Conclusion

A majority of India’s population is young and growing. They seek good jobs and better opportunities. Yet too many Indians can only find work in precarious and informal conditions without guaranteed contracts, protections in the workplace, and other benefits. They may not be like the golf caddies who feature in this study, but more and more they are finding themselves obligated to perform servility and deference at the side of wealthy citizens in order to generate an income and make ends meet. Social mobility, as such, becomes tied to the whims and fancies of elites, who become like governments-in-miniature with the power to decide whether a family has enough food to eat or a child receives a decent education. Not only a challenge to social mobility among India’s poor, this state of affairs also presents a challenge to the legitimacy of the larger society, as a whole.

The (Mis)Fortunes of Ordinary Men

Rarely is there a middle ground in the way poor golf caddies in Bangalore analyze their situation and the plight of others similarly disadvantaged in the society. If there is success—measured in the ability of some caddies to win consistent financial support from members—then it is a matter of their remarkable work ethic and high morals. If they fail at this effort, then it is owing to bad luck or fate. Club members and the clubs where they play golf, along with structural forms of caste and religious bias in the society at large, are rarely implicated, one way or the other. Ultimately, disadvantaged golf caddies carry forward the rhetoric and ideology of individualism, while unwittingly justifying the inequality between caddies and club members, and between a select few up-and-coming caddies and the rest.

The Burden of Distinction

Well-intentioned golf club members in Bangalore take on great responsibilities in supporting their preferred caddies, who nevertheless remain poor, by comparison, even after decades in this line work. Often, however, these same club members neglect to consider the social and emotional burdens these gifts bring upon the caddies. The chapter highlights the case of one caddy at the Karnataka Golf Association (KGA) whose circumstances had improved greatly as the result of support he received from several members, but who also felt a sense of inadequacy and shame for not being able to support himself and his family without them.

Caste Illa

For Dalits, or former Untouchables, living at the back of Challaghatta, a village bordering the Karnataka Golf Association (KGA), the club presents an opportunity to earn money and respect apart from their caste identities. The stark contrast between the club and village leaves many caddies from Challaghatta with the sense that merit, discipline, and hard work are really all that matter in improving their position within the club and beyond it. Yet these ideas are also tested when it comes to finding their children better-than-average schools or when they think about moving out of Challaghatta. Caste, in the end, combined with limited material resources, proves a stable and oppressive force in their lives.

Under Construction

Club members believe that the government is wasteful, corrupt, and largely inattentive to the needs of India’s majority poor. Yet these members also play golf at clubs that benefit from generous government subsidies on land, water, and other resources, which together divert funds from programs of social welfare and poverty alleviation. Drawing on interviews and archival material at the Karnataka Golf Association (KGA), specifically, the chapter gives context to this apparent contradiction. Whether at the club or in their professional lives, members’ reported experiences of government inefficiencies and corrupt officials justify their anti-government bias, while giving them the chance to present as even moderately radical in their views on poverty and inequality.

Introduction

Thomas L. Friedman, an op-ed writer, has suggested that India, and the world, is flat, with many more opportunities available to poor and working-class Indians on account of innovations in software technology and telecommunications. Critics have largely panned this interpretation of globalization and its effects, typically citing growing inequality in India and across developed and developing societies alike. These same critics, however, ignore the way Friedman’s preferred and often widely adopted policy initiatives—privatization, deregulation, and limited government—actually draw rich and poor together, rather than pull them apart, as is often maintained. Poor and working-class individuals seek out the rich to provide support in the form of wages, interest-free loans, and other benefits unavailable in the society. The chapter draws on the case of poor and lower-caste golf caddies working at the side of wealthy club members in Bangalore to elaborate the limits and consequences of such relationships.

The Labor of Aspiration

The new elite—young, flashy, and wealthy—tend to favor the newer Karnataka Golf Association (KGA) in Bangalore, leaving the colonial-era Bangalore Golf Club (BGC) to older members, many of whom live on pensions. The caddies at the BGC are also older, poorer, and more religiously diverse than other caddies in the city. This combination results in a culture of servility and deference that yields distinct social mobility trajectories. In some cases, for example, and often with the support of prior advantages in the home, caddies are able to leverage relationships with members to propel themselves and their families forward—a form of social mobility referred to here as upward servility. In rarer cases, though, caddies can refuse the demands of servility and deference, carving out a more traditional path to social mobility that is more independent of members. In still other cases, servility and deference result in more servility and deference without much material benefit or anything approaching social mobility.

“It Will Become”

The chapter explores the role of luck and contingency in influencing the success or failure golf caddies in Bangalore have in gaining traction on a path to social mobility. Some caddies receive mentorship and financial support at just the right time, while others miss out on such connections, never quite able to build a steady and reliable network of members to help them. The former often forget the way their successes come about, or by whose grace, and instead think of their new position as a function of merit, discipline, and hard work. Yet the latter are often no better discerning the structural forces at work in their lives, embracing the idea that bad luck or fate has intervened.

The Boys of Banandur

Eagleton caddies—young and part of a dominant caste in a rural setting thirty miles south of Bangalore—are relatively secure, living with parents on small parcels of family-owned land, as compared with other caddies in the city. They caddy for members who, while they do not play as often as members at other clubs, pay more, per round. With more money, but without an immediate need for it, Eagleton caddies are more independent of members and also better positioned to resist club officials who might want to restrict their choices over which members to serve. Yet trouble is also apparent, especially in Banandur, the largest village surrounding Eagleton, and home to the club’s most popular caddies. With a changing economic landscape, some caddies here are losing land, either because it is being bought up by multinational corporations opening factories or because it is being divided within their families. Whether caddies have land or not, many who try to leave caddy work find it difficult to find permanent employment.

The “Caddie Question”

The golf caddies of Bangalore are not employees at the clubs where they work, and yet they must hand over personal identification, sign an attendance register, wear uniforms, attend training sessions, and submit to managerial oversight. Despite laboring under conditions that mimic regularized employment, however, the caddies are ambivalent about prospects of formalizing ties with the clubs. The chapter presents this as a rational response to the indiscriminate and arbitrary application of disciplinary measures outlined in minutes to meetings, annual reports, and other official documents. Though wages, tips, and extras still only amount to a paltry sum, a majority of caddies prefer the status quo over initiating a struggle to win low-wage formal employment that would further restrict their autonomy. This same stance, however, also commits them to even greater dependence on members, with the result of upholding the status quo.