India is changing. We are yet to comprehend whether for better or worse. Any assessment is likely to be subjective, depending on which side of the great divide you are placed. The great divide is the alignment of competing ideas, attitudes and perceptions in sharply delineated worldviews. It always had a subterranean presence in the country; with the change in political dispensation it is out in the open. Emotions run high. Civility is dipping. Truth is getting reinterpreted and lies have found a strong footing in the public discourse. The scenario is a bit complicated. But our democracy will be defined by the way the interaction between the two worldviews plays out.
Our dominant intellectual culture is characterised by the contempt of the popular to a great degree. Everything that appeals to the masses, be it the matter of political choice, appreciation of literature or cinema or interpretation of the idea of India, it assumes, must be deficient in quality and taste. It’s inherently exclusive, forever wary of contamination by trends from below. It is difficult to miss the hint of arrogance in its habits, practices and preference for insularity.
The popular is striking back, raucously, violently. It’s furiously busy marking its own territory in the intellectual space. Old certitudes and ideas are under scrutiny and set for either renovation or overhaul. Project New India is on. And like all project sites, it’s messy, noisy and at times difficult to make sense of. Till it gets its final coat of paint and till the landscaping is complete, we would remain a bit confused about it.
The old order is not happy. There’s, its supporters say, too much anger in the air, and a looming dark cloud foreboding conflict and disruption. The new order is eager to settle scores. It is vocal and combative. Powered by networks and ‘we’ communities and armed with irreverence and belligerence, it would stop at nothing to see the demolition of the old. The new, hitherto relegated to fringe existence, has scant regard for their apprehension. It has tasted power after long and it’s not going to be apologetic about wielding it.
These are interesting times indeed!
India is in churn. The clang of clashing ideas and ideologies is all-around. Doomsday predictions for the democracy are dime a dozen. The media, social and regular, have turned into force-multipliers. It’s unclear what the churning would yield, but the trend across the world suggests that we have reached a point from where it would be impossible to retrieve the past as we knew or look at the future with any sense of certainty.
But isn’t this how all big changes in the world come about? Democracies are dynamic entities and changes in it are not always measured and incremental. The popular creates its own space with its own intellectual narrative with certain abrasiveness.
Now, if there’s anger and sense of alienation visible everywhere, then there has to be reason for it. Nothing, particularly surly popular mood, grows in a vacuum. It usually has a long subdued sub-surface period. It’s time we decided not to lament the end of the world that was; it’s time we deciphered what drove the sense of alienation so deep. There could be a cause and effect relationship somewhere. It’s important to study them.
The success of democracies depend largely on the robustness of institutions. When they fail to deliver what they are supposed to, they face the crisis of legitimacy. The moral halo around them shrinks. It also undermines the credibility of the idea of democracy. Have our institutions such as judiciary, police, bureaucracy, civil society and media done enough to enjoy the continuous trust of people? The articles in this new series seek to examine them.
They also strive to understand the new forces and new collective psychology at play in post-2014 India. They are most visible on the social media, the biggest political game-changer of our times, but they are physically among us too, equally combative and argumentative. How can we forget the rabble-rousing news anchor or the lie-spewing media expert or the know-it-all keyboard warrior? They describe, if not define, our times in a big way.
Democracy is not dying, as the oracles of doom would have us believe. It’s reinventing itself by accomodating the popular, thus being more inclusive. People, in general, are not enamoured with grand ideologies. They are too occupied with the business of living for that. They don’t vote Left or Right or Centre, they punish bad, non-functioning systems and people that obstruct their lives. The oracles of doom see dark clouds but miss the silver lining them. The articles highlight that point.
These articles were published in Odishabytes under a series Decoding Democracy. A few of them have been rewritten with fresh insight.
Let’s begin the journey!