THE TWO NOTIONS OF CLASS

This short essay dives into few glimpses of the author’s lived experiences at the industrial township of Nagda, in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India (around the time period of 2002-2015). This essay intends to shed light upon the few class-based vulnerabilities that followed after the anthropogenic-success of the factory at Nagda. It discusses how Nagda’s popular factory supported household economies and at the same time, also promoted the class divide. This class didn’t necessarily depict economic-divide but there was also another concept which was surfacing in the minds of the inhabitants: the Class of Character.

Class of Character is sometimes simply a concept used by few inhabitants to cope against the Class of Economies. It was their mechanism to ensure hegemony in a way, standing parallel and in an enmity against the arrogance, pride and material-lust of the certain First Class citizens under the Class of Economies. However, there were exceptional possibilities of some ‘Philanthropists’ being top-level people; the First Class citizens for both the concepts of class. They were the ones filled with universal values of humility and empathy for the lowest-rungs under the Class of Economies.

Nagda, a small township, makes news due to its antique and popular manufacturing units of Viscose Fibre, Thermal Power Plant, and a Chemical Plant. These units have certainly turned a dull and barren land into a lively township alongside the Chambal river, a tributary of the cherished Yamuna river. The factory brought many other essential services supporting education, healthcare, recreation, markets, residential facilities, etc. to nurture its masses.

In addition to that it also trained the minds of its inhabitants along the lines of class. There were two prevalent notions of class. One notion was based upon the economic positionality of a household which was also translated into their spatial locationing and limits to service-access. The smoky winds of the town also promulgated the other concept based on character. Both the concepts broadly divided the population into four categories: the First-Class citizens, the Leapers, the Lowest-Rungs and the Indifferent Aliens.

When it came to the Class of Economies, usually the First-Class citizens were from the households whose adult/s held prime office-positions at the factory and their allies. They inhabited the best residential colonies and had zero restrictions to accessing any service offered by the factory. The children of those households studied at the most premium and expensive English medium school of the town. The Leapers were usually the individuals from those households who were involved in teaching at the three different types of schools opened by the factory owners. They were offered decent residential colonies nearing both the localities of the First-Class citizens and the Lowest-Rungs. Additionally, they were supported with policies to access all the services provided by the factory. Further, free education was offered to their children across all the three schools established by the factory owners. The children of the Leapers were largely sent to the prime or average English-medium schools and not the school accessed by the Lowest-Rungs. Thus, their children had every opportunity to interact and be at par with the children of the First-Class citizens. The Lowest-Rungs were usually the factory workers, security or nursing staff. They acquired the congested labour quarters or its adjacent slums. They didn’t have access to all the facilities provided by the factory. For example: They could not enter the only park developed by the factory owners and the recreational club of the First-Class citizens and the Leapers. Their children went to the most affordable Hindi-medium (now English-medium) school of the town. The working individuals from those households were always at the verge of losing their jobs due to mechanisation of the factory and they even lacked options for alternative livelihood diversification. The Indifferent Aliens were largely the businessmen residing in the Mandi (local market) region. They were totally unrelated to the factory. They were not catered by the factory; rather they catered the factory folks with services like groceries, cosmetics, clothes, pharmaceuticals, etc.

Despite these differences, two services were commonly shared by all the citizens of Nagda: the hospital which provided basic first-aid, witnessed births and deaths, and the temple, devoted to both faith and ancestors of current factory owners. But it is to be noted that all the First-Class citizens and the Leapers did have resources to avail better medical facilities located in different cities of India. The Lowest-Rungs were limited to the Nagda hospitals or went to government hospitals.

When considering the Class of Character, the First-Class citizens cherished displaying universal values (example: humility, modesty, justice, compassion, etc.) and were hopeful beings. The Leapers were the ones who aspired to be at par with the First-Class citizens and could even transform into becoming one among them. Both these sets of citizens had the ability to question the existing cultural/traditional systems. They were capable of even developing their own trajectories. There is no denial that they were political beings but their politics was based upon a code of conduct; principles. The Lowest-Rungs loved anarchy and hedonism while the Indifferent Aliens preferred to follow the usual pathways without ever questioning ‘why do they do what they do?’. They often bandwagoned with other classes for their interests.

The top profiles, First Class citizens in both the concepts of class were less in number and were encouraged to not lower their standards for others’ sake. For the concept of Class Based on Character, it was to be solely practised by endeavouring principles thus nourishing individuals to become a human with higher purpose.

While the Class Based on Economies was warned against the greed of materialistic pursuits, the Class Based upon Character was warned against the blurring boundaries of justice, humility, bashfulness and modesty.

Further drawing similarities, both the First-Class citizens from the two notions of class promoted maintaining boundaries; deciding on who occupied the core and peripheries (-be it in the city or an individual’s life). The former notion promoted boundaries based on economic realities of households whereas the latter formulated boundaries based on visible social interactions and relationships. Both notions of class thus highlighted the territorial nature of humans.

There was an exceptional cross-cutting category of the Philanthropists that were the First-Class citizens in both the concepts of class and who encouraged welfarism.

The fear of being downtrodden by the Class of Economies made Nagda citizens design another concept of class to ensure a different set of hierarchies. The attempt was to be on top of at least one or even both of the hierarchical systems. The top-tiers of the latter concept (of character) ensured smoother functioning of societies, with a hope for mankind to thrive in synergies to its surroundings. It is this creativity of humans alone to devise alternatives against oppressive systems that increase their vulnerabilities, thus fostering their innate ability to be resilient.

Ms. Prakriti did her B.Arch. from Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India (2015-2020). She did her M.Sc. in Disaster Management from Tata Institute of Social Science with a specialisation in Disaster Policy and Action, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India (2022-24). Currently she works as a Climate and Disaster Resilience Policy Analyst at the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, Bangkok, Thailand (2024 onwards). She is a keen researcher working for communities across developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region, addressing their vulnerabilities against anthropogenic actions and promoting rights-based resilience.