These are tough times for liberal India. More so if you are cursed with a sense of aesthetics. The Narendra Modi government asked people to bang thalis in appreciation of the doctors and others fighting the coronavirus pandemic — after ensuring in February that crucial medical equipment was not reserved for medical personnel and patients.
The Indian liberal edifice is falling to pieces. Instead of a free press, we now have a free-for-all press. The former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi accepted the Modi government’s nomination to the Rajya Sabha soon after his retirement, when the memory of his judicial views in favour of the government in several critical matters was still fresh in people’s mind. The constitutional value of the ‘separation of powers’ has seldom looked shakier.
The Indian economy lies in tatters. Communal riots last in Delhi for days but no heads roll. There is no opposition and no respite from the Modi government’s overbearing manner. In this mix drops a virus, and it soon acquires a communal colour. Liberalism has hardly had it so bad in independent India.
In his column National Interest in ThePrint, journalist Shekhar Gupta lists the reasons for people rushing to bang the thalis, and concludes by saying: “Modi is winning. Why should he be complaining? Or bothering with usual suspects accusing him of infantilising his voters when they are happy being just that: Obedient infants?”
I guess Shekhar Gupta is merely expressing his angst at the spectacle of people following instructions to bang thalis. However, over the past six years, this complaint has become common and more frequent among Indian liberals. Earlier, we were told that the ordinary voter was wise and took correct decisions at crucial moments of history such as in 1977, 1984 and 1991. Why this about-turn?
Is it an escape from further analysis? Nothing more needs to be said once the voter has been declared an infant? Or is it based on the liberal/capitalist assumption that responsible adults have free will, which is used to make rational choices, and so they would not have banged the thalis or even elected Modi?
Also read: Poke fun at taali, thaali, diya and mombatti all you want. Modi couldn’t care less
Not just about ‘free will’ anymore
Liberal democracy is premised on individual free will to make a choice. Philosophers have long contested the idea of free will and rational choice. Traditional Western philosophy had the contesting idea of determinism which meant, contrary to free will, events were guided by pre-existing causes. Indian philosophy had a similar theory of Prarabhda. However, the political advance of liberalism/humanism was so powerful in the last century that these contesting ideas were eclipsed by the idea of free will.
Liberal democracies across the world have been bleeding in the past decade. The liberal order is turning upside down, institutions are being torn apart. But even before the likes of Modi, Trump and Erdogan appeared on the political stage, modern philosophers like John Gray had challenged the idea of free will. It is also being challenged by psychologists and neuroscientists. Even if there is free will, its direction can be manipulated, especially by big data, TV channels etc.
Therefore, the voter’s inability or reluctance to exercise rational choice based on the contested idea of free will is a very tenuous link to reach an even more unsustainable conclusion of the infancy of the voter.
We need other tools to understand voter’s/citizen’s behaviour. One way to examine this behaviour, especially in the era of populist leaders, is the Indian concept of Maya, or illusion, which can be magnified manifold by the information technology revolution. We can understand electoral politics as a battle of images, perception and theatre.
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New tech, no alternative story
Electoral politics always had a strong element of theatre. But new technological tools such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter are allowing Modi to give the voters a lot of new messages, images, sensations on a regular basis and generate favourable responses. We need to closely scrutinise the connection between WhatsApp revolution engendered by cheap Jio data and the 2019 Lok Sabha election victory or banging of thalis. Facebook, internet and compliant news channels have made electoral politics in India overwhelmingly theatrical.
And there is no viable alternative story. The Congress party, a network of patronage and power, in the absence of those, is simply withering away. Other parties modelled on the Congress system are following suit. Arvind Kejriwal has been able to stand up to Modi possibly because he can match Modi in theatrics and in the use of new technology.
Further, new technology has disturbed the traditional way of life of the voter at an unprecedented pace. The voter might be clinging to Modi simply because he presents an image – rather the illusion – that the commonly held notions about the Indian tradition will be preserved. That’s what banging of thalis and lighting of diyas do.
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Liberal elite lost control
The rapid technological disruption was preceded by six decades of reconstruction of all major identities by the liberal method: caste, religion, family and gender. This reconstruction changed power relations in a short span of time. The debate over the merits of these changes is a separate matter. But these changes have produced anxieties in the certain sections of society, which Modi could be tapping into (Hindutva) even while benefiting from those changes (OBC-Mandal).
The liberals enjoyed immense authority to produce these changes with support from the Congress system structures. They drew their power from the control over all institutions of production of knowledge such as universities, research institutions and the courts. These were controlled through the English language, which was the preserve of a tiny liberal elite to a large extent. This language was alien to the large swathes of masses whose allegiance Modi, a native Gujarati, commands in Hindi.
The English language, in the hands of English-speaking liberal elite, became a powerful source of discrimination against Indians who could not speak English and led to deprivation of opportunities for them. At its best, the English-speaking liberal elite was a benign alien force for them; at its worst, a hostile coloniser of thought and mind.
After the collapse of the Congress power network, this English-speaking liberal elite has no emotional and cultural connection with the social milieu where Modi is worshiped, even though he has hardly done anything to change those power relations. Modi has simply changed the packaging. Goods come from the same factories. Modi has just changed the labels to Hindi and has swayed the people — just like how he borrowed talis from Italy, added his thali and crowd-sourced a blockbuster.
The liberal story was a good story and is still worth pursuing. But let us not have illusions of the universality or truth of its values. It is one more story competing in the arena with many others. It is hard work ahead, especially for the liberal elite who may have to give up their privileges (or get co-opted), shed the baggage of English language. A good start can be made by making a resolve: “Thou shall never declare the ordinary mass of people infants, howsoever uncomfortable they may be for you.” Because if we look deeper, then we will find many reasons for the way they behave, opening new ways of engagement.
The author is an advocate in the Supreme Court of India. Views are personal.