Social Catharsis II
Media, time and again, has proved to be a powerful tool in addressing people’s issues within a geographical realm and bringing it to the knowledge of the administration in the same geography. The proof of the importance of media in bringing about change lies in the fact that there is a section in Indian history books dedicated to the role of print media in the nation’s struggle for independence. People from all walks of life used pen as a weapon to speak out, to voice their opinion, to echo people’s plight and to motivate them to fight, to make them realize that they could achieve the impossible.
National leaders used to regularly pen articles addressing innumerable issues, focusing on one goal – complete independence and nothing less. They voiced their opinions in various newspapers across the nation, making use of the unprecedented reach media commanded. The masses felt empowered and developed a sense of self-belief, an inner voice that said they could help bring about a change by following the path of self-discipline and values preached by the then able leadership. The independence movement created an impact that it did because of the involvement of the masses. They were all united, focused, committed, disciplined and uncompromising on values. These qualities would have been hard to inculcate or maintain in the masses for as many years as they did but for the relentless efforts of our leaders and our media. Media, due to its tremendous reach, single-handedly managed to unite people and made them speak in one voice - the voice of independence.
A century later, Indian media commands a global audience - its views heard everywhere it’s aired. It has not only changed in form - print, visual, electronic - but also in its content and values as an earlier article of mine pointed out. Just to cite an example of how Indian media values Indian news as against world news, renowned classical vocalist M S Subbalakshmi, better known as M S, passed away recently. A leading English national daily (Now the world’s most read daily) published the news in an inconsequential corner of a page, the headline being “Subbalakshmi Passes away”. Well, the whole nation knows her as M S and not Subbalakshmi. I wonder what the headline wanted to convey anyway. The respect she commanded across the world is unparalleled. In spite of all this, the respect given to her by her own nation’s leading media was next to negligible. The same daily carried a news item of an American Guitarist who “enthralled the 8000-strong audience at Bangalore” on the front-page when the fact of the matter is that there were not more than 2000 people who attended the show. This illustrates the sense of proportion and the value-system prevalent in the nation’s leading media yet again.
Recently, the blasts in London shook the western civilization, reminding them for the second time that the seeds of terrorism they had planted during the cold war to fight against erstwhile USSR have grown to wage a deadly battle against them. The blasts at London, with all due respect to the victims, is nothing in proportion to what people in Kashmir are subjected to every hour of the day, every minute of the night. The west has opened its eyes to it in the last five or six years while India has been witness to the ghastly acts for almost 25 years now. Parents murdered in front of their kids, people beheaded in front of their dear ones, women subjected to the most uncivilized forms of torture known. No day passes by without gunshots being fired, bloodshed in markets, bomb blasts. India has been voicing outrage against terrorism for a long time and has asked the west a number of times to take note of it. But, until the attacks happened in New York, terrorism was another aspect of uncivilized east for the people of the west. If the “Global war against terrorism” that USA is heading now was started when Asian countries requested for it, the WTC at New York could have been saved.
If the Indian media was responsive enough, forceful enough it could have been heard across the world. It could have had the power to change opinions, mould masses like it did fifty years back. The people could have led a movement demanding the developed west to stop instigating violence in the east to serve their purpose, stop using them to prove a point to their friends and enemies, stop corrupting the innocent, stop dumping all kinds of waste into the east, stop destroying the economics of the developing world, stop dictating terms to the governments in the developing world. All this could have been and is still possible if media is disciplined enough to take the lead role and continue the mission it embarked upon several years ago. We are not short of opinions or motivation; we are in dire need of self-discipline at the individual level. India has never been in a better position than it is now - in voicing its distaste in world-governance, in opposing the use of organizations like UN by USA (so much so the UN is referred to as the UNA) and in moulding world economics. The factors impeding the mass-power are the indiscipline and the apathy of individuals towards their surroundings, amenities, infrastructure and governance and the apathy of the media towards the same.
First, let’s analyse the root-cause of indiscipline in people. There is an old saying “yatha raja tatha praja”. In democracy, I believe that this saying needs to be changed to “yatha praja tatha raja” which means that the people decide the government they deserve - if people are apathetic, so would the government. Citizens find faults with the Government easily, endlessly cribbing about the various drawbacks and inefficiency of the machinery. There are problems galore - inadequate infrastructure, inefficient administration to name a few. But what do people do? Instead of bringing issues to light, they take the easier way out - relax on the couch and crib about the state of governance. The best illustration of public apathy and indiscipline can be observed in traffic jams on the roads of big cities. It has now become a daily phenomenon thanks to the inefficient and the incapable public. The Administration is very well aware of the problems faced but is unwilling to do anything because people don’t want it to. Traffic is stalled for hours together but our fellow two-wheelers, the heroes on road, make use of the footpaths to avoid the jam and go ahead. They do so with utmost confidence and complete lack of civic sense. They even have the audacity to sound horn at the people walking on the foot-path, asking them to move aside. Nothing can describe public apathy better. The drivers have no respect for the footpaths or don’t seem to realize their purpose. On the other hand, the people walking actually move out of the drivers’ way instead of lambasting them. Such negligence leads to inefficient administration and compel others to question the worth of democracy in India, more importantly if people deserve a democratic form of governance in India.
Why have we become insensitive? It’s because we have taken our freedom for granted. We have taken our surroundings for granted. Each of us is in a relentless race - a race that has no end, a race that ensures financial well-being of oneself and one’s immediate family members, nothing beyond it. Each one is so busy in this race that the events or problems around him have very little significance since they don’t affect him. We have forgotten the value of freedom, the value of self-sufficiency, the value of values. All we are bothered about is self. If this was the scenario fifty years back, we would have still been under the British rule. It is because the mass-movement then was selfless that we attained complete independence. We should realize the price of freedom, the power of democracy and above all, the huge manpower at our disposal. We should realize that if we don’t let small things go unnoticed, the difference will be definitely visible with time. The impact it will create would be widespread and not isolated and would trigger a civic movement unparalleled in documented history. The need of the hour is to forget self and start service. If the educated class makes financial contribution towards the less privileged, however small it might be, the sheer factor of multiplication in this case can help one realize the power of one. It’s that simple to make a beginning. This should not be done or thought about once and forgotten later. No. This should be done on a continuous basis and the effects in the near future would only serve as impetus to do more.
The media, as always, is the greatest weapon to awaken the masses and keep them informed about what’s true and what’s not. The media has at its disposal the technology to bring justice to truth. It has the power to shape people’s thoughts and the reach to actually make a change. But how is this possible when most of the Indian media are busy projecting themselves to be as westernized and as west-centric as they could possible be? The media, as it is now, fails to even highlight fundamental issues let alone take a stand on them. It’s more bothered about the situation in London than the situation in terror-prone regions across India. Whatever civic concern it “shows” rarely gets translated to anything fruitful. The problems for the common man are only increasing by the day. Where and how does the media begin to discharge its duties towards realising reforms?
First, the media should use its global presence to the full. Indian media should highlight issues prevalent in Rural/urban India impartially. It should address issues at local level and follow up with the administration on the same. Some of the journalists are actually doing this and they deserve all the credit for their focus and determination. Media should use the technology available at its disposal to track any malpractices in the administrative affairs. This would include accepting bribes, favouring admissions to educational institutions and such malpractices even at the lowest strata of governance. It should also expose indiscipline in people. For example, in order that the drivers riding two-wheelers on footpaths be punished, the registration numbers should be noted or a photograph taken using camera-mobile phones. When the administration is sensitized on this issue, track it till the guilty is punished. If the police fail to address the issue when brought to their notice, highlight it in media. This would enable the administrators at every level of governance to watch what they do and make them realize that they cannot take their position for granted. Agreed that the scale on which corruption is rampant is huge but this is where manpower comes into play. If the educated class is proactive enough to bring anomalies to the notice of the media/administration, things are bound to improve. The scale of corruption is high because of the sheer strength of working population in India as compared to other countries. It can be fought effectively only if the manpower comes together in one voice and uproots the stigma of corruption from the face of our nation.
The onus lies on us, the financially well-off, the educated, to actually start the whole process of “churning” because the less privileged are waging a battle everyday just to survive to battle out another day. On another note, it’s not too difficult to drive the media. After all, we, the people, make the media. Hence, if there is an ounce of service-mindedness instilled in people, it will definitely translate into the media playing its role as it did in the struggle for independence.
National leaders used to regularly pen articles addressing innumerable issues, focusing on one goal – complete independence and nothing less. They voiced their opinions in various newspapers across the nation, making use of the unprecedented reach media commanded. The masses felt empowered and developed a sense of self-belief, an inner voice that said they could help bring about a change by following the path of self-discipline and values preached by the then able leadership. The independence movement created an impact that it did because of the involvement of the masses. They were all united, focused, committed, disciplined and uncompromising on values. These qualities would have been hard to inculcate or maintain in the masses for as many years as they did but for the relentless efforts of our leaders and our media. Media, due to its tremendous reach, single-handedly managed to unite people and made them speak in one voice - the voice of independence.
A century later, Indian media commands a global audience - its views heard everywhere it’s aired. It has not only changed in form - print, visual, electronic - but also in its content and values as an earlier article of mine pointed out. Just to cite an example of how Indian media values Indian news as against world news, renowned classical vocalist M S Subbalakshmi, better known as M S, passed away recently. A leading English national daily (Now the world’s most read daily) published the news in an inconsequential corner of a page, the headline being “Subbalakshmi Passes away”. Well, the whole nation knows her as M S and not Subbalakshmi. I wonder what the headline wanted to convey anyway. The respect she commanded across the world is unparalleled. In spite of all this, the respect given to her by her own nation’s leading media was next to negligible. The same daily carried a news item of an American Guitarist who “enthralled the 8000-strong audience at Bangalore” on the front-page when the fact of the matter is that there were not more than 2000 people who attended the show. This illustrates the sense of proportion and the value-system prevalent in the nation’s leading media yet again.
Recently, the blasts in London shook the western civilization, reminding them for the second time that the seeds of terrorism they had planted during the cold war to fight against erstwhile USSR have grown to wage a deadly battle against them. The blasts at London, with all due respect to the victims, is nothing in proportion to what people in Kashmir are subjected to every hour of the day, every minute of the night. The west has opened its eyes to it in the last five or six years while India has been witness to the ghastly acts for almost 25 years now. Parents murdered in front of their kids, people beheaded in front of their dear ones, women subjected to the most uncivilized forms of torture known. No day passes by without gunshots being fired, bloodshed in markets, bomb blasts. India has been voicing outrage against terrorism for a long time and has asked the west a number of times to take note of it. But, until the attacks happened in New York, terrorism was another aspect of uncivilized east for the people of the west. If the “Global war against terrorism” that USA is heading now was started when Asian countries requested for it, the WTC at New York could have been saved.
If the Indian media was responsive enough, forceful enough it could have been heard across the world. It could have had the power to change opinions, mould masses like it did fifty years back. The people could have led a movement demanding the developed west to stop instigating violence in the east to serve their purpose, stop using them to prove a point to their friends and enemies, stop corrupting the innocent, stop dumping all kinds of waste into the east, stop destroying the economics of the developing world, stop dictating terms to the governments in the developing world. All this could have been and is still possible if media is disciplined enough to take the lead role and continue the mission it embarked upon several years ago. We are not short of opinions or motivation; we are in dire need of self-discipline at the individual level. India has never been in a better position than it is now - in voicing its distaste in world-governance, in opposing the use of organizations like UN by USA (so much so the UN is referred to as the UNA) and in moulding world economics. The factors impeding the mass-power are the indiscipline and the apathy of individuals towards their surroundings, amenities, infrastructure and governance and the apathy of the media towards the same.
First, let’s analyse the root-cause of indiscipline in people. There is an old saying “yatha raja tatha praja”. In democracy, I believe that this saying needs to be changed to “yatha praja tatha raja” which means that the people decide the government they deserve - if people are apathetic, so would the government. Citizens find faults with the Government easily, endlessly cribbing about the various drawbacks and inefficiency of the machinery. There are problems galore - inadequate infrastructure, inefficient administration to name a few. But what do people do? Instead of bringing issues to light, they take the easier way out - relax on the couch and crib about the state of governance. The best illustration of public apathy and indiscipline can be observed in traffic jams on the roads of big cities. It has now become a daily phenomenon thanks to the inefficient and the incapable public. The Administration is very well aware of the problems faced but is unwilling to do anything because people don’t want it to. Traffic is stalled for hours together but our fellow two-wheelers, the heroes on road, make use of the footpaths to avoid the jam and go ahead. They do so with utmost confidence and complete lack of civic sense. They even have the audacity to sound horn at the people walking on the foot-path, asking them to move aside. Nothing can describe public apathy better. The drivers have no respect for the footpaths or don’t seem to realize their purpose. On the other hand, the people walking actually move out of the drivers’ way instead of lambasting them. Such negligence leads to inefficient administration and compel others to question the worth of democracy in India, more importantly if people deserve a democratic form of governance in India.
Why have we become insensitive? It’s because we have taken our freedom for granted. We have taken our surroundings for granted. Each of us is in a relentless race - a race that has no end, a race that ensures financial well-being of oneself and one’s immediate family members, nothing beyond it. Each one is so busy in this race that the events or problems around him have very little significance since they don’t affect him. We have forgotten the value of freedom, the value of self-sufficiency, the value of values. All we are bothered about is self. If this was the scenario fifty years back, we would have still been under the British rule. It is because the mass-movement then was selfless that we attained complete independence. We should realize the price of freedom, the power of democracy and above all, the huge manpower at our disposal. We should realize that if we don’t let small things go unnoticed, the difference will be definitely visible with time. The impact it will create would be widespread and not isolated and would trigger a civic movement unparalleled in documented history. The need of the hour is to forget self and start service. If the educated class makes financial contribution towards the less privileged, however small it might be, the sheer factor of multiplication in this case can help one realize the power of one. It’s that simple to make a beginning. This should not be done or thought about once and forgotten later. No. This should be done on a continuous basis and the effects in the near future would only serve as impetus to do more.
The media, as always, is the greatest weapon to awaken the masses and keep them informed about what’s true and what’s not. The media has at its disposal the technology to bring justice to truth. It has the power to shape people’s thoughts and the reach to actually make a change. But how is this possible when most of the Indian media are busy projecting themselves to be as westernized and as west-centric as they could possible be? The media, as it is now, fails to even highlight fundamental issues let alone take a stand on them. It’s more bothered about the situation in London than the situation in terror-prone regions across India. Whatever civic concern it “shows” rarely gets translated to anything fruitful. The problems for the common man are only increasing by the day. Where and how does the media begin to discharge its duties towards realising reforms?
First, the media should use its global presence to the full. Indian media should highlight issues prevalent in Rural/urban India impartially. It should address issues at local level and follow up with the administration on the same. Some of the journalists are actually doing this and they deserve all the credit for their focus and determination. Media should use the technology available at its disposal to track any malpractices in the administrative affairs. This would include accepting bribes, favouring admissions to educational institutions and such malpractices even at the lowest strata of governance. It should also expose indiscipline in people. For example, in order that the drivers riding two-wheelers on footpaths be punished, the registration numbers should be noted or a photograph taken using camera-mobile phones. When the administration is sensitized on this issue, track it till the guilty is punished. If the police fail to address the issue when brought to their notice, highlight it in media. This would enable the administrators at every level of governance to watch what they do and make them realize that they cannot take their position for granted. Agreed that the scale on which corruption is rampant is huge but this is where manpower comes into play. If the educated class is proactive enough to bring anomalies to the notice of the media/administration, things are bound to improve. The scale of corruption is high because of the sheer strength of working population in India as compared to other countries. It can be fought effectively only if the manpower comes together in one voice and uproots the stigma of corruption from the face of our nation.
The onus lies on us, the financially well-off, the educated, to actually start the whole process of “churning” because the less privileged are waging a battle everyday just to survive to battle out another day. On another note, it’s not too difficult to drive the media. After all, we, the people, make the media. Hence, if there is an ounce of service-mindedness instilled in people, it will definitely translate into the media playing its role as it did in the struggle for independence.
posted by Ajit Padmanabh (World Void Web) | 8:38 PM
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