doublethink

A disparaging comment , describing the unemployed youth of the country as cockroaches and parasites, made by the chief justice of India (CJI), Surya Kant, created history. It gave rise to a much-needed street-based movement in India. The protest placards, the snappy bytes of the protestors, and the witty slogans will remain inerasable evidences of a temporal shift which the future historians will use to write the history of popular protests and Indian democracy. Image source: here We need to wait to see how this movement will make its journey from movement to being a vehicle of political transformation, but there is no doubt that the government has lost this round to India’s youth. This victory carries wider implications for our political culture and for existing notions of social and moral authority. The dominant political culture of the Modi era is based on cult loyalty, (misplaced) hyper-patriotism, and majoritarianism. Modi has quite successfully tried to fuse political, social, a...

  Politics of Hope - Politics over Dead   New India, Young India, Aspirational India, Swachcha India, Atmanirbhar India – many Indias have popped up in the last few years. In quick succession, one India arrives while the other has not been even graciously discarded into the archive of the nation’s memory. Some of them live only to be dusted and polished, to be presented with gust and élan under a new tag (for instance, the earlier ‘made in India’ changed into ‘make in India’).    Almost, one feels, the force of compulsive commoditization is at work behind the swift pace with which new brands keep appearing. What does it say about the politics of our times? Why is there a need to brand a country again and again? A country, which obsesses over History right from within the whisper-soaking walls of the living room to that of the frenzied zeal of a mob that turned a monument into a pile of rubble, equally adores being recurrently decked in a new identity. Why is branding...

            जलता मकाँ                         कुछ तो नहीं है जान की क़ीमत,                      हैरां सब हैं, क्या है हुक़ूमत,                           आस की डोर में उलझी हैं साँसें,                                     संग-ए-सियासत आँख चुराए,                  ये उठता धुवाँ, धुँधला समाँ, जलता मकाँ,                    झूठ की दुनिया, संग बसा कर,                    तुझको जीताया, ख़ुद को हरा कर,          ...

 Photo credit:  Anastasiia Chepinska on Unsplash   As much as ‘man ki baat’, the regular radio broadcast of PM Modi to the nation, represents the voice of power, I often find WhatsApp forward messages as the real archive for learning about the new grammar of political faith which that power creates. A faith that has swept India for some time, turning upside down the expected conduct of government and citizens. One such message, which is not entirely new but has acquired renewed momentum in the last few days in the wake of Covid-19 induced havoc of death and near-death is to remain positive: think positive, be positive.    The latest by the Union Health Minister, that India is mentally and physically well prepared this year to beat the Covid-19 pandemic is also a ‘variant’ of this messaging. Remain calm, be positive, and trust the government.    Let us ask, what does it actually mean? What does it say, but more importantly, what does it hide?  ...

  A small note on liberal buoyancy     As Trump probably clutches the golden curtains of the White House in a desperate attempt to not vacate the office, the Indian liberal class’ buoyance to the exit poll predictions of Bihar’s election is not to be dismissed in a light manner. There are not many things that link Bihar and the U.S. organically except perhaps a very old joke on an imaginary meeting between Laloo Prasad Yadav and the then president, Bill Clinton. The joke is not even funny any longer but for those who have forgotten it, it went like this: if Laloo and Bill were left locked in a room for a month with each other, it was believed or rather hoped that Laloo would emerge from this one-month seclusion speaking impeccable English. The joke’s punchline was that Clinton almost mastered his non-existing Bhojpuri in that period.  (screenshot of image taken from  https://thedailyguardian.com/understanding-the-caste-factor-in-bihar-elections/)   The natu...

A social anatomy of Covid-19 in India Two trends are clear when analysing the relationship between Covid-19 and social conditions. One, as similar to natural disasters, it has hit worse the socially marginal communities. Migrants, refugees, urban poor, and daily wagers notwithstanding, the most telling example in terms of actual loss of life is coming from the U.S.A. In Louisiana and Chicago, the death among the blacks is as high as 70 per cent. The existing medical conditions reflecting long-standing social depravity, access to health services, and the nature of jobs that put them to greater exposure are reportedly the reasons behind this. Another unsettling trend is consolidating on the other side of the globe. In India, the rise in accusing marginal, minority communities, particularly Muslims, alike the perpetrators of ‘original sin’, in spreading the virus either due to negligence or with alleged criminal intent is deeply troubling. At the same time, however, these examples ...