BY DR. BELLAMKONDA K. KISHORE*
An egalitarian society is one in which all members have equal rights, opportunities, and privileges, grounded in the belief that all people are fundamentally equal in worth and moral status. Egalitarian societies have minimal stratified social hierarchy, mostly based on factors like age or skill. The key is that these hierarchies are not formalized through a class system and are not based on permanent power over others, unlike in stratified societies. Dignity of labor is the principle that all work is honorable and should be treated with respect, regardless of its type or perceived status.
Until I left India in 1981 for the first time, I did not realize that a stratified social hierarchy and lack of dignity of labor significantly and negatively impact the economic development of a nation. For example, the tables in the cafeterias of our medical institutes or hospitals in India, where I studied or worked (BHU and AIIMS–New Delhi) were arbitrarily divided into sections—for professors, physicians, nurses or technicians, or housekeeping staff, etc.—with no actual physical demarcation or display signs for such segregation. The desire for such segregation was in the minds of the staff working there without being imposed by any external authority. Not only that, but no one dared to break the self-imposed segregation. Everyone accepted it as a societal norm that needed to be followed like a ritual.
When I moved to Japan in 1981 and later to Libya, an Arab country, and then to Belgium, I found that nowhere in those countries did such social segregation based on a stratified societal hierarchy exist. Physicians, nurses, technicians, and everyone working in an institute or hospital sit together while eating. Having left India about 40 years ago, I thought conditions in India had changed and that the stratified social hierarchy was gone or reduced to a minimum. But to my dismay, in 2019, I found that this was not the case. While traveling from Hyderabad to Karimnagar to give a guest lecture in a chartered car provided by the host institute, I was surprised that the driver of the vehicle was reluctant to sit with me at the same table in a restaurant when we stopped for coffee and snacks on our way. I had to literally insist that he sit, which he did uncomfortably. This incident made me contemplate deeply on my way back to the United States.
What is wrong with our minds and society? What is the real meaning and purpose of Vasudevakutambakam (the whole world is one family of God) if it is not practiced in our day-to-day life?
I think I have found a probable answer to this problem. Stratified social hierarchy and feudalism in society based on wealth or birth or other factors, such as literacy, were common in many countries or regions, such as China, Japan, the Soviet Union, South America, etc. However, during the 19th and 20th centuries, and especially after World War II, these societies were “flattened” due to various factors. For example, in Japan, after the fall of imperialism at the end of World War II, the Japanese people came together with national spirit to rebuild their country that was bombed, nuked, and reduced to rubble and ashes. In China and the Soviet Union, it was communism and totalitarian regimes that ended feudalism and abolished the stratified social hierarchy. The feudalistic system in South America was “flattened” primarily through the collapse of indigenous societies due to European colonialism. These developments helped those countries leave their past social practices, and they adopted a new social structure where stratified social hierarchy and the lack of dignity of labor were abolished or reduced to a minimum.
However, India, which remained under British rule until 1947, had not gone through such a “societal purge,” and so it continued on the same lines of stratified social hierarchy and lack of dignity of labor as it had for millennia. So, India entered the modern era with old stratified social hierarchy. It is like a snake moving around with difficulty because it is still carrying the old and dead skin under the newly formed skin without shedding it off. The British never addressed these two social aberrations in India. Instead, they took advantage of them to stabilize their rule. The British used the existing stratified social hierarchy in India to strengthen their rule with a minimum number of British officers. In this process, the social hierarchy became more stratified and stronger during British rule. The same system continued after independence. This explains why we still see social differences conspicuously in India, whereby a driver or a small employee or worker hesitates to sit next to his boss or a professional and have a cup of coffee in a restaurant.
The stratified social hierarchy we see in Indian society today is only a reflection of what is in our minds. This can change only when people realize how it is hurting the development of India. A stratified social hierarchy hurts a country’s economic development by hindering human capital formation, suppressing aggregate demand, fostering sociopolitical instability, and allowing dominant groups to create policies that maintain their own privilege at the expense of broader economic inclusion. Interestingly, in the Bhagavad Gita Chapter 5, Verse 18 states that a wise person, a pandit, sees with equal vision a learned and humble Brahmin, a cow, an elephant, a dog, and a dog-eater. This equality is based on the spiritual understanding that the divine essence is present in all beings, regardless of their social status or outward differences. The verse is intended to teach equanimity and the oneness of the soul, not to suggest that the physical beings are identical.
Lack of dignity of labor is another social evil hindering the rapid economic development of India. Social stratification is closely associated with a lack of labor dignity. Both are interlocked. A lack of dignity of labor can hurt economic growth by decreasing worker productivity, reducing consumer spending, and creating a cycle of poverty and inequality. Lack of dignity of labor is also creating a large pool of workers with suboptimal working conditions and with no protection as per the labor laws. For instance, India has the largest number of domestic helpers in the world, a staggering 300+ million, i.e., more than the entire adult population of the United States, working as unregistered workers. It is a colossal waste of manpower for a country. In contrast, Chinese people do their own chores at home and outside, so the economically marginalized people work in factories and mass-produce goods that flood markets globally and directly contribute to the GDP of China. Their wages also add to the GDP. In 2024, the manufacturing output of China was $4.67 trillion, which represents about 28% of global manufacturing output that year. As I published in an article in 2014 in Atlanta Dunia, there is also a strong association between the self-reliance of working-class people without depending on domestic helpers and the per capita GDP of the country.
Swami Vivekananda, the proponent of Vedanta Philosophy, said: “What we do is not important, but how splendidly we do it is.” So, people in India need to respect all types of jobs with equanimity. Hence, what is important is how dedicatedly we do our job, not how glorified our job is in the worldly sense. There is also a Biblical teaching which says that God does not expect us to do great things, but He wants us to do everything with great care.
The logic is simple here: If God judges people by the nature of the work they do, then some people can never impress God. There is no equanimity there. Conversely, if God judges people based on how splendidly they do their work, then everyone gets an equal opportunity. So, lack of dignity of labor is a societal evil invented by humans, which negatively impacts the economy of a country.
One reason why the American economy is so large is simply because there is dignity of labor in this country.
So, it is high time to think about these two social evils and change our mindset and practices. Sometimes, unlearning an old habit is more critical for progress than learning a new skill.
About the Author: Prof. B. K. Kishore, MD, PhD, MBA, is an academician, innovator, entrepreneur, and author, and lives in Sandy, Utah. He publishes his books on Amazon under the Living with a Purpose Series. Dr. Kishore received the Hind Rattan (Jewel of India) and Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi Leadership awards from the NRI Welfare Society of India in New Delhi. He believes that a passionate, purpose-oriented life is far superior to an ambitious, success-driven life. Website: www.bkkishore.online.
