Brexit and Bangalore: Why fundamentally we are all the same!

The holy “Upnishads” are one of the oldest and possibly the most important texts of Hinduism. One of the tenets of the Upnishads is the oneness of all beings — basically all beings are manifestation of the same Brahman.

But, limited and inconsequential, as my knowledge of Upnishads is, recently I found a stark similarity between the way people think and act across continents. A few days back stock and currency markets were spooked by “Brexit” which was a referendum in which the “British” people voted (by a slim margin) to cease to be part of the European Union. I live and work in Bangalore (India) while my roots are in the northern part of the country.

The British Case:

Too much has been written about the topic already so I will cut to the chase. The key reasons cited by the leave campaigners is summarized on their own page here: http://www.voteleavetakecontrol.org/why_vote_leave. One of the key (if not the only) reason championed by the Leave campaigners was the control of their borders and limiting migration from poorer EU countries to the UK. People may argue otherwise but this line of thought smells of fuelling xenophobia.

Now consider an elderly citizen living in a medium sized city in the UK countryside who has not really had a great share of the fruits of globalization, like his richer and more cosmopolitan counterpart in the city of London. A daily life with some hardships like long waiting lists to see a doctor, inability to get well-paying jobs locally, industries and thus blue collar jobs disappearing and stagnating infrastructure. These account for ripe circumstances when people seek to find villains for their plight. And that is what they got ~ Migrants. Some stories of old greatness, nationalism, we-are-great-alone et.al and we have a great narrative which can be believed and followed be most of us.

The Indian Case:

Now this one comes right from my heart. A few weeks ago there was a small and frankly boring altercation between me and a neighbor. My wife intervened. We have seen fights and they get ugly sometime. But here this is what we heard:

a) How can you pick a fight with a local resident (Original Bangalorean)? — Regionalism

b) How can she say anything to me when she is a girl? — Sexism

This would be true for all parts of India. I have felt it at a few places earlier as well.

Now, I think that maybe when people are cornered, they show their real color~ what is actually going on inside their heads. That deep seated anger, frustration and reason which one tells to justify their own problems. Scarily, most of the people today are like that with rising and almost chronic inequality across the world as pointed out by prominent social scientists like Piketty, Stiglitz et.al and think tanks like OECD et.al. Till the time this is sorted out there will always be people (because of their innate nature) who will get swayed by idealist narratives of a great future by means of protectionism by political opportunists. And this may or may not end up making their lives better, while promoting friction for certain.