My pensieve

Shatrank ke khiladi is a movie directed by Satyajit Ray and story is written by Munsi Premchand. Its about how two aristocrats enjoy playing the game of chess and completely forget their duties even while their own kingdom is taken over by British and their king surrenders.
Satyajit Ray is known to have made stories which are critical of the society and which depict the situation of poor and ignorance of middle class. At least that is what I felt after seeing his movie Pather Panchali.
Here the King is too involved in enjoying his royal stature and has no interests in governing or ruling the kingdom. He feels that he has been forced to become the king and since the people are not voicing against his rule, he continues to enjoy it. He has been keeping the East India Company happy and always ensured that he provides the necessary monetary help whenever required.
The aristocrats are too very involved in their game of chess and the peace with British makes them feel safe and hence they completely ignore their duties towards the state. They feel proud of their ancestors and hence are in a delusion that in case of any threat from British, they are well prepared to defend themselves. When the British actually decide to impose their rule on the kingdom and plan to overthrow the King, the aristocrats are fearful that they might have to join the war and hence decide to flee from the city and go and stay at a mosque outside the city. They talk to themselves as if they actual decide to flee only because they do not want to be disturbed while playing chess.
The people are introduced at the end of the movie. When the aristocrats go outside the city, they find from a local boy that all the people have ran away fearing the British soldiers and the boy himself has remained just because he wants to see how the British soldiers look like. He is too happy to serve the aristocrats and hope to make some money out of it.
Though this story is from an era much before the existence of a middle class per se in Indian society, the role of aristocrats or the ones who governed can be considered as middle class, the royal family being the upper class and the general public being the lower class.
A similar story is currently being played in Indian society. The government is too busy ensuring that they continue enjoying their royal stature and nothing destroys their rule. They have no interests in governing the country for the people as representatives of the people and hence are very happy ensuring that the Corporations are kept happy and nothing hampers their business.
The middle class is busy enjoying their games of chess and do not want to be disturbed by anything. They are too proud of their current status and how their ancestors worked hard to get there. Get a job, buy a flat, get married, go abroad, have kids, educate them to get a job and continue the same cycle again. Important social issues like caste discrimination, communal riots, growing inequality, child labor, health are all ignored.
The poor currently is running everywhere. Farmers are moving to cities, poor from cities are running abroad working hard to ensure that consumerism does not take over them.
Its amazing how the times have changed, the rulers have changed but the social structure has changed little and how we continue in enjoying the game of chess while the country is being taken over.