Slam Poet Gets Slammed For 'Romanticising' Problematic Desi 'Middle Class' Values

A piece of spoken-word poetry on “middle classes” of India has left Twitter divided. The Kommune India video went viral on Twitter, and while many said they related to the speaker’s piece, others criticised it as being too much of a cliché. Moreover, people on Twitter claimed that the piece seemed to be romanticizing some problematic values. They added that the speaker seemed to be alluding to a comfortable life, but somehow sounding “sanctimonious” about it.

The poem mentions a transaction with a person who collects rags door-to-door, how in middle class families, children are proud of their parents and parents are proud of the kids’ “high marks”. “In families like mine, these little things get attached to our hearts,” she says. She adds: “I come from a middle class family where we never say openly how much we love our parents. I come from a middle class family where our parents never say openly how much they love us. Or how proud they are of us.”

“It is ironic, there are so many people everywhere to tell the pathos stories of ‘middle class’ but hardly any to tell the actual survival & distress stories of ‘poor’ in the country,” a Twitter user commented. Another said, “It is called slam poetry coz it makes you want to slam your phone into the ground. You all need to stop glamorizing anything by calling it ‘struggle’ and ‘middle class’.” Many also pointed out casteist undertones.

However, there were also people who found the piece resonant with their experiences.

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