Pic: Sondeep Shankar
SOCIALISM, it would seem, is not dead. It is
alive and kicking in India. The answers to
specific questions on economic policy point to
the perception of the state as the great
mai-baap. Privatisation is opposed, subsidies are
supported, and there is even opposition to
widening the tax net by including agricultural
income. Only among the educated is there some
belief that the state should retreat from
over-involvement.
Paradoxically, this vote of confidence in an
interventionist state does not extend to job
reservations. Apart from the Scheduled Castes and
Tribes, all other social groups express their
misgivings over caste-based reservations. The
only criterion for affirmative action that meets
with approval is economic, another indication
that India is not entirely bereft of a social
conscience. The responses display the classic
pattern of a people caught in an economy in
transition. They want choice and live by economic
rationale, as long as it doesn't upset what they
have grown comfortable with: stable jobs and
subsidies.
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Should PSUs be
privatised?
Rest: Don't Know/ Can' t Say
Do you think
subsidies should be removed completely?
Rest: Don't Know/ Can' t Say
Should
government pay for social welfare?
Rest: Don't Know/ Can' t Say
Should
agricultural income be taxed?
No Rural 76 / Urban 70
Rest: Don't Know/ Can' t Say
The graphs are only representative, not to scale
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50 years of
existence as an independent nation has produced
convictions, attitudes and fears which are real, tangible
and, more important, identifiable. An exhaustive India
Today-ORG-Marg Independence poll sought to track and
interpret some of these. 
