New forms of social control

When the ruling establishment engages in an act of mass hypnosis through apparently emancipatory discourses like ‘saving the nation’ or ‘fighting black money’, it is time we realise the danger of authoritarianism.

When people waiting in the long queue for withdrawing their hard earned money from banks and ATMs see it as their patriotism — a momentary discomfort for fulfilling the ‘ noble’ intention of an assertive prime minister, it shows how critical thinking has been replaced by the power of inflated emotions.

Or for that matter, when ordinary army jawans (you need not be a demographer to know that they come primarily from the fringes of our caste/class- ridden society) are killed as a matter of routine, and these human tragedies are projected as ‘sacrifices’ the nation demands in order to protect itself from terror, we realise how everything is transformed into its opposite.

What causes discomfort to ordinary people, destroys the rural economy and informal sector, allows an unholy alliance of corrupt bankers and big traders, remains silent about the real store of substantial amount of black money (from foreign banks to real estate business), and gets applause from top industrialists and Bollywood stars (as if they were white clean without any back spot) is seen as a revolution.

Likewise, even though there is no end to cross-border firing and infiltration, ‘surgical strike’ is seen as the nation’s determined will to show its mighty power. And although the burden of ‘sacrifice’ always falls on the poor and the ordinary (for ‘development’, poor farmers and adivasis have to be displaced; for fighting ‘black money’ old pensioners have to die while waiting in the queue), everything is seen as pro-poor and pro-people.

Indeed, authoritarianism has become hegemonic because even the oppressed tend to give their consent to it, and all alternative views are seen as inherently anti-national.

Why is it so? There are three reasons. First, ours is a wounded society marked by the signs of all-pervading corruption and rot within. In the absence of a shared/ collective concern and an ethic of care in everyday life, the language of nationalism and patriotism makes sense to people only when it is oriented to the ‘other’ – Pakistan, ‘alien outsiders’ and terrorists. Or amidst the shallowness of culture it is projected as a loud ritual – compulsory national anthem at cinema halls.

It is like enjoying a horror film when there is no fine music in life. In fact, even in this supposedly ‘anti- black money’ measure, ordinary/subaltern masses are led to believe that despite their suffering, they are causing some damage to the rich and the powerful, and, as a good social psychologist would argue, it satisfies the instinct for revenge.

How often through his public addresses the PM (more than Parliamentary debate, he seems to be liking these monologic discourses) arouses this instinct! This mix of pop nationalism and pop socialism is a powerful drug which, as history has shown, authoritarian regimes need to inject into people’s minds.

Second, we are passing through a time when we see a steady decline in the character of public sphere. Parliamentary debates are noisy; social media is often toxic without any ethical responsibility; neo-liberal economy promotes privatisation of public issues; new technologies induce people to withdraw into their private worlds; the ‘virtual’ becomes more real than the ‘real’.

Moreover, the constant bombardment by some television channels, the continual projection of the dramatic ‘perform-ance’ and stage management by the ‘sp-ectacular’ prime minister, the panel discussions getting reduced into loud noise, the blurring of all critical questions, and reducing the debate into ‘yes’ or ‘no’. In the absence of communicative reasoning, public opinion is often manipulated.

And third, the discourse of development mythologises technology. Technology is seen as some sort of magic; it can solve everything! Technocracy becomes triumphant over culturally nuanced politics. So, as we have just noticed, it didn’t take much time to shift the emphasis from black money to cashless economy – a technological wonder, a gift of net banking, debit/ credit cards and rapidly rising Paytm business.

Myth of technology
With this myth of technology, you and I as part of the escapist middle class (comfortable with online shopping), are not allowed to look at the specificity of our socio-historical context – the absence of bank facilities in large part of rural India, the prevalence of cash economy in everyday transactions in local/weekly markets that sustain poor farmers, rural women, small traders, and the huge digital divide that characterises a highly stratified society like ours.

Not solely that. It alters our priorities, and makes things upside down. Doctors do not come to rural hospitals; children drop out from schools; migrants take refuge in ghettoised urban slums, and get exploited by the cops and the contractors. You and I need not bother.

We suffer when corporate interests and technocracy are reconciled with authoritarian politics. Is there a possibility of a new kind of political mobilisation that brings critical pedagogy to people, and makes it possible for them to overcome this magical illusion and mass hypnosis? One doesn’t know.

Marxism in India with its multiple divisions and dated theorisation, it seems, is devoid of cultural sensibilities and critical imagination. It has not yet been possible to rescue Gandhi from the statist/official appropriation. Ambedkar remains confined to the discourses of identity politics without a larger appeal. And opposition politics remains trapped in the utilitarian logic of electoral victory and regional issues.

Furthermore, there seems to be a massive pedagogic failure on the part of the intellectual class—their inability to establish a meaningful communion with people, and bring liberating ideas closer to people’s hearts. Despite this turmoil, new forms of social control and signs of authoritarianism, we should not forget to remind ourselves of the fact that we need the optimism of human will to overcome the pessimism of intellect.

(The writer is a professor with Centre for the Study of Social Systems, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)