Social Catharsis I

Recently I just happened to browse through a leading English daily’s website. The website was all colourful with numerous pop-up ads and articles on a plethora of topics. But what hit me was an article talking about certain actresses from the Mumbai Film Industry (a.k.a Bollywood thanks to the slavish mentality of the media) allegedly being involved in sex-scandals placed right on top of the web-page. There were other articles on the page which many would deem socially relevant, articles bringing social issues to light. But to find the mentioned article on top was appalling at the least. It spoke volumes about the sense of proportion or more so, the lack of it that the editorial possesses. Such an article would definitely not better, rather worsen the quality of life of an average Indian. What it will do, though, is make the media richer by the day.

I thought about the current state of journalism and how it has digressed from its objective of empowering the society and making an effort to change it from time to time. The present objective of journalism, it seems, is to serve oneself and “sell” sleaze to make a quick buck, thereby increasing the circulation of the Daily. This, in turn, would enable the Daily to capture the international market, ensuring more returns and a recognition by the western media. Until a recognition from the West is obtained, Indians tend to downplay their facets, artistic, social or political, thanks to the colonial mentality still flourishing in their minds. All of us including the media thrive in this vicious circle in a conscious endeavour to ape the west. The question we and the media need to ask at this point in time is whether all this is required, whether a recognition is the ultimate aim or social betterment, whether excessive financial returns is more important or bringing justice to truth.

Of late, a lot is being talked about “selling” or “marketing” concepts, ideas, products and the works. A very popular Director from the Mumbai Film Industry was quoted as saying “We sell sleaze because people want it.” Innumerable remixes have been churned out by the music industry, the corresponding videos getting vulgar by the day. The fact of the matter is that people buy them for whatever reason giving rise to another vicious circle where the sleaze is sold because people buy it and people buy it because they are sold. The same happened in the case of the news article mentioned above. People love to read sleaze and hence media sells it. How can this vicious circle be done away with? The people of India need another awakening at this point in time – a social awakening, an awakening of the individual conscience. If we, the people, can detest buying or reading sleaze, neither media nor entertainment can stand on it anymore. That would lead to a media more focused on socio-economic issues affecting the country which is the need of the hour as far as the development of our nation is concerned. This will also ensure that we, as a nation and people, need not ape the West to progress thereby burying this myth for good. We will also realize that we are a self-reliant and a self-sufficient nation.

The general perception in our minds is that sleaze is a part of our lives and that it’s human to read it out of sheer curiosity. I beg to differ with this perception. Each individual has his own conscience, thoughts and perceptions. What might be right for one might not be for another. But all said and done there are certain thoughts and perceptions which are more common than others. For instance, when we watch debates on TV involving audience as a part of the debate, more often than not the perception of the audience points towards reforms and growth and be done with irrelevant issues. Although a very minute portion of the population participates, what is noteworthy is the fact that sometimes perceptions match and strike a chord. If this perception is channelized in the right direction, involving mass movements, processions, debates, discussions both in print and electronic media, it might just do the trick.

All in all, an individual wants his life and environment to be stable in terms of finance, amenities etc. His environment includes the basic amenities like education, water, electricity, roads, shelter, clothes, sanitation etc. These are major issues not only in Rural India but in the urban half as well. These are issues that need to be addressed by us through media and by media for us, the people. If this is achieved, other issues will definitely take a backseat. This can be achieved when the people unite as a force to reckon with, when they realize that each of them has the power to change for good, power to dictate terms to the establishment. First things first, each of us has to kill our cynical attitude and be proactive in addressing issues. We can address issues on various platforms, print and electronic. We can put the pen to best use and write socially awakening articles. We can establish e-groups through various websites like yahoo, orkut and gather like-minded people to make our mission successful. People can establish small, local centres on the lines of NGOs to collect issues at their level from people limited to that area. Funds can be raised from the Corporates and can be used by the local centres to establish educational institutions, public urinals etc. The issues raised by the public can be escalated to various levels of governance and tracked on a regular and feasible timeline. Emphasis needs to be on seeking basic amenities which is the first step towards hoping for any kind of development in the country. The issues then can be resolved by the concerned Government machinery with added pressure on them.

We tend to think that Social Service is something that demands lot of time, effort and supplies low returns. On the contrary, Social Service is not about how much time you spend in the service, but how well you spend your time in the service. Even if you can address your grievance for 2 minutes from your busy schedule, it is all that is required. If you can spare some time and make sure that the issues are being channelized to the concerned machinery, you have played your part. If you can automate the distribution schema in your local area on a website and monitor the distribution mechanism for the poor, from time to time, on that website, you have played your part in this mission. If everyone gets into this habit of playing his part, social service will not be limited to certain groups or NGOs but every individual would be a part of it. This way each person’s schedule is maintained along with him playing his part in the development of the nation. Each person will be duty-bound and self-reliant. As it progresses, the returns will begin to show as the nation would be on its way to real development. People will begin to realize that their own efforts have paid off in riches greater than money could buy.

When so many developmental activities take place at various levels - individual, local centre, state and national – the fourth estate will be flooded with news items which would ensure that the whole machinery is active and efficient. In turn, the press will be earning revenue from the quality that it delivers, thereby wiping out the capitalistic outlook that it has at the present, namely ads and the concept of “selling”. In addition, an individual will focus on the goal of self-reliance and self-sufficiency and not on irrelevant subjects like sleaze. This will lead to a radical shift in the thought process of an individual and hence of the nation, on the whole. This will lead to the attainment of our goal - Development.

When this goal is achieved, we will notice that the media and entertainment will have grown to be genuinely social and not too capitalistic in outlook, thereby leading to relevant issues being addressed. It will not be involved in a financial race with the West, and we will not be involved in a race to ape the West anymore. Our conscience will have the capacity to filter the relevant from the irrelevant, take it one level higher and voila! We have a nation filtering out relevant from irrelevant. We can then venture on the road to development and maybe the West would ape us then. Not that it matters to us.