Emerging Citizens: In Politics and Social Media !!!

How landscape of social media and media is emerging up in India in the context of upcoming Lok Sabha elections? How first time voters are going to behave in this election? How polarized is the social media or for that matter electronic and print media in India in contemporary times? What are the historical contexts in which Indian media evolved and how we should understand the political-social-economic reality and diversity in India in terms of how they are expressing themselves in online-offline media and also how they are consuming the political content through different sources? How political equations are changing and how they are affecting the popular discourse in mainstream media and also how discussions on media platforms are shaping our understanding of what politics we are witnessing? These were all questions debated in an interactive session with Dr. Maya Ranganathan (http://tinyurl.com/kdablt4) here in MICA, Ahmedabad. 

The core question which was discussed was: is media ‘neutral’? Was it ever so? What are the manifestations of its supposedly prejudiced / biased orientations? Media historically is a political tool. Politics always uses agency of media for propagation of ideology, ways to forge a consensus and also elements of discourse which are further used for political appropriation, silencing dissent and also to build own propaganda narratives through ever emerging material reality in evolving dynamism of media.

Is media independent? Can it ever be? No. Is it part of larger political machinery in democracy? Yes. Sometimes it is a part of Little Tradition; sometimes it is part of Great Tradition. In little tradition, there are always some biased motives behind the dissemination of information or opinions. Regional/vernacular media in India and across are always driven by some agendas from time to time because of some historical compulsions. These compulsions can be of freedom struggle in historical conditions, propagate religious/community spirit, spreading regional affiliation or work vociferously for social reform. But these realities are changing and changing fast before we can gauge the impact of all these transformations arrived at because of technological innovation, economic globalization and penetration of social media in youths. The Great Tradition, largely inspired from English press inside/outside India, largely claims to be guardian of Objectivity, Neutrality and Non-biasedness. Barring very few rare exceptions worldwide, this is something even Black Swan claim (exceptions like The Guardian, BBC, The Hindu, Der Spiegel, The New York Times, and Washington Post). Each case of media is unique in a way to interpret the underlying currents or layers of power connections which influence the operation of media on a day to day basis. 

Diversity of opinions in public sphere is greatly influenced by ability of representation it gets in social media and electronic-print media. Claiming that Indian political landscape is only dominated by BJP, Congress and AAP is as much as rational ignorance as expressing the rosy imagination of powerful third front which can take shape in any prospective post-poll scenario. Normalization of political-social diversity is dangerous for the health of democracy and the kind of analysis which is emerging largely underestimates this very diversity. This goes along with bandwagon of supposedly happening polarization in Indian public sphere represented by various media platforms is antithetic to the process of arguments, disagreements and dialectics which are necessary to co-exist along with the possibility of free spaces for discussions to be happened in accessible public sphere, in this case various types of media platforms. 

So, what lies ahead as far as impact of media on individual preferences in voting, expressing, behaving, and participating in political activity? Is sharing something on social media synonymous to supporting to ideology or subscribing to any political vision or being sympathetic to any kind of political opinion. In this context, certain political forces are being successful in high-jacking the discourses in social media/new media sphere. In the competition between social media and electronic-print media, where each one is chasing other in the quest of adopting content, or finding ways to create content, jumping in the content-churning; they are influencing each other. This influence is not linear, not innocent and not at all oblivious from external political interventions which are deeply aligned with changing economic-neoliberal policy-structures within India and outside India. The people, especially youth and teenager have greater role to play considering their number of subscribers but there is a doubt about their political sensitivity and their commitment to contemporary public discourse. 

The people who are traditionally proactive ‘political citizens’ are normally not taking part vigorously in media discourses and also in latest avatar of social media. Of course, they are catching up; but claim of complete representation for that is far from credible. The people who are hooked to social media, of course, have their own genuine opinions but there are many views about how they are being expressed. Some say, they are becoming more and more prejudiced and thus stereotypical paving the way for further polarization (religious, parochial, racial and rationalistic). Another stand point says that, it is too ambitious to claim that there are only few blanket categories which represent this huge discourse. Marking the boundary lines of these categories is biggest challenge in contemporary times. Also, while analyzing these discourses on online/offline media, there needs to be a greater nuanced understanding and analysis about the kind of political citizens and engagements of users in social media are emerging.

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MADIBA to MARLEY via NAMDEV DHASAL

 The week of 23^rd to 30^th January this year and every year comes with special promise. It is a promise of courage, democracy and dedication of truth. It is a promise of bravery, constitution and truth. It is a promise of global vision, virtues of unity and power of dedication to self-criticism. Yes, in India this is a special week.

23^rd January is a birthday of freedom fighter Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, founder of Indian National Army. He united patriotic soldiers from Indian subcontinent through coalition with Germany and Japan to overthrow British imperialism. Though, he failed to do so—because British were successful in stopping advancing Japanese forces (ally of Bose) at the north-east borders of India and also subsequently his tragic death in air-crash later in August 1945. The day of 26^th January is historically very special to India. On this day in 1929 at Lahore Congress Convention, India as a nation resolved to make this day as symbol of Free India. On this day in 1950 India became republic via adoption of Constitution on 26^th November 1949. The day of 30^th January 1948 holds unique position in Indian history as it is dedicated to tribute for sacrifice Mahatma Gandhi made. He was assassinated on this day in New Delhi`s Birla House.  

In many senses, the spirit of these three days is epitomized in one persona i.e. Nelson Mandela. Mandela, popularly known as Madiba; who lived life as revolutionary, true humble democratic leader, a pioneer of non-violent transfer of power without bloody armed struggle and a great humanist who stood for human rights of not only ‘blacks’ in South Africa and African sub-continent but also across the world.

In the 1960s, Mandela joined left wing revolutionary movement well after he completed is legal education and practiced for a while. Because of his consistent involvement in revolutionary struggles he was soon imprisoned and due to consistent denial for compromise in combat against apartheid, he was forced to suffer in prison for 27 long years. Imagine, that can be anybody`s half life time. Like radioactivity, where half life period of any element can be hundred and thousand years; Madiba represented millions and millions lives across the world in his prison life; reflecting in a sense a true torch-bearer of struggle against exploitation, segregation and butchering done by imperialists in African, American, European, Asian subcontinents. His education in English, anthropology, politics, native administration, and Roman Dutch law is testimony to how he viewed humanity and world at large. His interest in dancing and drama reflect how deeply he was in a position to understand the liberal passions of life.

One can be surprised with multiple-diverse and intrinsically opposite traits of same personality leading in different ideological processes. But Mandela was no ordinary leader.

At the same time, when world was mourning passing away of Madiba, India was also witnessing passing of an era represented by Literary Twister named Namev Dhasal. His last poem - on Nelson Madela - was published on January 11. A underground poet, a rebellious political leader, a social revolutionist against power, caste and religion, doyen of subversive language in contemporary India and philosopher of understated marginalized classes in regions beyond centers of wealth. Born to outcaste family, in his younger days he drove taxi for livelihood. His movement started from foundation of ‘Dalit Panther’ inspired from American Black Panther Movement.

He was largely responsible for creating consciousness in regional language literature in India about nee to break all norms, project life upside down, reverse aesthetics of appreciation of writings and thus day to day happenings and imagine possibility of making evaluation of expression more democratic, respecting plurality and authentic. He was the only person to be awarded by Lifetime Achievement Award by India`s highest Literary Body ‘Sahitya Acadamy’. In 2001 he made presentation to International Literature Festival in Berlin.

If Mandela mobilized people on the basis of urge of self-respect, fight for justice and struggle for rights; Dhasal marshaled weapons of words to destroy the citadels of prejudice, stigma of outcastes and vaccume of socio-political alliances. Manela-Dhasal may be separated by continents but they spoke same language through different ways in parallel times—times of transition, times of retrospectively realizing that coloniasm is yet to finish, times when 90% of the world was yet to taste the fruits of modernity in true sense, times of experiencing endless agony for asking for own dignity. If language was the custodian of indigenous culture of communities, Dhasal proudly navigated through powerful corridors of established literature carrying this native culture which has it own beauty—like dark side of the moon. 

Mandela—empowered courage of people who had no way of knowing how to express their silent protests through gentle conversations on the streets, schools and social gatherings.

Mandela`s realization of inhuman conditions in Robben Island prison (where he was for 27 years), made him more sensitive person before by each passing day. Dhasal`s experiences of humiliation, atrocities and exclusion made his poetry more angry, firebrand and penetrating. Together they showed power of expression and conversation, determination and pursuit of righteousness, leadership across spectrums of social life and engineered new alliances, ability to connect to every subaltern group around, contextualizing the fight as per the times they lived in and living to their own ideals of life without getting unnecessarily influenced by idols of those times, in a sense retaining their originality. When another great Indian writer Dilip Chitre says, that mere word Criticism fails when we reflect on Dhasal`s writing. This irony was also felt about Mandela when US Government honored him with President`s Medal for Freedom while at the same time, his name was there in terrorists list. Dhasal`s style decorated by surrealistic expressionism which was ignorant to average outcaste reader and even distant for upper-middle class educated people. Manela`s tactics were totally new for imperial forces as they were not ready to deal with phenomena which does not get wither away by 27 years of displacement from daily lives in the harshest conditions of prison. It was as if Mandela lived on another plant just like outcasts in India did for centuries to which Dhasal gave first socio-cultural shock after founder of India`s constitution Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. This is not just an effort to eulogize Dhasal, but putting his personality in correct historical context. At the time when established legal-political system and institutional forces were continuously failing to acknowledge, let alone address, the plight of outcastes, Dhasal—through his sheer creativity with realistic arrangements of words—bulldozed agenda of cultural-political bias against community to which he born to.

These were also the times when by blending of words and music, Bob Marley travelled around the world by singing for freedom, justice, and equality. His tracks in 1979 titled ‘Zimbabwe’, ‘Africa Unite’, ‘Wake Up and Live’, ‘Survival’ were highly popular in a sense—they changed the moods of the youths across the continents creating a moral pressure buffer in the media, democratic movements and literary-music circles. I wish to close the tribute to seamless relationship in legacy of ‘Madiba-Dhasal’. Let us listen to these lines of Marley to at least start understanding for what Mandela-Dhasal stood for, lived for and died for !!!

“…Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery
None but ourselves can free our minds
Have no fear for atomic energy
'Cause none of them can stop the time…

Won't you help to sing
These songs of freedom?
'Cause all I ever had
Redemption songs

All I ever had
Redemption songs
These songs of freedom
Songs of freedom…” 

 

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"Starve, but hold on to your ideals!"---Rahul Bose

"Be yourself, express yourself and sing a song of your soul. You may be extrovert introvert or you may be team player who is individualistic. Don’t get into oxymoron nature of these terms. Just be on your own." This is Rahul Bose—defined by Rugby, redefined by creative industry and evolved into cinema personality.

Starting his conversation with students at MICA by challenging to think beyond quest for money but still retaining the pragmatics of life, Mr. Bose thrilled the imagination of the audience with personal anecdotes with changing trends in Industry. “How you want your friends to remember yourself after you die? That was the question posed by him. Imagine, in whatever way you wish people or your friends to remember yourself, start speaking that language and behaving like that.”

It was 1992 when Bombay communal riots happened and as Bose claims he does not forgive him today because he failed to live up to the moment when he needed to raise the voice, protest and stand up to the cause of communal harmony. Now as he said, after 2002 he thought to express a strong rejection of the idea of “exclusion”. In effect of this journey, Mr. Bose now has decided to invite and engage students from across India. He will be funding those students for their education in different location other than their home town and thus will move forward in direction of creating ‘Inclusive Nation’ through nurturing their lives by connecting them to ‘other’ parts of India.

Before entering films, I worked as a creative director. Before that I played Rugby for years. Before that I worked in dramas. But I knew all along that I wanted to be an actor. We as an individual always know, how and what things we can do in magnificent ways. On many occasions we know why we are behaving like that, dressing like that or communicating like that. So, try to achieve excellence in the area where you are comfortable in and you fee can achieve enormous degree of quality just like Don LaFontaine, American voice actor, (who died recently) who recorded nearly 5000 film trailers and thousands of television advertisements, network promotions and video game trailers. Just one small area but you can explore whole world of yourself; what if others call you a green colored parrot creating sounds from one corner of mouth seating on branch of tree whole time.

Who do you want to be? What do you like to do? For what do you aspire? Among the subjects humanities, social sciences, mathematics, sciences, languages; if you came to know that you wish to be historian, then next one month you will be doing history. Out of history, if you know that you like to visit to the historical archeological places then our next step becomes to visit those places to know about them more and more. While we visit the place again and again, if we come to know that interacting with people, and within it children, is the most fascinating thing I like to do, DO IT. Then if you discover that you like to draw with kids while studying history of the people at particular place, and then keep doing it. There is no end to craziness, exploration and searching for your own purpose which satisfies your appetite.

“Why we do not receive love from all directions and return love with multi-fold hands to society in return.” This answer was also in line with his defense of the rights of LGBTQs and advocated the abolition of criminalization of homosexuality. He was not in spirit supporting the idea of ‘marketing love on one specific day—Valentine Day’.

Can passion defeat economics? Does this question need any mention or utterance? Conflict is not between ideals to live up to and survival question. Because, as Rahul asserted, surviving or ensuring we don’t remain hungry is not difficult. We should moreover exalting. That is the purpose of our lives and we all should strive for it.   

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