Caste in Britain: Shops, Parks and Classes

Britain has a special relationship with the USA. But it has an even more special relationship with India, a love-hate relationship of mutual fascination and irritation. Those two are like two sisters who can't seem to live with each other but equally can't without.

One of the major factors in this bond must be the caste/class system. Despite the claim to the contrary it is alive and well in both countries. In Britain class mentality permeates the very grain of society and manifests itself in a multitude of things, events and phenomena.

I love parks. They are the closest approximation to nature an urbanite can find without driving too far. I love to sit on a bench and gather my thoughts together while watching the sun going down or ducks swimming in the pond. When I moved to London from Amsterdam, I right away went to look for such a place of peace and contemplation.

We all know - first-hand or from books - about London's magnificent parks: Kensington and Kew, Regent and Greenwich. But they all are situated in so called posh areas. My first encounter with a working class park left me bewildered. Straight from Amsterdam, where green spaces are meticulously planned an maintained no matter what neighbourhood they are in, I could not believe Wyck Gardens is actually a park. A rundown area with a football gate half-blocked by a graffiti-plastered concrete wall. Random, I thought. Next park I explored in the neighbourhood, Brockwell Park was just a notch better: a rather large green hill with randomly planted trees and a football gate. It looked unloved and desolate.It seemed the only purpose of its layout was to make sure that there is nowhere to lurk around unnoticed.

I tried to maxmise my chances. I googled for success. My search came up with Ruskin Park: "a large and popular Edwardian park full of heritage features". When arrived I found a huge lawn with two perfectly straight strings of trees (8 in each). So much for vegetation. The heritage features turned out a paddling pool and a gazebo. Yes, and a football gate. I guess like a hotel needs a swimming pool and a beauty parlour to qualify for extra stars, a park in Britain is only park when there is a football gate in it. The only Edwardian feature was the row houses that surrounded the park on all sides making it look like a condominium's patio.

And then it dawned on me. Parks in England are also subject to the class system. I live in Brixton, an ethnic working class neighbourhood. Even Tesco here is so depressing that I refuse to go there. Parks here are made according to the idea that working masses deserve their squalor. Anaemic unhealthy edibles in the poor people's supermarkets are what their customers deserve. The gap between more and less affluent areas in one of world's richest cities can be shocking. Some parts look straight out of documentaries about Third World misery. Council housing has despair and destitution built in from the planning stage.

When you are poor in the UK, you are constantly reminded of your ungainly status. Just like workhouses in Victorian times were made to "scare people out of poverty", proletarian areas in London are designed to look and feel horrible. Poor people are supposed to live in rabbit holes, eat junk, have bad teeth and smell funny, well, because they are poor and deserve it.

Britain escaped Enlightenment-inspired revolutions. It emerged into capitalism and further into post-modern society with the feudal mentality intact. Derelict institutions and antiquated customs are being proudly giving lease of life because the mentality that created them is alive and well.