Control of Delhi Gymkhana Club has been settled with GoI taking it over lock, stock and barrel by June 5. While it’s at it, it might as well take a look at all other such elite clubs where nepotism is more rampant and real estate is often bigger and more valuable.
Every major city in India has such clubs. Most of the better-known ones are relics of the Raj and were meant as a private place for the ruling elite to socialise and fraternise. Being the ruling elite, they gave themselves tracts of public land for their private enjoyment. At a time when the whole country was for their private enjoyment, this raised few questions. After the White man departed, these clubs became a preserve of the new Indian elite — ‘brown sahibs’. They, too, have gone and cannot aspire to memberships. Unlike clubs of the past, which were extensions of a ruling hierarchy, today’s clubs are mostly watering holes for the well-born, more for card games than field games.
Generally speaking, an elite means a more capable group of people. In sociological terms, an elite is a group of people who control a disproportionate share of wealth or power. C Wright Mills in The Power Elite describes the power elite as ‘those political, economic and military circles, which as an intricate set of overlapping small but dominant groups share decisions having at least national consequences’. Dismember members only But most of our ‘elite’ clubs defy such descriptions and have ceased to be based on social or official hierarchical or professional considerations, where membership was dependent on attainments and achievements. They are just social clubs where membership is dependent on birth. The term ‘parivarvaad’ used by the government in its petition describes a uniquely Indian system that combines dynastic succession and clan nepotism. Clubs all over India are being increasingly been taken over by a hereditary membership. Most have framed rules for themselves, which automatically confer their children membership, by virtue of being dependent members, a classification for members’ children of a certain age group. Since these dependents are given priority, it’s almost impossible for a non-dependent to become a member. Most people who become members through the direct route do so late in their life, which means their children invariably cannot become dependent members.
During the Raj, the whole country was for the ruling elite’s private enjoyment, so clubs raised few questions. After the White man departed, these became a preserve of ‘brown sahibs’, the new Indian elite Constitutionality of hereditary membership is questionable. But who among the members will go out and challenge it? There are other implicit issues as well. Many of India’s clubs are private clubs enjoying public land or land that could be deemed as ‘commons’. The term ‘commons’ refers to the cultural and natural resources that should be accessible to all members of a society, including natural materials such as air, water and habitable earth.
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