वतन की राह में वतन के नौजवां शहीद हो – had been the slogan for years till we got our independence in 1947. The slogan was not confined only to the purpose of motivating the soldiers but the common youth of the country to at least contribute to the cause of their own nation. Likewise, it does not simply mean that the youth has to sacrifice its life for the nation. It has something more to convey – To convey that the nation wants their continuous support and contribution on its path of progress and development. The freedom struggle of India saw an unprecedented and unconditional support of the youth of the country in almost all major movements. The experiences minds with the zealous youth could finally attain independence.
For that matter, youth are an integral and indispensible part of any society. Young and fresh minds, whether they be educated or not, have something or the other new for the society. This write-up tries to assay the role of youth of India which is now experiencing a shift – positively for their individual selves but negatively for the largest democracy of the world.
The Raison d'être
The major factor in this shift of the role of youth is the drastic change in the nature of jobs of these youth. This is to say, the nature of jobs have seen a clear shift from the hardcore government jobs to jobs at the corporate multinationals. Corporate Multinationals, as the name itself suggests, work with a primordial objective of profit making and expansion of businesses. In return, they offer bulky and lucrative packages to the young professionals working with them.
It is not the multinationals per se, but the working culture and environment which they create, the ones responsible for the shift in the priorities of the youth and their role in the society. This culture has out-rooted them from their very bases – which happened to be small towns and cities – with compact social structures to a fully cosmopolitan environment.
This is to say that jobs with the multinationals are detrimental for the youth etc. But the point to be noted here is their contribution towards the public sphere, public life and ultimately the nation as a whole. An opposite argument can easily be taken where it could be asserted that by working with the corporates, these professionals are, in a manner contributing the economy of the nation.
Acceptable, this statement is, but the real point here is that there has been a drastic change in the mindset of the youth of the country, the citizens of which they are, as if they have completely absolved themselves of their liability towards the problems of their nation. The drawback of this corporate culture is that it has created a Utopian thought in the minds of the youth that the private sector is the only area that is free from all manifestations of corruption, which they claim, is rampant in the public sector and hence it is not a healthy environment to work with. The easy availability of jobs at the corporates in sense of the qualification and easy process of recruitment involving only the technical aspects of the human resource, needed by them only for specific nature of job, in comparison to the public sector services, has largely attracted the youth of the country.
All this has happened in the backdrop of the processes of Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation (LPG). We claim that India has been following the policy of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam”, i.e., the world is nothing but a family – which underlines the basic principle of globalisation. But globalisation has had its own downsides as far as the change in the outlook, mindset and the thought process of an average youth of this country is concerned.
The Inevitability:
To my understanding, the LPG policy, after the New Economic Order of 1991 in India, has thwarted and manacled the Nationalist character of the youth of the country. There may be historical reasons as well as economic determinants of such a shift at the point of time, when the government was unstable; corruption, the licence Raj etc, were at their peeks, the Youth found it a succour to drive themselves to pristine vistas in the corporate world rather than collectively stand against the existing state of affairs. Whatever may be the historical perspective, which we witness today, evidences the above only. Globalisation has reduced the feeling of nationalism in the youth to larger extents. A pseudo culture, which they are striving to adopt and adapt to, deprecating and denouncing their own, has been the impact of globalisation ultimately on the mindset of the youth.
This criticism of the culture prevailing in the private sector is not out of revulsion but this fact is clearly proven by the existing state of affairs. If we take a simple example of a youth, who for instance, has passed out his engineering or for that matter his bachelor of commerce or arts etc, who is asked as to which political ideology does he attach himself to and if he doesn’t, then what are his expectations from an ideal governmental setup. Most of them would answer it in a manner that they ‘do not have any political ideology since all ideologies are and have proven futile. They expect nothing from the government since everyone in the government is corrupt and that is the reason why India is still a developing nation’.
A Materialistic Insight:
Another big factor which is responsible for this kind of attitude of youth is the increasing materialistic insight towards everything in life, drifting them away from the public sphere. Youth nowadays strive only to pursue individual interests and choices without respecting that of others. This may be viewed as an aftermath of liberalisation which brings with itself values of individual liberty also. The increasing materialistic influence of the West through globalisation has crept into the minds of the youth making them incapacitated in terms of their public participation and thought process.
This has led to a “let it be” or “Chalta Hai” attitude, again a negative trend for democracy, where public opinion, especially the opinion of the affected group plays an important role in policy matters.
Here it is right state that every “CITIZEN” of this country or for that matter any country is in it, a political unit of the state especially in a democratic setup in who’s “collective”, lies the sovereign power of that country (the popular sovereignty). He is that unit, as against an alien, who is entitled to the right to vote and to hold public office, ultimately making him the smallest political unit in a democracy. In such a situation, not having any interest in the politics of the country and in the policy making of the country and continuously ascribing the government to be non-responsive is irresponsible and unexpected of the youth of this country.
The Flipside
Aptly here, the call for youth towards politics is appropriate to be taken into account. With reference to what has been said above about the general edifice on which the outlook of the youth these days is based, their views on Indian politics, are not very satisfactory. It is not to blame the youth alone for this indifference but the flipside suggests and raises a big question that is it viable for a normal youth of this country to be a part of active politics? It is substantiated that politics, with exceptions, has become a playground for those with muscle power, the money holder and the delinquents only. This holds true as far as the ground root politics is concerned. It is youth who have such locale, who find comfortable places in the lower levels of politics, thus making that place unfit for a normal youth.
All this, as a conglomerate, have contributed to the indifference of the youth towards the politics of the country which has gone to extreme consequences like abstention from voting as well, which is not proving to be a healthy sign for democracy. A pivotal question here arises that are the youth of the country, who bear in their minds the above-said mindsets, ready to be ruled by the such persons who they found incompetent to vote for? Is not having any political thought or priority in mind, the only ‘solution’ to the problem? It is even difficult to term it as a solution; rather it depicts a dastard attitude of the youth.
It is important to ask the youth, a pertinent question that how many of them hold views on the current happenings in their country and around the world? How many have voiced their agitation against the instances with the people of their own age in Kashmir? Do they have any grievances against the caste based census? Are they even aware about the consequences of this kind of census which it would have on them and their progeny in the future? The answer to all these questions is not in affirmative for most of them.
The height of indifference among the youth was evidenced in newspaper reports locally in Indian newspapers, where the youth were asked about the father of the nation and they were found in a fix. Some of them were even not aware of the full name of Mahatma Gandhi. This is a depressing and dismal trend for the largest democracy of the world.
Another side of the debate:
Another side of the youth is shown where they do voice their grievances but again in a manner affecting the public interest. Infinite strikes by medical students, day in and out, for petty grievances through their associations, drastically impede the public utility services at the hospitals where doctors find it difficult to handle the patients, many of them who are in critical conditions, without their support. This kind of stance is not expected of these professionals.
The way out
Having said the above in a very critical sense, we are now to examine and explore the possibilities of a middle path i.e. a responsible youth citizen of India. Youth, who dislike politics, may voice their opinion through forming small intellectual groups, not necessarily with a political motive but with a vision to carry forward the cause of youth and its priorities. Interest and pressure groups is an instrument of role-play in the policies of the government. Youth may create such interest groups pursuing, not individual but collective demands and interests which affect the youth and the state generally. At the same time, it is to be borne in mind that this forum should not merely pay lip service and turn into a political stage. This would completely defeat the purpose.
A continuous intellectual input is needed in these groups which make them remain the representative of the youth ‘brain’ and not their ‘wills’.
