A few centuries ago when the issue of suffrage began, the requirement was not merely citizenship. What was required was that the electorate either paid some form of taxes or had estate (property) along with some form of established social standing. The reasoning was as follows: Anyone with a say in the workings of the government needs to have something at stake as well.
Today of course we have universal adult franchise and everyone is equal in most nations. Yet there are areas in today’s life where we can clearly see that without contributing to the pot there is no way one stands a chance of winning, or even placing a bet. One such domain is the Road. The roads of today are for public utility and as such are free to be used by anyone. And by saying anyone, we do not restrict its usage to the taxpayers but all citizens, or so in the letter of the law.
But roads are rarely used to walk on these days and certainly not for long distances. For long hauls, means of transportation is necessary. Although pubic transportation forms a part of the traffic on the roads, the number of such vehicles forms a minority. For the most part it is the privately owned vehicles that use the road. And these vehicles, their owners and their interaction with others on the road create the strange politics of the road.
The advent of modern high-speed transport has forced the rules of the road on all its users. These rules are uniform and universal and have little interaction with culture and are not easily altered. Yet with private ownership of the means of transport comes a degree of freedom. These freedoms though are bought at a price, a price that is in excess of the mere cost of the vehicle. Even with assumption that all citizens have the resources to acquire the means of transport, yet there are other costs which some are more able to bare than others. On Indian roads these inherent distinction among men can be seen on the roads and in the use of transportation.
Firstly, the Additional Costs that are imposed on the user either in the form of licenses, penalties, insurance, repairs, taxes or other methods of inconvenience thus stratify the motorists. The ability to afford (or sometimes escape) the additional costs of using the road usually determines the pecking order on the road. Thus a form of class struggle breaks out each day on the roads. The social and economic status of a motorist becomes instantly recognizable by the vehicle he owns and more importantly the manner in which he drives. In India, a keen observer of this distinction is the traffic cop who has to be selective in stopping his prey.
Secondly, there is a matter of Right of Passage, in India that honor is bestowed on the largest vehicle not because of the precedent set by the rules but because of its potential to wreak greater damage. In the jostling for space on the tarmac, the threat of violence and destruction both overt and covert are powerful. Although such a threat is subliminal in most aspects of life, but on the road it becomes all too apparent. A game of chicken is played out daily on the roads wherein the objective is to see who has more to lose with the stakes being life and limb not to mention property.
It is important to understand that the factors like the Additional Costs and Right of Passage do not work in isolation. In practice factors such as these in aggregate create a method of compelling means of control over other motorists. Therefore these means of control on the road far outreach the bounds of the rules imposed on its users. These factors can thus potentially provide the chips for anyone to play a hand at the gambling table that is the road.
