Rags to Riches: a Reality or an empty Dream?

.                                                 Rags to Riches: a Reality or an empty Dream?

One of the subsidiary fallouts of the regime change in India is the veneration of those who exemplify the idea of rags to riches and the illusory hope given to the masses about rising from obscurity to fame, from poverty to wealth, from being a worker to becoming  a leader.  Our Prime Minister is the quintessential archetype of this concept-rising from being a Chai wallah to becoming the  Chai(r)person of all the chairs of the country of which the PM’s chair is the piece de resistance.   He has been proud to announce his professional lineage from the election platforms in India to the frenzied Indian diaspora at Madison Square Gardens in New York and Allphones Arena in Sydney.  To the enthusiastic chanting of “Modi, Modi”, the “up-by-his bootstraps chaiwallah" has flaunted his humble origins to inspire them saying “If I can, you can too” borrowing deftly the Obamaline.

It will be unfair to deny credit to Mani Shankar Iyer who made Modi bigger than he is today by his reference to his Chaiwallah origins. The Cambridge educated Stephanian could never have imagined how his acerbic comment was turned on its head to be a hagiographic term to make Narendra Modi’s spectacular ascendancy a source of inspiration to the aspiring youth and the bourgeois middle class. 

If the PM can make a virtue of his chaiwallah origins can his minions be far behind? They also want a share of the humble pie and it has become a matter of high prestige to wear one’s humble origins on his/her sleeves. Our present Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani on Tuesday told a conference of state education ministers that she had washed utensils 15 years back at a hotel in Mumbai. The fact is she does not come from ‘humble’ origins as her father was a courier business owner who loaned her 2 lakhs to contest for the Miss India title and so she cannot claim to have a humble background like her illustrious PM. But not to be left behind in the race for rags to riches, she told the State Education Ministers that she was once a humble employee of a hotel. The fact is in the case of Smritiji she had come down from her status as a Miss India participant to a dish washer and not the other way round of rising up. The Maharashtra CM Phadnis has also claimed his humble status when as a worker he painted walls and stuck promotional posters on them for politicians and now has  risen to become the  star poster boy of BJP in Maharashtra.

Vijay Sampla, the Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment is another example of rags to riches story who hailed from a  poor Dalit family and started his life as a plumber before entering politics. There are many more among the ‘humble’ BJP workers who presently make a beeline to be registered under the rags to riches tag to enjoy the celebrity status like that of their Rockstar PM

The concept of rags to riches is true only of a very few exceptionally gifted and fortunate people who have moved themselves up in society by using their talent to its highest potential. PM Modi is one of those gifted articulate persons who has the talent for administration and for projecting himself as a strong leader.  It is not the case with every climber who owes it to his humble origins. By claiming to be a dish washer in her early days to her present job of cleaning the Augean stables of the Ministry of Human Resources Development, Smriti Irani is seen to highlight the virtues of low status jobs as a galvanizer to climb higher in life by citing her own example.

The rags to riches concept is a misleading, illusory inspiration what can be in Marxist phrase defined as ‘opium to the masses’. Many social scientists using statistical records have shown how by holding a carrot of progress before persons of humble origin(PHO), the publicity given to this upward mobility helps to keep them from seeking a better alternative. “You can, I can, we can” is more of a dream than a reality. There is a proverb in Tamil that says when the finger gets hurt it can swell according to its size. It cannot swell as large as an elephantiasic foot.  No one can rise beyond his/her potential. This should not be misunderstood that one should not have aspirations, but aspirations should be proportionate to one’s capability. If false hopes are spread, the result will be frustration, despair and anger leading to violence.

There is a lot of talk about skill development. There is certainly a need for more skilled workers and the large number of young men and women who are the future of India has to be harnessed towards nation building. But skill development should go farther towards huan development.

We should bestow thoughts on the vast illiterate, poor and marginalized group of unskilled workers who do menial jobs that are indispensable requirements of the society.  They work on daily wages and their living conditions are pathetic. The rags to riches stories are not for them as their only concern is about the next meal. Instead of feeding this group  on illusory hopes by parading the rags to riches tag, it is essential to provide them with food, shelter and clothing as their rightful share. They have to be given the respect due to them as human beings for they are the essential providers for society’s health and well being.   The definition of a  welfare society is not only  what we find in England, USA  and other developed nations where the government provides free social services such as health and education and gives money to those who do not have work or who cannot work because of old age or sickness, but it should go beyond to provide status to one and all- in particular  to this class of unskilled workers – as human beings and not to treat them as menials. No moralizing and inspiring stories about rags to riches will have a meaning for them. The inspiring words “you can, I can, we can” will work only if they are recognized as human beings whose essential maintenance of cleanliness is the key to the health of the nation.

The Minister’s exhortation about the dignity of labour is to be addressed to this weaker section. The upper classes wielding a broom one day for photo-ops does not add to their dignity. I would like every reader to understand the meaning of this simple song written by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross:

I know I'd go from rags to riches
If you would only say you care
and though my pocket may be empty
I'd be a millionaire

My clothes may still be torn and tattered
But in my heart I'd be a king
Your love is all that ever mattered
It's everything

So open your arms and you open the door
To every treasure that I am hoping for
Hold me and kiss me
And tell me you're mine ever more

Must I forever be a beggar
Whose golden dreams would not come true?
Or will I go from rags to riches?
My fate is up to you

In our hands, in our actions, in our attitudes and in our acceptance of the PHOs as human beings lie their dreams of going from rags to riches. They want only to be accepted as human beings, as a part of the society they rightfully belong to for that alone constitutes the riches for them beyond empty pockets, torn and tattered clothes and beggarliness.