Black Money and other Demons

Farmers' Protest in Surat
Source: The Indian Express

The farmers in PM Modi’s own state poured litres of milk and threw kilograms of food grains on the road two days back in protest against the non-availability of valid currency.  There are protests in other states too against the restrictions put on cooperative banks on which farmers and small traders rely heavily.

If we analyse the social media including blogs, we’ll discover that it is the middle class that supports Modi’s tilting at the windmills of black money.  The middle class has its own morality whose hypocrisy was exposed brilliantly by Bernard Shaw in the character of Alfred Doolittle.  The middle class pretends to be moral while it is far more immoral than any other class.  It will discover all the loopholes in any given system and use those loopholes for their most selfish purposes all the while assuming that they are the most patriotic, religious and righteous people in the world.

The middle class is the actual driving force of all social systems such as religion as well as most political systems.  It likes to believe so at least.  The fact is that religions have their own popes or godmen or ammas.  The fact is that politics in any country has its own Ambanis and Adanis. But the middle class loves its own illusions and delusions.

The latest delusion of the Indian middle class is that the demon of black money is being destroyed by the contemporary broad-chest avatar of Lord Vishnu.  Just as the middle class has its own religious rituals like immersions or confessions or whatever to cleanse the system of all evils, ritually at least, now it has this purification ceremony which has assumed religious proportions.

High denominations of currency were withdrawn many times in the past too.  Black will come back with more vigour sooner than later.  That’s how life is: substantially black. Learn from the cosmos, if you like: dark matter and dark energy are real and gods are sweet delusions.

OK, but we need to clean up the system once in a while.  No doubt.  Let the system be cleaned up.  But why should all cleansing processes be at the cost of the poor? 

Every time a reformation takes place the poor pay the price.  The farmers, the cattle growers, the petty traders, daily wage earners... they have been the most affected by the latest holy cow in the country. The previous holy cows attacked certain communities including Dalits who were also economically poor.  

Maybe this is the latest way of eliminating poverty: by eliminating the poor.  Maybe this is how evolution continues.  Let us not forget the simple truth that we belong to the species of homo sapiens which flourished by eliminating thousands of species from the planet including fellow species like homo rudolfensis and homo eragster.  

Let evolution continue; no one can stop natural processes.  Let evil be conquered; no one can limit human delusions.  But let us also learn to look within and check whether we are fighting the real demons.