Manu Joseph: One of our society’s diseases is blind faith in inspirational stories

Its very provocative title contrasts well with an almost harmless looking guillotine, sketched on the cover. Oddly enough, the guillotine looks ignored- its a hyperactive crow that seems to be drawing attention to it! The whole package has a vision, and it is so compelling that you are highly likely to pick up the book.

In an exclusive conversation with Storyboard18, Manu Joseph spoke on his first non-fiction book ‘Why The Poor Don’t Kill Us.’

I had to pick up your book because something in the cover resonated with me. For the longest time, I’ve heard conversations where people feel that ‘subsidies’ and ‘freebies’ alone, help keep the poor in check. What was your trigger to write this?

I usually don’t have triggers, this is what I do for a living. There are lots of ideas that I’m always evaluating and discarding because you develop the habit of arguing with yourself. But yes, perhaps I was triggered by a few incidents. A few years ago in Noida, a group of migrant house help attacked a residential colony. Apparently, one of the maids was ill-treated, as she was suspected of theft and this did not go down too well with her. Similarly, there was another incident where Flipkart and Amazon stopped delivering to a locality in Noida because of abduction risks. People would replace phones with soaps and then report incorrect delivery! I also saw a resident abusing his security guard because he had tampered with the wifi.

Then the guards got together and beat him up. What has obviously changed is that the behavior of the lower class isn’t servile anymore. I have also learned to differentiate between house help who have land and those who don’t; the former is a big contributor to attitude!

You say, “India is rigged in such a way that apart from sports, the only arena the poor can do well is politics”. Don’t you think we need to map almost the entire population to come to this conclusion? Aren’t there enough success stories coming from the poor?

Most rags to riches stories are misleading, though I will not deny that there will be lotteries or exceptions. But one of the diseases in our society, is a blind adherence to inspirational stories. The winner never reveals all the details. So, how much money is there in your pocket, is not as important as who your dad is. In other words, peer support and social capital are worth millions. Once you’ve been a wealthy person in Lahore, its only a matter of time before you find your way out of a refugee camp because wealth has muscle memory. That’s also why Germany could swing back after WW2.

When I say poor, I’m referring to that class of people, where there is no system where they can make it! I do not believe that suddenly one day the poor get angry. They don’t have the organizational capacity to replace the ruling class. The poor are employed by the second rung of the ruling class, when they want to go to war against the top rung! This is is when revolutions happen. Almost all of tumult is sponsored. These success stories are also projected because the person who is sponsoring the revolution will not be in the picture. Similarly, when it comes to diaspora stories, even those who entered US illegally, back in the days; (with a few exceptions) They have not only walked hundreds of kilometers but also paid agents off to be smuggled in. They had some support.

The temple to Goddess English built by Chandrabhan Prasad in UP, is curious to say the least. Why have you included this in the book?

Chandrabhan Prasad’s work was a statement against Brahmins. I’ve explained the ‘bigger thug syndrome’ with this example; you cannot take on a smaller thug without having the support of a bigger thug - in this case - English may have been the bigger thug. Drawing another parallel, the reason why Ambedkar failed is because its not easy to take on Hinduism in India.

In the book, you have mentioned that IQ tests are used to test mental retardation. They have nothing to do with detecting genius.’ Further, you have also pointed out that standardized tests are often lifelines for the poor to get education and this places them at a disadvantage. So how do we solve inequality?

I don’t believe that inequality is unnatural. Or that it can be solved. The problem is that we are wasting a lot of time in getting trapped by the arguments that millionaires create, to vent their angst against billionaires.

The millionaire’s battles are their own. The poor have nothing against billionaires. The real battle is where people should not go below a certain level of poverty; that’s where the focus should be. We are fully distracted by the second rung who want to dethrone the first rung and keep out focus there - via journalism, content etc.

Summing up, I found myself resonating with a question that Joseph asks, ‘Do you pay for access to a city or to shut it out?’ We close this interview, with another line from the book. “The aristocratic handlers of revolutions are often not charlatans. They may believe that they are not acting in self-interest but out of intelligent compassion. That's why they are so effective.”

I hope to see this book being discussed widely in book clubs.

Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ Asia's first reading coach, you can find her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta.

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