Is There Space for Middle Class?

The middle class has become a myth for the intelligentsia of Pakistan. Every now and then a column proclaims the virtues of a middle class. Claims and counter-claims are made on the size of this class and its many uses. Here are a few recent ones.

Ravian, writing in Daily Times (The Unease About India; August 15, 2004), believes India and Pakistan have similar class structures. “Both India and Pakistan are essentially elitist societies. The middle class is relatively small (in proportion to the population) in both countries with the result that basic governance rules are not user-friendly in either country.”

Abbas Rashid in an article (Reviewing The State Of The Middle Class; Daily Times, August 14, 2004) reports on a debate between Rasool Bakhsh Rais and Faisal Bari (Dawn magazine, August 1). While Rais argued, says Rashid, that the middle class in Pakistan has grown, Bari took a more pessimistic view. Rashid, reviewing the debate, seeks a compromise by agreeing that while there is a middle class in the country, it is struggling under the yoke of feudalism.

“A pronounced feature of the relatively well off middle class in Pakistan is its excessive consumerism as opposed to embourgeoisement.” He laments the middle class’s inability to press for “rural reform”. I presume Rashid is talking of land reform.

Like the rest, I have no information on the size of the middle class and will not venture any claims. However, it has to be conceded that with time, regardless of what any government does or doesn’t do, the middle class has to increase. That is just a historical process at work. Despite what the government does, throughout history, international opportunities have created riches for daring migrants who often come from the poor to middle classes. We have seen the same phenomenon take place in the episodes of migration all the way from the ‘70s when it first started. And yes these phenomena will expand the size of the middle class.

All of us have seen pictures of these migrants returning to Pakistan, laden with consumer goods and looking for a home. They kissed the ground upon landing and looked for a plot of land to make their homes and seek their middle-class role in Pakistan. But little research has been conducted on the fate of some of these people. If it were done, it would be a rich source of information on our society and its dynamism in accommodating mobility.

Four of my hypotheses for such research are:

* Given land development policies in Pakistan, some of these people lost their savings and their status.

* The way land prices are shooting up and the process of land development skews things in favour of the incumbents who are entrenched into the system.

* With no saving vehicles at home (after the demise of the Khas certificates) the middle class has nowhere to park their savings.

* Those who started a business found themselves at the whims of volatile policies that again favoured the incumbents who were entrenched in the system. For example, a large number of car dealers were doing thriving business on cars bought in baggage schemes. These were dismantled to favour the rich who assembled cars.

If these hypotheses are correct, the dice is loaded against the middle class.

But where is it loaded. In the rural areas as Abbas suggests! Should we think “land reform”?

I would argue very differently. Historically, a middle class is an urban phenomenon. Middle classes grow in densely populated downtown areas. They are vibrant in the urban density. The effervescent middle class that our thinkers are looking for appeared in the densely populated, melting pots of London, Paris and New York. It was in the squares of Rome and Florence that Renaissance was born. Culture, debate and progress happen in places where such thick urbanity develops.

Our feudalism has, through its control of state power, expanded beyond the rural areas. In fact our post-colonial policies have ensured that our cities are little more than villages. They contain countryside estates with the government in the middle. There is no urban density and no public spaces other than empty parks. Most of all our cities do not allow urban density in the heart of town.

City development has been deliberately retarded to keep the status quo. City centres are reserved for the government even in new urban developments like Islamabad. Only the elites are allowed to share city centres with the government. All land is government-owned and all land development is done through extensive regulations that favour the powerful. The cooperative and land acquisition acts are available to once again help the privileged to acquire more wealth and power.

The feudal view of social institutions in our cities is a gentlemen’s club a la the British. Of course it has to be subsidised since it is not a social institution. There are no state subsidies available for middle-class social institutions like clubs, libraries, schools and theatres. Yet elite schools and clubs continually get gifts of land, subsidies and tax breaks.

The obvious question therefore is: Where is the space for the middle class in Pakistan? City centres have manorial estates (kothis) with large useless parks where the elite can take afternoon walks. Cities are arranged for cars, which is the rich man’s transport. Our cities have no town squares for the middle class to mill around; no theatre district; no coffee shops, bars, pubs, places to hang out and discuss ideas and no libraries to read and arrange seminars and discussions.

It should be obvious to Rashid that the middle class, even if it is there in large numbers, lacks the instruments to be effective. The cities are not built to for it. The feudal system will certainly not liberalise city centres any time soon to allow an urban middle class to emerge. Without enough density in town centres and without space for middle class social institutions, this class — and we — are doomed to feudalism.

There is a lot of research required to understand these issues deeply. Most of what all of us are saying are hypotheses that need to be examined through careful research. But then research is a middle class activity that does not interest feudals.

Finally, a word on India! My hypothesis is that India is largely a middle-class rather than an elite state. At the very least, they have flats available and, more importantly, they have the India International Centre and the India Habitat which are middle-class social activity centres providing large intellectual space in the middle of the city. Similar centres have also been established in other cities.

Can we push our government to give us such places before giving the next golf course a subsidy!