Mumbai, folded India
Text, picture / Xiong Yutong
In 2020, the new crown epidemic is raging all over the world. India, with a population of 1.34 billion and a large range of slums, has received attention.
Mumbai is the capital of Maharashtra, the gateway to western India and the largest seaport city. It is also an important trading center and business and entertainment capital. Currently, Maharashtra is the most severely affected area in India. Among the nearly 2000 large and small slums all over Mumbai, poor living, sanitation and water conditions are the biggest difficulties in the prevention and control of the outbreak in India. Maintaining social distance and washing hands frequently is difficult for residents living in slums.
House prices in Mumbai's Arabian waterfront are as high as 100,000 to 300,000 yuan per square meter. The wealthiest family in Ambani, India, lives alone in a 27-storey 173-meter-high building.
In the slums and the 1,000-person laundry in Mumbai, the people on the ground have lived the same day after day for hundreds of years.
The slums in Mumbai are the largest in Dahawi. On this ground with an area of only 1.75 square kilometers, there are millions of people crowded, 60% of them are Hindus. They are located in the third level (Vai She) and the fourth level (Sutra) in the Indian caste system. 30% of the residents are Muslims.
The biggest difference between Hinduism and other religions is that the caste system, the hereditary social hierarchy, is the core doctrine, covering most groups in Indian society. It is also the most important system and norm in traditional India. The caste system is divided into four levels, of which the Brahmin is the highest level. The main groups are priest monks and scholars; Kshatriya includes knights and princes and nobles; Vaisha is peasants, merchants and traditional handicrafts; Sudra is a servant class. In addition to this, there is Dalit, the lowest class of "untouchables", who are engaged in the dirtiest and cheapest manual labor such as sweeping streets and cleaning up unclean materials, and are called "untouchables".
Although the Indian caste system has been abolished at the legal level, "but in the hearts of Indians, India under Hinduism is eternal", and the solidification of class and occupation is still deeply ingrained. British Indian writer Vidyada Sulai Prasad Naipaul defined the caste system in India as "an ancient, deep-seated social violence" in his book "India · Injured Civilization".
In Max Weber's "Religion in India: Hinduism and Buddhism," it is written that lower-caste believers can become Kshatriya, Brahman, or even a human being or a god in the afterlife, but the absolute premise is Strictly fulfill his caste obligations in this life. Naipaul believes that it is this rigid system that has caused people to be numb to poverty and even sublimate to a pure sentiment; at the same time, Indians believe that India is the world's most clean people, and all their behaviors are in accordance with the doctrine. , Purify the self in a symbolic form, and turn a blind eye to the dirty mess of reality. The bottom people in the slums and laundries always show a kind of fatal and peaceful expression in their hard work and self-denial.
The Indian slums that people see in Hollywood movies are full of crime, drugs and horror scenes, but in reality, people living in slums are poor but optimistic and friendly. Women and children are neatly dressed and can be seen at home as much as possible. People are almost at work, they are shirtless and busy in the smell of leather garbage and chemicals. They manipulate various kinds of livelihoods, dismantle waste fabrics and waste cartons, sort waste plastic in white foam piled up in mountains, and move old refrigerators and washing machines. In a dark shed, the fragrance of the freshly baked cake is still filled.
A scripture in the Indian Bible "Bhagavad Gita" says: "Do what you share, even if your work is low; do not do what you divide, even if others work noblely. To die for your duty is life, To die for the duties of others is death. "" Bhagavad Gita "made a pragmatic exposition of the division of labor in the agricultural society, but today, Naipaul believes that the caste system implemented in" Bhagavad Gita "" separates individual functions and Social obligation ". He made Indians feel comfortable with the status quo, willing to accept the real suffering, and regard the suffering as practice. They only pursue the stability of their own world and live in peace in sorrow.
The Thousand People Laundry called "Dobigat" by the locals has a history of 130 years. In 1890, the colonial government of Mumbai established this open-air laundry bazaar, which was specially supplied by the municipal government, to solve the laundry problem for residents in the dry season for several months each year. There are still more than 800 pools in the laundry area, which can accommodate thousands of people washing by hand at the same time.
Numerous large and small laundry ponds, random raincoats, densely spaced clothes rails, thousands of clothes sheets fluttering in the afternoon sun, presenting a strange and colorful vision. There are many tall buildings around the messy laundry, next to the Central City Railway Station, and a train passes by in a few minutes. This is probably the best picture of the symbiosis of prosperity and poverty in Mumbai.
Countless laundry workers stood in the sewage with their feet, beating and rubbing hard. Although some washing machines and dryers can be seen, most of the work here is still done manually. Most of the customers are middle- and low-level workers, and here also provide washing services for hospitals and small hotels. The reason why busy Mumbai people patronize here is very simple. The price of the laundry is very low. It costs only 150 rupees (15 yuan) for washing a shirt and pants.
It is said that the laundrymen here use a special system like a password to mark the source of each piece of clothing, and then send it back to the employer after washing.
The laundry pond exudes a pungent smell of damp mold and detergent, and the children play in the black water. They decorate Christmas dolls and blow up colorful balloons to celebrate the New Year. Most children go to school outside, and their English is very good, which makes it possible for them to find a better job when they grow up. They may leave here, just like Jamal in "Slumdog Millionaires", change their destiny and realize the promotion of class; maybe not, they still seek peace from the heart under the shackles of the religious caste system.
On the same earth, under the sun, people are separated by wealth, class, and origin. The rich and the poor are folded in different spaces. The environment, resources, and lifestyles of different spaces are very different.
The gray fog filled the Arabian Sea, the scenery was still beautiful, and the seagulls chased the ferry. Rajana and her husband from Hyderabad, a city in central and southern India, are taking their two daughters on vacation. Rajana is 35 years old. Both she and her husband are company secretaries. Six months ago, she decided to quit her job as a full-time housewife. The Rajana family is a typical Indian middle class. What the Indians mean by the middle class is that it is not poor, and their basic life is worry-free, which is different from the middle class in Europe and America.
India began to develop its economy in the 1990s. High-income people are concentrated in New Delhi and Mumbai, with an average monthly income of 3,500 yuan, and the IT industry can be as high as 20,000 yuan. If you earn 5,000 yuan a month in India, it means you can have a house and car and hire a servant. However, in recent years, there has been an economic downturn. The economic growth rate in the third quarter of 2019 fell to 4.5%, the lowest level in six years.
At present, the number of people diagnosed with new coronary pneumonia in Dharavi slum residents is about 600. WHO experts have stated that, in a sense, whether humans can win against the new coronavirus will largely depend on the effectiveness of India ’s prevention and control.
"China News Weekly" No.16, 2020
Statement: The publication of the "China News Weekly" manuscript is subject to written authorization