Peepli Live, Rural Unrest & Dialogue Of The Deaf

It was Peepli Live all over again during the farmers’ protest of 2020-21. The context and the content were different though. The media coverage was extensive. The doggy media and the regular media were on the ground in full force, each trying to paint the protests in their own way. Anchors in television studios had their own colour scheme, often different from their own field reporters.

Why are we talking about an event four years ago? No this is not about politics. This is about the wide chasm between two different Indias – rural and urban – and the mutual distrust of each other born out of unfamiliarity. A lot of social conflicts in the country grow out of this. The media are mentioned because the smartly attired, English-spouting lot sitting in studios in far off Delhi or any other big city represents the thoughts and attitudes of one India. This is also the India that makes critical judgements on and decisions for the other India.

Here are some questions that surfaced frequently during the discussions on the protests. How can farmers wear jeans? How come they have air-conditioners? Can they be farmers if they speak English? Pizza? Which farmer eats pizza? They are not supposed to have cars, do they? How can they talk smart? The sense of disbelief among many reporters was embarrassingly apparent.

However, more than condescension, it was a genuine surprise for some. The mental image of a farmer for them is one of a half-naked, emaciated man living in mud houses with broken thatched roofs. A pair of bullocks and cows in a rundown shade outside the house completes the picture. The idea of such people protesting against the mighty government and being confident before the camera just didn’t sync with that image.

Peepli Live, in case you have forgotten, is a wonderful satire on the rural-urban divide. The 2010 movie narrates the story of Natha, a debt-ridden farmer who decides to commit suicide to avail of the compensation the government disburses to the family of the deceased. His tragic circumstances turn into a media circus as reporters from the national media descend on the nondescript village armed with cameras, set biases and ignorance. It’s a story of political and bureaucratic apathy as well. It juxtaposes the two Indias we have mentioned earlier.

Not much has changed in more than a decade. When the educated class in urban India cries itself hoarse about caste, honour killings, patriarchy or community practices in general, there’s more to it than contempt; it’s the absence of comprehension. They are city-bred, city-educated people with little exposure to life and value systems in rural areas. Any judgement they make on the latter is prone to errors.

If you are in a city or any urban location, look around. How many young people below the 30s, including your children or relatives, are familiar with community life in rural India? Most would not have seen a village. They belong to the second or third generation of settlers in cities or townships. After the first generation, the distance from the community grows with each successive one. The level of awareness of it gets weaker and more vague.

And how many want to return to their ancestral places? They have been prepared for a life in an urban space. Their entire education and lifestyle is oriented towards that. Education, in reality, has increased the distance instead of bridging it. If they have many flawed notions about the community life and the rural populace, it is because their education focuses little on opening the channels of exposure.

We make journalists a representative class because they are supposed to know the society better than others. It’s a requirement of their profession. These days intellectual capacity has become a rare commodity in television studios and most newspapers, but good journalism cannot just do without real-life experience and understanding. How can you discuss farmers or labourers when you have bizarre pre-conceived notions about them?

Is there a way to bridge the chasm? We need to find one before the lines of communication between the two Indias collapse completely, giving rise to frictions and conflicts. Both need to be in constant conversation for tensions to ease. A scenario of deep mutual misunderstanding will only make it a dialogue of the deaf.

(By arrangements with Perspective Bytes)