“Ideology and Identity: The Changing Party Systems of India” is a fundamental book authored by renowned scholars- Rahul Verma and Pradeep Chibber. The book makes an endeavor to recognize how ideological stances are the bedrock of Indian politics, it therefore attempts to dive into the voting choices of the Indian citizen, which led to a change in the party system in India.
The lifetime inheritance of waking up early before dawn, light at the end of the bushes, and in the scrap of tearing up non-consumable identities, I rose to the ground and walked on the staircase of a house that was intact with the ground. Setting up the backpack with a water bottle in the bag space, I began my journey on the footprints of wider eyes, engrossed in the dilution of dignified life. The black cap wearing the gray parts of the non-familiar fare price made an attempt to comply with the minimum fare count. The crossover in the middle, further translated into the halves of slums and semi-slum areas. Leading with the highlighters imprinted on the white paper of slums area’s location, I found a companion to go ahead with; however, the road was always in the dispositions of aloofness; nonetheless, her support cannot go unchecked. Beginning with the exhibition of rounded aisles, I defined the location with unfiltered eyes. When I discovered my first respondent for the field survey, a woman with brown eyes and pale skin glaring at me as if I were the dearth of uncertainty for her, I began it with a calm and sound mind to share the plate from where my language belongs. Setting up the manifestos and building up slogans made her an outrageous singer, asserting god as an undefinable identity and discarding all the personalities coming in the white, shiny stabbing from the front.
People’s identities, smiles, rage, and anger didn’t go unnoticed; rather, they added to the fruitfulness of our survey. Crowded with various heights of closely bound consolidating relations, the stem was bleeding for employment and de-escalation of price. Gaze, mind, and body hovered around the intention of our existence, to which some gave cold-hearted replies and some showed hospitality in whatever they possessed. After some time, I gulped water filled with bluish and white reflections of the sky, which was reflecting in the confinements of four walls where neither the Ayushmaan card assisted them nor did the ration card. The non-altered thing was just a future aspiration of not giving up on life and to keep it on, like a flow of water in the ocean that comes to the shore and then slips down to its natural abode.
In the Old Chandrawal, where I found the people were breathing either on the pension or otherwise, the impermanent work was not more than a few months. I found a man gazing with a suspicious lens, therefore suspicious enough to make a distinction between the brutal realities in the eyes of the state government and central government. Hands were filled with black lines along the wrinkles of the faces; children were doing everything but studying, where going to school was just for namesake; on the other hand, boys were bold and strong, and girls were always kept indoors. The decision-makin power, even in their thinking, was never felt in their minds, but the presence of the same was visible in their smiles and eyes. The unrecognizable aisles were not recognizable to the people who were even familiar with those uneven roads. Frowned skins with an obsequious nature, ready to defy all the odds that comes in between, Impoverished were never given a chance; some said they were thrown out of the queue, and others said they were not. In the language of skimming through vitamin D, some people were frivolous with a lack of space to confront the government, while others rebuked and questioned the “satta ki tabeez.”
Aisles not more than the length of an arm were burgeoning in the silent voices. An old man dissuaded the ability of the government to fulfill their basic needs. Some were taking pride in their long service to the nation by pulling the legs of the deprived, while others extrapolated the results of the Lok Sabha election-2024. What my freight of unshivered hands witnessed was the concealing notion of constraints and the nexus of fate and self-exclamatory remarks witnessed for the person who is capable but never goes out as they are busy getting the booze in the night to embroil in the prairie fire of a never-ending dispute of familial concerns. The electrician I looked at was filled with sporadic juggernauts of his faith along with his nationalism, which unfortunately went unchanged by the view he held for his own identity and for the nation. The Aruna Colony was billowed from a grayish part where the truth was partial; this further spurred their strategic actions of voting for the sake of casting votes. Some flattered while hobbling since I couldn’t carry their needs to render them jobs; some discarded me by the gaze and the narrow waving of hands; however, it all went unabated. Going for the field survey from morning till evening and collecting 50 samples a day isn’t an easy fish to catch from the water, where some know the definitions of your existence and others are blind. The first day of my experience was surprisingly and outstandingly exhausting; however, the smiles on our faces after finding all the fish in that ocean were a testimony to our hard work. In addition to that, I had two major realizations where I was able to somehow connect myself with the National Service Scheme (NSS), and in those ironic methods, I found my circle of life in yin-yang familiarities. Some were indifferently desperate to tell their stories, while others gave us the cold eye. My skin was scraping off of the flesh, burgeoning to feel the goosebumps when I was all ears to their appropriate speeches about the area where they belong.
Day 2: Jahangirpuri’s synonymy with C, D, and K blocks; Alphabetical blocks, but no recognition of alphabets in Jahangirpuri
The days as usual, but with a long hope, began with my room companion i.e., the apple spice-scented candles for the recognized victory of yoga, which I daily process myself into an aura of positive well being. After the two loaves of grilled bread with a coffee in hand, I rushed towards Metro to begin the excursion of an unpredictably similar yet different journey of speeches on the topics of government beneficiaries. I set out for the next metro station at Jahangirpuri, where numbers of three- wheelers were approaching as if I were the dealmaker for them. Meanwhile, I found my tuk-tuk to carry myself listening to the stories based on half-witted truth, which burgeon in the hope of getting employment and basic necessities at an affordable price. My first respondent was a man holding a cup of tea and deliberating the accentuating dictionaries of the departmental store while his father was assisting him. He took balanced stances, where he was neither awestruck by the head of government nor by the people themselves for making the choice for them in the forthcoming future.
Unfamiliar faces with meritorious dignified respect for PM on the one hand, Kejriwal on the other, and Rahul Gandhi in the bucking list, nonetheless neither of them dissuaded from their inherent identity of voting on ideological grounds. People from all walks of life emerged in the view of the government, which makes it best for them to proceed. Some people slapped ideological identities while some embraced the social security that they received from the governments of the past, present, and unidentifiable for the future. Moreover, I witnessed the tragedy of commons in the developing instances of future aspirations where they neglected like anything. Taking a swirl movement, people of all ages were either ambitious or pessimistic about the life they lived. While coming to the impoverished females’ existence in the area having a pivotal importance took the government as creating nuisance.
A 19-year-old girl with a high risk will plead with Modi to abrogate alcohol consumption and drug trafficking, which, according to her, is available at quite an affordable price. Asserting “khaate peete ghar ka,” she misunderstood the concept of love marriage at age 19. Notwithstanding, I raised the question of her stepping-in and asked her to make the choice that she needed, to which she was silent. The burdens of familial construction, making, and sustaining the family are practically imperative for her to maintain right now. When she asked to open her arms for the employment opportunities, obviously which requires you to make efforts to convert them into practical proposals, which she was not ready for.
The credibility of the context lies in the step-in position of a girl to move further in her education or in any field to burgeon for sustaining herself, which arises from her inner voice, which I attribute to the familial responsibility on her shoulders, which slouches to the level that she is not able to see neither the dusk nor the dawn. The aberration of those slums requires a potential and honest leader to engage them in a community that promotes their wellbeing along with their bright future. The team to which policy-making can lead is to hire young professionals in the activity of rendering differential compensation and to broaden their horizons of responsibilities with unslouched shoulders.
Day 3: Navigating the realities of Shyam to Sanjay Basti
Since reading between the lines takes all your whole courage to define that tiny logical frame to set your argument in, a similar case was witnessed when proceeding for the unevenly distributed areas of Sanjay Basti. In the observed realities of getting help in social security schemes, people were excited enough to share their concerns, while others took themselves for granted in a blinded room where everything existed but illogical truth. Reading the data from the observation skills along with their speeches, in Sanjay and Shyam Basti, what was common was that it led to the identification of zero faith in any sarkaar (government), as asserted by the Bhishma Pitamah of Indian politics, Atal Bihari Vajapayee, “सरकारेंआएं गी, जाएं गी, पार्टियां बनेंगी, बिगडेंगी मगर येदेश रहना चार्हए” | It attracts people to spend their lives either in their village or in a room where rent spikes as they get their money in their pockets. One incredulity I observed in this field study is that people from impoverished sections of society blame the government for unemployment and inflation, while on the other hand, people from an educated and literate family residing in a full pakka makan, along with their smooth functioning of their jobs, with the identification of their higher caste, are held accountable, “the people themselves,” for unemployment and inflation. In my estimation of the observed findings, there are numerous factors that make an ideal and pragmatic factor for the voters to decide as to whom they will cast their vote, which entails the caste factors, ideological organizations, the developmental sea of change, employment, along with the natural characteristics and the altering notions of geopolitical stances.
The embroiled nature of the morsel found on a plate determines how much you earn. In the narrow lanes of the Munshi Ram Slum area near Mukherjee Nagar, where the fences were drawn between the social strata of the people belonging to different economic and social classes, The compact delivery asking for voting preference by the survey was about to be doomed; however, the same was managed with the awestruck of the people. Wherein they discard your status by having no profit for them to either get their pension, the ration card, or the voter ID card fixed. Moreover, nothing is fixed in their life of exigency. People have come from Bihar, UP, Jharkhand, and South India, for that matter, Pondicherry, to get jobs in the long-distributed name of Delhi as a land where employment opportunities are higher than their home state. A 20-year-old college student takes on the duty of a delivery boy to make himself able to earn by himself. They cannot attract the patience to study and then proceed with a job. I believe that through the greater possibilities, this might be the reason why students coming from this improved society are bound to halt their studies to earn a living and maintain their livelihood.
They said “Power can make you do anything. MLAs come here to lure votes just before the election, but it makes no sense after their winnability implementation; therefore, they fill their tummies first, then throw the leftovers on our plate.” The disappointment on the eyebrows of the people is quite visible, but no one wants to step in beyond their capability; everyone wants government intervention with a 100 percent strike rate. But this reminds me of the knot: unless you drink your glass of water, no one is going to ask you to climb the cliff.
Day 4: The slogans of Azaadi from Unemployment and Inflation in Azadpur
It’s yet to see the light of day for the fertile ground of fruitful existence. The first ever respondent received from Azadpur was a 56-year-old man, stating his ideas of partiality amongst different parties with no sensical duties to be filled by the politicians. The ever- increasing unemployment was circuitously stirring along the containers of his small, home- made open restaurant, where his faith in government was absconded forever. Since all his children having no son made him a blessed father and his two daughters were well settled with the Delhi Police job, he took pride in having a daughter in his home, after saying people themselves were accountable for their unemployment.
While reading the data, people offered us a plate full of home-made rice, dal, chai, and snacks to bring on the lush and a long sip of coke to bring on the josh. We found ourselves in the middle of railway colonies where slum areas were unevenly distributed, repugnant in a place where there was no place for bicycles to be parked. In the triangular positions of Modi, Kejriwal, and Rahul Gandhi, we witnessed the family that praises the former PM Chandrashekar from UP. The relentless, pious description of their faith was unprecipitated. The long-headed stories of Ayodhya and the shlokas from the Ramayana made me feel the need to visit the Ganga ghat again to synergize the abode of SC’s verdict on Ayodhya Ram Temple. I observed that the stories were all around the same place, where the degree of strategic voting and awareness of voting preferences still lies in the hearts and souls of Indian voters.
With the high sounds of Vandhe Bharat, people continued to swath in the jhuggis of despair along with their disinterest in knowing the basic politics of the country, mainly the women of these jhuggis. The harrowing fact is that, knowingly or unknowingly, everyone’s looking for the power to be acquired to sustain their lives in lieu of making non-impetuous decisions. The instances of determination were seen by a 50-year-old man, pursuing his LLB from Chaudhary Charan Singh University to make his quest for knowledge unimpeded. The incredulity was grafting from my eyes when I saw a union of men formed a group to buy the drugs and made alcohol consumption a reality by committing pernicious crimes of domestic violence in the deep scar of saving the family in the hands of a woman who suffers to conceal the marks. I was suspicious about the democratic functioning of Indian democracy, where, from the ever- evolving nature of some Indians, some are making conclusionary directives in the hands of the government by turning them into Fiasco.
Day 5: Transgression of non-credible principles on Nirankari slum aisles along with Mukherjee Nagar, Bhai Parmanand colony
“Decisions taken hastily, without thinking, always lead us to repent.” The phrase was used by a 19- year-old girl residing in the aisles of Nirankari slum areas, where she got married—not an arranged one, but love marriage—on the pretext that everyone is going ahead with love marriage, so what’s the negative towards it? Eyes filled with everything but hope, aiming to live a decent and dignified life in the future evidence that the government will execute the policy that looks after the voices and lives of people living in slum areas where nothing exists in small cubicle-shaped houses. The pious aspirations of the then Congress have become futile, along with the disappointment with the current ruling BJP-led NDA government in the center. However, on the balanced graph, people aged 18 to 70 are somewhat partially satisfied with the Kejriwal-led AAP government. In the open aisles of Nirankari, where domestic chores are picked as a responsibility on the shoulders, people of 17 years proceeded with work that they despise, and when you ask them for the reason for the same, their eyes, soul, and mind get overflowing from the sustaining in the slum.
Some were making proportional judgments on inflation with employment rise, which implies inflation has hiked up in accordance with the salary of the employee, while others were pleading to get the old age pension scheme of which they have been deprived for many years. People are making this remark as “Modi the Liar,” where some sections of people made outrageous comments on Rahul Gandhi as the “non-decisive leader in the history of INC.” An interesting black notion among the people residing in the slum areas is that they cannot compromise with their periods of casting votes since it will lead to the cancellation of their votes; otherwise, the government will halt providing the subsidies along with putting a full stop to the benefits of the government’s scheme. Moreover, the apprehensive atmosphere of doubt exists when questions over the affiliation of people come up for the survey. A man was asked about the view for the derailment of the alcohol consumption, to which he replied in a confident tone, “We are the beneficiaries of getting the alcohol at the cheapest rate; then why should we ask the government to ban the same?” In my conclusory statements, I put forward the jigsaw o the government and the Indian people to be held responsible for the imbalanced structure of their lives, where some are required to work while others want to spend their nights with a bottle filled with booze.
Day 6: The blend of pride, gratitude, relief, hope, and rage while glancing over college students
The statement of political stunt towards the inauguration of Ram Mandir posited the irked position amongst youth; however, some sections of the youth urged for the step since it will again generate employment if the systemic management of the Mandir committee is formed. Whereas a lot of people outrageously expound out the should-have statement that hospitals have established in place of making the mandir.
“The worst form of justice is pretended justice,” was the statement that raised eyebrows among the leading legal intellectuals. A student from the faculty of law at DU shared the vision of inclusivity in the legal reforms required in the country in the dire situation where more than thousands of cases are pending. Where he recites these statements while giving the interview, data collection from the field is not a piece of cake for everyone. Since I was carrying the vision of the 3P principles of patience, persistence, and perseverance, I realized common concerns of all the youth lie in the fundamentals of skill-based education, where the trend of seeking the government job for the perks is evolving into some skill-based identity of work. clarity to an area that has long required mending amongst youth. Notwithstanding, the political ideology held by the youth can be seen amongst political understanding sections of the youth.
Where the fresh nature of understanding was absent on behalf of students who had just entered the college institution, Students coming from the north-eastern part of India were apprehensive about their identity since the ground reality of the NE states has been deplorable. Although semiconductors have been sent to Dibrugarh of Assam, the basic concerns of college students are to gain their identity through employment. Moreover, some students posed the incapability of students themselves, alongwith the government, by being unable to find employment based on skills enhancement. While some invited the delusion of the government on the basis of reservation, others said they only needed a degree to make themselves eligible for the competitive exam.
Notably, three conclusions can be drawn from the analysis of deriding hope, yet the equations of quenching thirst until you get water is still relevant in youth. Firstly, the rising demand for voting preferences for NOTA (introduced by ECI) while casting votes. The lack of political affiliations or acceptance towards a party is losing out amongst the young students indirectly, if not directly. The problems faced by young students who are currently away from their hometowns due to studies, and as we are familiar with the education hub that everyone calls Delhi, Therefore, students said their casting vote is severely hampered by their inability to caste vote as their voter ID only shows the address of their home town and not the location of where they are currently pursuing their studies. Secondly, there is a balanced view on the inauguration of Ram Mandir amongst youth, where they surpass the popular notion that Ram Mandir will affect their voting preferences based on their ideological concerns. Thirdly, students suggested the inclusion of practical-based curricula for students with a humanities and arts background to foster their job opportunities in the future and scale up their skills.
While the magnitude of the evidence available grows with resounding victories, the charisma that Hon’ble PM Narendra Modi holds is impeccable amongst the areas where I proceeded with the field survey. To sum up the entire writing, the visit to the slum area reminds me of a line from “The Sound of Silence,” a song composed by Simon & Garfunkel. “When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light, that split the night and touched the sound of silence.” Whereas for them, at the end of the day, what matters is their ability to earn money to fill their families tummies. Whereas for youth’s aspiration, where there is nothing on their hands to get employment, it reminds me of a line from the song “Wind of Change” by Scorpions: “Take me to the magic of the moment. On a glory night, “Where the children of tomorrow share their dreams, with you and me,” is the song in the name of hope and unity after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Berlin Wall, henceforth, the anthem for the end of the Cold War. A gold record was presented to Mikhail Gorbhachev in 1991 in the wake of another world filled with hope and brotherhood, making the world a better and more sustainable place to live, grow, and experience positive change in the lives of people.
