In my last post I was talking about how there has been a change in the nature of population of cities in India, especially those in the Southern part of the country due to the large scale migration that took place due to reasons already cited. Let me now explain the nature of the change briefly. The spaces created by the migrating suave and urban Indian were replaced by a first generation of rural Indians who hitherto visited the urban areas, if at all, only to meet their relatives or to go sight seeing. These people do not possess either the suaveness of the original urban dweller or their liberal open mindedness. Before this statement is interpreted as racist let me explain in detail what I mean. One of the big differences in the mindset between the original urban Indian - OUI for brevity (I use this rather inelegant expression due to the lack of a better one) and later urban Indian LUI - also for brevity (again inelegance due to the same reason) is that the two went through different patterns of education. The OUI had access to good schools that were manned by well educated teachers who as a rule went beyond the brief of their work and successfully inculcated a globally and more importantly a necessary for India value system that enabled generations of students to put aside differences of caste and religion. This student also went on to become somebody who respected the idea of every one being capable of merit and that only merit should be the criteria for success or failure. This meant that they did not believe that lower castes or people of certain religions were doomed to be failures or that they did not deserve to succeed.
The rural education system that produced the LUI (and continues to produce the likes in the rural setting still) was a different situation altogether. The unwillingness on the part of the successful professionals, including teachers, to relocate to rural areas even for small periods decided that teachers should be recruited from the region itself. Herein lay the problem. The rural areas did not have the same percentage of literate populations and therefore in most cases seventh class and tenth class pass persons were recruited to teach the levels below them. The hope was that with time the teachers would also upgrade themselves with higher degrees and better learning. That did not happen simply because the "teachers" were contented with their jobs. From 1947 rural Indian schools have been a farce with neither teacher or student interested in true education. Students have been pushed to higher levels of study so as to not attract the attention of auditors who would question the logic of spending large amounts of money without there being any positive fall out of that. There are schools with no black boards, and there are schools that do not have buildings or there are schools with all these but with no classes happening since neither the teacher nor the student was willing to go to school. Degrees and certificates have gradually become pieces of paper with no significance. The fall out of this is "qualified" students who have carried on with prejudices born out of caste, creed and religion. These were untouched by any form of enlightenment and simply furthered stupid stereotypes in their daily lives. The quintessential LUI (yes there is one) is nothing but the extension of the rural Indian - lets call this one RI since we are abbreviating everything. This means that cities which are formally urban are actually substantially rural and carrying with them all the problems derived out of an improper education system and continuing prejudices. This has also led to a change in the composition of higher learning centres which today unfortunately have become breeding grounds for casteism and intolerance. The recruitment of local people for teachers and other jobs and that with lack of education contributed to the birth of micro regionalism which was essentially for the purposes of protecting their own interests. Needless to say these social changes have led to a new kind of politics and newer problems of leadership, which I shall speak about in my next post.
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