of the work. Instead his work is without purpose but work never the less.
All the various classes of work are dictated by the caste you belong to and permeated by this lack of an overview. The piles of box ticking paperwork in an office, bulging files on even the simplest bureaucratic procedure, the anachronistic office hierarchy where islands of protected function are allowed to stay in place because of the prudence of keeping people employed.
The inter woven acceptance of the backhander at all levels in society amplifies the importance of the personal interplay in the market for jobs and favours. These replace the structure of corporate responsibility with the corporation taking the place of the individual as the mainstay in any transaction and the caste system predetermines what one can expect to profit out of life, not a degree or the corporate nameplate on the door.
.
Sent from my iPad
One of the complexities of living in a place amongst people of different cultures is the continual miss match between what is thought and what is said. The ritual of structure in a society such as the Indian society, cut and dissected into layers of patronage and prejudice by the system of caste is its foundation is beyond western apprehension.
The normal assumptions about how to understand and react to a socioeconomic nightmare (the caste driven determination of who you are) desperately full of contrived guile designed to make all parties achieve some sort of self respect are difficult to fathom brought up on a diet of so called social opportunity for all. The tricks and subterfuge within the society at large are played without too much malice and are part of the theatre of getting by in a land of such grotesque variances.
We struggle in this country to understand how people born on what we colloquially call "the wrong side of the railway track" can be cast out with few life chances and yet in India it is endemic, part of the twisted ladder of life with all its predetermined outcomes.
The feigned concern we in the west proclaim for the underprivileged is but a charade which we play to the wider audience. In reality we distance ourselves from the outcome of being born into an unjust society. We say the right things to ease our conscience. The reality and the enormity of bridging the gaps in understanding are fudged when the chasm between us makes understanding a relatively meaningless concept is played out ad -nausea on our media and in Parliament.
At least in India there is no such concern and the pyramid, one of the strongest geometrical shapes, is intact and given sanctity right through the different layers. The tonga-wallah, or the 'untouchable' enduring mind clotting work, takes relief in disconnecting the work function, which is deemed enough, from the actual absurdity of keeping things clean. He does not engage in the actual "overview" of what is the desired outcome of the work. Instead his work is without purpose but work never the less.
All the various classes of work are dictated by the caste you belong to and permeated by this lack of an overview. The piles of box ticking paperwork in an office, bulging files on even the simplest bureaucratic procedure, the anachronistic office hierarchy where islands of protected function are allowed to stay in place because of the prudence of keeping people employed.
The inter woven acceptance of the backhander at all levels in society amplifies the importance of the personal interplay in the market for jobs and favours. These replace the structure of corporate responsibility with the corporation taking the place of the individual as the mainstay in any transaction and the caste system predetermines what one can expect to profit out of life, not a degree or the corporate nameplate on the door.
.
Sent from my iPad
No comments:
Post a Comment