Development in a Consumer Society

Amid ongoing all kinds of protests and a voice every time whooping out from a moderate chunk of the country’s huge middle class, a very symbolic construction or dialectic has always been the central point from all opposing corners. The symbolic structure is the idea of ‘Development’ of ‘Tarakki’ synonymous with ‘Vikas’, which has long been a very decisive word that has shaken the middle and even lower middle class to rally even behind the vertically large bourgeois community based upon political parties and groups. The outcomes of the past two general elections and some state assembly elections have nearly proved the rallying in favour of that central point. ‘Sab ka Sath Sab ka Vikas’, ‘Yeh desh tarakki kar raha hain’, ‘tarakki kaun karna nahin chahta’ etc are all popular slogans representing the central phenomenal structure ‘Development’. The critical approach in contrast to these formally projected slogans has however been following the same path i.e. development however in different political routes. A very few lines have been written on the radically alternative approach which will emancipate people from slogan consuming and develop with any slogan of development. And in this way the ‘development’ has become such a form that remains always active when even people are starving or agitating for subsistence. The crisis lies here.

Dwelling in thousands of nukkads or slums of both small towns and mega cities, middle and lower middle-class people of our country are therefore life-long destined to live on the either sides of the recursive ideas of Development. And in that very common recursive route, these lives are usually being spent thinking whether they are developed or still not by heavily consuming the ‘symbol’ of development. Jawaharlal Nehru at least tried to coin a term for them living in a mid-way as ‘developing’, which later on became an identity of third world people beyond the degree of so called development. Those days are gone however with the blast of corporate globalization that accordingly produced ‘consumer society’ where living is compulsively configured with ‘Developed’ narrative and the consumption of the slogans ‘development’ has increased to a massive level beyond a consumer’s choice. The narrative ‘Development’ has essentially therefore surpassed the base development initiatives in developing nations. The financially stable middle class and the upper middle class have therefore become a happy consumer of ‘development’ with legitimization that ‘development elements are not available free of cost’. The less stable middle class and lower middle class are trying their satisfaction watching the billboards on the one hand and availing yojna-based ‘Tran’ or ‘Relief’ facilities placed much below the ‘development’.

In such a consumer oriented social condition many people including the central administration are expecting a very common code of protest which everyone will follow favouring the prevailing democracy so that the consumer society and the administrative social system are not disturbed. So, people are expected to participate in any movement that will follow such a code that won’t disturb any of the above two systems. A chunk of middle class intelligentsia engaged in various professions particularly are of such opinion to safeguard the consumer society.

There are however some cases evident when this formulation is shaken where not ‘farmers’ but air-hostesses call sitting agitation on the very asphalt road. Although they were not taken for granted by the system but the truth is, most of them could not retain their jobs back.

The present issue of SLC has therefore covered all voices in pluralist creative frames and the placements of descent utterances beyond any consumerist commonality established by the system in due course. So, SLC in its current edition becomes truly an open source of knowledge and creations including environment issues and sustainability of environment stocks. We therefore wish our every reader a very happy reading.

 

Editor