The Economist has a vitriolic piece on how the old in India- that is, anybody who has crossed middle age- oppress the young. It calls them 'uncles'. The piece is worth quoting at length.
An 'uncle' is easily identified:
A dead giveaway is the phrase “let me tell you”. It is inevitably followed by a thesis on what really ails the country. Another hallmark is unsolicited advice, veering from career counselling (“only girls study literature”) to dietary prescriptions (“eat five soaked almonds to build immunity”). But the defining feature of the Indian uncle is his bottomless disdain for the youth of today: feckless phone-addled softies, the lot of them. They need discipline.
How true! Condescension, sanctimoniousness, a know-all air- these are the attributes of the Indian uncle.
I would add one more giveaway: the constant use of the word 'values'. ("These youngsters don't have any values"). It doesn't occur to them to ask themselves what their own values are.
What they have produced, in pursuit of their so-called values, is a highly repressive culture:
Thus does the country produce such infantilising policies as Gujarat’s plan to require parental sign-off before adult couples can legally marry. Or Goa’s mandatory uniforms for adult students at its public colleges. Or Delhi, where adults can vote at 18 and marry at 21 but cannot enjoy a beer until they are 25.
Thus too are Indians subject to the pronouncements of learned higher-court judges, over 85% of whom are middle-aged men. The Calcutta High Court in 2023 advised young women to “control sexual urges” rather than “enjoy the sexual pleasure of hardly two minutes”. A judge in Karnataka observed that it would be “better for the nation” if social-media access was restricted until the age of 18—or even 21. And on May 15th the chief justice of the Supreme Court lamented that “There are youngsters like cockroaches, they don’t get any employment, they don’t have any place in profession”.
I often wonder whether India's lack of innovation, its mediocrity in most fields is the result of the spirits of the young being repressed all the time.
Then, they are forever exhorting the young to work hard, which is another way of saying 'don't enjoy your life too much'. And the young slog as nobody does in the developed world:
They go to school or university. They attend extra coaching classes. And when they get home they study some more. In May more than 2m candidates sat a national exam for around 130,000 medical-college seats. Nine days later the testing agency invalidated their efforts because papers had leaked. The same month 1.8m pupils received the results of class 12 exams—the single most important test in Indian schooling. Those, too, were full of errors. A parliamentary committee is investigating both fiascos. The uncles will grade the uncles.
The behaviour of uncles is not confined to family. It extends to the workplace. And, most regrettably, the same attitude permeates academia.
In the name of instilling discipline, teachers draw up rules that would be regarded as crazy in the western world. They also expect unquestioning obedience and constant 'sirring'. Savage punishment is meted out for even minor transgressions, such as copying in a five-mark quiz.
The young are growing into a relatively more prosperous and freer world than the ones the uncles themselves experienced. That gets to the uncles. There is nothing to the oppression the uncles practice other than malice and envy.
More power to the young as they stand up to the uncles!
