Morality, Merit, Middle Class

All with a capital M, of course

For a country suffering from a permanent dearth of academic work in the field of humanities and social sciences, it comes as no surprise that there has been almost no known attempt in trying to understand the contemporary class composition of Pakistani society. All we have are labels: The Landlord, The Industrialist, The Peasant, The Labourer. But between all of that, we have this one catch-all label called the Middle Class. If you don’t fall into one of these four categories, you’re part of the middle class. It’s the ultimate anti-definition: you’re middle class completely based on the reality of what you are not, as opposed to what you are.

The closest we come to any revelation about the dynamics of this middle class is that it’s a constitution following, tax-paying, merit abiding, urbanized, group of people, who of course, aren’t landlords, peasants, industrialists, politicians, or wage laborers.

Hypothetically speaking, the guy who rents out auto-rickshaws to wage earning drivers, is neither an industrialist nor a landlord. He doesn’t pay any taxes because his entire business runs on cash, and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t follow a merit-based criterion in choosing who gets to work for him. He probably earns the same amount of money as a mid-level banking professional, and in all likelihood owns a total of 2 refrigerators, 3 TV’s and his own house somewhere in Samnabad. His children attended a public-sector school and are now (barely) doing their Bachelors in Computer Sciences from one of the many private colleges scattered over the city. If he’s doing good business, his kids will probably share a Mehran between them, otherwise his son has a Honda CD 70. When Mr Transporter gets into trouble with the cops, he’ll have no problem dishing out a hefty bribe, and when one of his biraderi members asks for a favour, he’ll do his best to pull as many strings as his fingers will humanly allow him to. Oh, and he thoroughly believes that Khilafat is the cure for all ills faced by this country.

Gross generalisation? Well, yes. But is there a label for this guy? Well, no. What if we were to consider the possibility that there are more people like this guy than there are of the LUMS going, O/A Level giving preppy school sorts?

The point that I was trying to make here is that there is no one middle-class in Pakistan. The appropriate term that should be used is the middle-classes. The second conclusion is that if you’ve attended a private school, gone abroad, or to one of those really expensive local places, for university, you’re not part of the middle class by any stretch of the imagination. You don’t become middle-class simply by paying taxes and not being part of a landed/industrial family. You are, by all definitions, part of a different elite, an elite that is wage-earning, apparently apolitical, but elite nonetheless.

Now it’s time we paid attention to the second aspect of the ‘middle-class’ syndrome, i.e. this obsession with morality. Let’s continue with our example of Mr. Transporter. He actually does believe that Khilafat is the antidote to every disease plaguing our society. In his mind, though, the ultimate disease is immorality: the loss of family values, growing westernisation, Indian movies (which he still enjoys), the Internetz (which he has), the growing influence of this dratted thing called cable TV, for which he duly pays 250 Rs. every month, etc. His son might not imbibe the world-view of his dad, but when push comes to shove, when India flexes its muscle, or when some random Danish cartoonist defames the Prophet (PBUH), he will become a foot soldier in the defence of Morality (with a capital M).

Now let’s go to Mr Urban English Speaking Self-Professed Middle Classiya. He’s just come back from foreign lands armed with a degree in something floozy like development studies. He is filled with uber-nationalistic pride and wants to help the country by using his floozy skills to eradicate poverty and fight illiteracy. How can he, (this apparently apolitical self-professed Middle Classiya), find a way to bring about change. Join the government? Too much corruption. Join politics? Don’t have the money, the family name, the requisite amount of land? Or the permission from Mummy-Papa.

If only things here were done properly. If only we didn’t have con-men for presidents, and lying illiterates for legislators. If only policy-making was being done by technocrats, selected on the basis of Merit (with a capital M).

The case with the narrative of Mr Urban English is that it proposes a moral order as well. It asks for a complete change in the way the system is currently being run. Moreover, it asks for a complete overhaul of our political and social culture. A new morality is required; a morality, not determined by the size of one’s beard or his caste or the fact that people consider him to be their representative, but by the weight of one’s modern-western education.

Sadly, Mr Urban English is also slightly deluded. You see, the problem is that for 63 years, this country has, in fact, been run by people of the same ilk. Bureaucrats have academic and professional qualifications by the bucket-loads from some of the finest institutions in America and UK. Heck, even Generals are required to sit through war-courses and strategic studies degrees. For a second, just think about our Foreign Policy, our defence policy, our finance policy, our trade policy. Each and every one is being made by senior bureaucrats, technocrats, consultants or generals. Policy-making in this country has been the domain of the educated classes. There is no denying that fact. So, Mr. Urban English, if he does ask his Mamoo/Chachoo for a sifarish, will simply be another educated babu working the same way that many others have before him.

Urbanisation and a perceived sense of morality seem to go hand in hand. It might take on different shapes, depending on the individual under question, but there is no mistaking the high-ground position of appearing to know what is right and what is not. Why exactly does this happen? I’m still waiting to find an adequate explanation.

The writer blogs at http://recycled-thought.blogspot.com.Email him at [email protected], or send a tweet @umairjav