Political Sociology and India

Where I grew up in the outskirts of Chennai, fifty years ago, there was a car company. I visited their premises once. I still remember the painting shop. The painter was my friend’s father. The company management didn’t have huge influence on the local government or anything. It provided employment for local people, all ordinary workers. At some point the company closed. People lost jobs. But that was it. There was no big news coverage in the television. There was no question of the company MD twisting government hands for any benefit.
Just two weeks back I read this news bit. There is a state called Gujarat in India. Traditionally it is a state that had prohibited alcohol use because it was the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi. Other states allowed alcohol use because it was a huge source of revenue something around thirty thousand crore rupees per year. You will find in many parts of my state, low class people lining up to the local liquor shop early in the morning. By 11 am, they will all be drunk. A good amount of the day’s earnings is lost in the drinking. The people affected by these drinking men are the wives. They do some menial housework and eke out a living. Care for the kids and get them educated. The men in the family would drink and come ask for more money from the housewife. These are not rare incidents but extremely common. I always thought Gujarat was exemplary in not allowing sale of liquor. But recently “they” decided to relax the rules a little bit and began allowing liquor in some parts for helping investment and business reasons.
Just yesterday there was a huge investment meeting in my state. The Chief Minister was there along with important business community leaders. The news is that they are trying to make my state a One Trillion Dollar economy by 2030. These strategies are completely oblivious to the trends in world environmental status. There is the climate problem on the one hand. There is rampant development causing landslides and what not in different parts of the world including India. There is an ever growing pressure to produce more from the soil. There are water scarcities all over the world. The government leaders seem totally insensitive to these planetary developments and want to destroy as much of the green cover as possible. Just two months ago there were excessive rains in my state. Thousands of homes were submerged in the floods. There were huge livelihood losses. People were left stranded completely unsure what to do next because of the deluge. Is anyone concerned about what people really want? Not everyone wants money. Indians are quite aware of the climate problems in the world. The Covid taught Indians not to desire money but focus on family. Work from home even if it is a remote village. It is time the government does not allow industry to influence it. It is time to look into the welfare of people. It is time to rethink the political sociology of the country.