It’s been a rather
bittersweet week in the story for India. And as we come to celebrate our 69thRepublic
Day, such weeks have become quite regular as we continue to be a land of
gigantic contradictions.
The violent ruckus over the movie Padmaavat
and the celebration of the Indian story at the World Economic Forum, Davos, are
more than testament to those contradictions that continue to hurt India. The
story of our economic growth needs to be juxtaposed against the state of our
society, politics and culture. Neither can thrive alone and one cannot be at
the cost of the other.
The irony of the week is that as we rooted for
our Prime Minister to give the keynote at Davos for the first time, at home we
also had to deal with vandalism from a splintered fringe group demanding a ban
on a movie while the state remained rather silent as freedom of expression was
compromised at the hands of people who seem to have no respect for our apex
court.
As we sought to attract billions in foreign
investment, we’ve had masked men causing great economic, social and cultural
setbacks to the nation and its people. While economic inequality is a
recognised problem, what do we do about the inequality in our minds?
While the unrecognized and self-declared
custodians of Rajput pride have the right to peaceful protest, their acts of
vandalism and calls for beheading must be met with strong legal and police
action. The episode is rather symptomatic of India. Here’s a community (a part of
it at least), not in sync with modernity and consumed by its complex past,
reluctant to adapt to the new world around it. Yes, cultural nuances must be respected, but they cannot be made tools to mislead and extort some form mileage.
And while some recalcitrant elements of this
community held the country to ransom, a popular Indian Prime Minister addressed
the world about India’s growth story. Is the ruling party’s silence a nod to
the fringe or is Prime Minister Narendra Modi, despite his well-placed
intentions, unable to control the mighty Indian cultural right and the fringe?
But it would be shortsighted to blame the
government of the day alone, the previous ones, dominated by a decadent
Congress that attempts to reinvent, let us down as well, especially with poor
education standards and lack of commitment towards corrupt-free and strong
institutions, or else wouldn’t we have had more developed minds that dealt with
the graver challenges of the day?
It’s a tragic story that’s been in the making
for years now, as the grip of capitalistic pursuit blinds us and is fostered
further by the undercurrents of rising inequality and poor education that
fringe exploits to their utmost.
Informed education and collective memory are
crucial to build imaginations and strengthen norms that stitch together
communities, and promote social cohesion while also providing rehabilitation.
But perhaps an educated India is not in the interest of the political elite or
why else would the standard of government schools be as low or why would there
be little space for disparate narratives to co-exist and too few public spaces
that are testament to social unity. For like George Orwell simplified it for
us, “Those who control the past, control the future. And those who control the
present, control the past.”
Now from the collective memory perspective,
getting back to the Padmaavat conundrum. In the absence of any facts about the
existence of such legends as being depicted, (not that the existence of such an
story would validate the ruckus) it’s crucial to attempt to understand how
these legends come into existence, are strengthened in articulation and used to
influence actions.
There are multiple purposes such legends serve
as academics have talked about. For instance here, the story helps create a
narrative of Rajput valour via which it attempts to reclaim the glory after a
complex past of triumph and failure. The legends then permeate across the
community and serve as a tool to imagine a feminine space by creating an idol
woman figure in the mind of the man, and thus society. And well, the political
weight that these legends carry along with and their not so nonchalant
believers is a story we are all quite familiar with.
Meanwhile, at Davos as world leaders got
together, each carrying within them the desire to attract investment and chase
economic growth, they also had to camouflage and confront the political baggage
they carried. The contradictions that face them couldn’t have been mirrored
more with talks focused around building a “shared future in a fractured world”;
a world fractured not only across at a macro level; but one with fissures
running deep on the micro level as well. Attitudes towards women, parochial
mindsets, overreaching corruption and the resultant unfulfilled aspirations and
communal harm to name a few; all elements that affect our world globally, as
much as locally.
And when it comes to mending those fissures
and healing global fractures to secure inclusive growth, freedom and social
cohesion, the impact of the merging strokes of the numerous episodes like
Padmavati around the world, the consuming chases of economic growth at the
Davoses of the world, and everything in between becomes visible on the world we
paint. The Indian Prime Minister warned against the perils of protectionism at
Davos. To go further if there’s any protectionism world leaders seek, may that
be in form of protection against those fissures and fractures of the world.
These fractures, that have already hurt many
in the past, threaten to hurt even more by holding us back. That is the
tragedy: Unfulfilled potential, unaccomplished aspirations and greater visible
divides rarely promise peace as we fall short as a collective and hurt the
future generations. In that context, the apparent cowing down of the state to
vandalism, it’s longstanding failing to rehabilitate communities and provide
quality education will be judged with the same vigour with which we praise the
Prime Minister’s speech and the unprecedented Indian presence at Davos.
The valour that the fringe talks about is in
working towards meeting those challenges as we attempt to avert those tragedies.
In the modern times of today, there’s no valour in suppression of expressions;
that indeed is a sign of fear and regression. There’s no bravery in vandalism
with masked faces; it’s only in accepting new narratives and challenging them
via words, if at all. Valour in civilized society is in freedom of the mind,
dialogue and in upholding democratic values and constitutional veracity.
In a misplaced attempt to cause alarm, the
fringe also called for locking down of tourist sites in the state of Rajasthan.
While this has gotten them momentary fame and some gain, it causes long-term
harm to the state and it’s people. Who’ll come to a regressive state where law
and order aren’t guaranteed? Which filmmaker will bring in her caravans to
shoot at and showcase the magnificent forts that reek with Rajput pride? In the
world of forever breaking news and instantaneous social media, rather negative
perceptions still stick on longer.
Rather than forcing the shutting down of forts
and palaces for tourists, we need to build new ones for the residents of the
state. We need Museums of Harmony, Museums of Unity, Museums of Our Mistakes
and Museums of Memory to constantly remind and educate ourselves about our
glorious yet not unscarred past. It’s only with the maturing of collective
memory and creation of inclusive public spaces that we can continue to reap the
benefits of the economic prosperity that beckons us.
We can overturn things together and our
leaders must show the way. We all, including our political, economic and
societal leaders, must introspect about what we stand for and what we want to
be. Let’s avert the tragedy.
