Manu Joseph: Don’t read too much into the Noida violence—poverty does not transform people into criminals

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.Among the worst analyses of human nature is the notion that poverty creates criminal behaviour. Yet, this is a popular perception. As a result, every time an agitation of the poor turns violent, the rich think they know what is going on.

Last week in Noida, factory protestors demanding higher wages and better work conditions turned violent. As if inspired by this, househelps in Noida pelted stones at a residential building demanding better pay and holidays.In reaction, some of the rich wondered, though not in any genuine fear, why the poor do not go all the way and kill them all. It does not occur to them that one of the things that keeps them safe is extreme inequality.People are usually not enraged by the luxuries of those far above them as much as the sudden fortunes of their own equals.

Often what creates disenchantment among the poor is not the power of capital, but that people like them living just down the road earn more. That was precisely the trigger in Noida. Workers in Haryana, citing rising living costs, had protested earlier and managed to secure better wages.

As a result, workers in Faridabad and Gurugram earned more. The same thing may have enraged the househelps. They earned ₹3,000-4,000 a month for part-time housework—about half of what similar workers earn in my Gurugram colony.

Workers have a theoretical dislike for factory owners, but what evokes real anger is the realization that their equals earn twice as much. What Karl Marx and other wealthy intellectuals probably did not realize is that people like them tend to dislike industrialists more than factory workers do. Even though the anger in Noida seems directed at capital, or the sort of people who read this