Statement of Intent: Urvashi Butalia’s article ‘India’s elites have a ferocious sense of entitlement’ published in the ‘New Internationalist magazine’, January 2013 issue, is a critique of the domineering influence by a few rich people over the poor people. But the deep divide of classes is not a good sign for growth and progress in India. This act requires teamwork. My coursework is a letter to the concerns raised by Urvashi Butalia, with an insistence that the duty for change lies as much with the rich classes as with the economically emerging classes of people.
“Who in India would have the temerity to study the rich?”
We the People
Dear Ms. Urvashi Butalia,
Greetings. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your article for I could identify with
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Your article depicts the rich classes as inherently rowdy, which is not the case in the real world. People will be people and we know from diverse experiences that power can be a misguiding agent but not all elite is the same. Your portrayal of the ‘elitist’ reminds me of the malevolent Mr Hyde (“they don’t want anyone else to have anything?”). However if the elite are having it their way then the question arises as to what our police and law and order team are doing at that time? Is our law and order blind for in your article you have mentioned that, “the status of a ‘natural truth’ in India’s hierarchized society and it is seldom questioned”. The metaphoric Mr. Hyde is sure to run his sway if there are people who are not aware of their rights. In your article you have quoted an example of your residential area neighbours approximating illegal community spaces. You have ridiculed their greed by saying “that’s what they are like!” However the culture of taking must end and begin by giving active and rightful sense of entitlement to we the people as agents of …show more content…
Nothing is more powerful than the human will to see a change come over. No doubt there are serious issues involved when, as mentioned in your article, the Dalit boys “inadvertently” set a local community on fire. The rich hold the money power to exploit but India is a democracy and if all citizens come together to raise questions against exploitation then we are a powerful force. Some of the burning issues that we must not take lying low and protest against are, ‘Why are funds that are set aside for development schemes to help the poor frequently misused by the rich?’ ‘Why are the representatives that ‘We the People’ elect not made more accountable?’ In the end lines of your article you have stated that “perhaps” there can be a change but I strongly feel that the revolution is now as we grow to value the rights all Indians are guaranteed as equal