Is there a class divide in India’s silicon city? If so, how to get around it?
The larger civic issues such as water supply, mobility and air quality that affect every citizen can break the perceived class and language divides in Bengaluru, social activists say.
“The city is not inclusive. The elite and the poor have different ideas [for the direction the city should take] and their interests often compete with each other, leaving fewer means for them to protest together. That is why we see disparate protests. However, there are some issues like water and mobility that bring all of us together,” Rohini Nilekani, writer and philanthropist, said at the conversation on “Bangalore vs Bengaluru: The tale of two Indian cities” at The Huddle here on Sunday.
Ms. Nilekani was analysing why the city was not united during last year’s four massive protests — the one by garment workers, the Cauvery agitation, the Steel Flyover Beda (No Steel Flyover) campaign and “ORR Rising”.
Issue-based unity
Naresh Narasimhan, architect, who coordinated the campaign against the flyover, said the city was divided culturally, but came together depending on the issue.
“The Steel Flyover Beda campaign was inclusive, which is why it is a successful campaign. People across the spectrum felt strongly against mis-governance,” he said.
Vinay Srinivasa of the Alternative Law Forum said the city was so structurally divided that not many had friendships across the classes.
“The middle class in the Cantonment area can speak to the middle class in the Old City, but it fails to have communication with other classes in its part of the city,” he said.
“When the garment workers’ protest erupted, social media users expressed their angst at the roads being blocked. However, they were not interested in understanding the low-wage structure of the garment workers or the sexual harassment at the workplace. They did not understand that these workers were fighting for their Provident Fund rights,” he said.
On the issues such as the insider-outsider debate, conflict with Africans and the language barrier raised by T.M. Veeraraghav, Resident Editor, The Hindu , Bengaluru, who moderated the session, Pawan Kumar, filmmaker, said migrants normally observed the happenings in the city rather than take part in the civic movement.
