As a child, I remember vividly a visit to the opium factory in Ghazipur, near Varanasi, which was set up in 1820 by the East India Company, and is the largest such facility in the world. A curious sight awaited me just outside the factory. A bunch of monkeys sat all around, in a state of stupor, oblivious to the world. I was told that these monkeys regularly drink the water that comes out as effluent from the factory. This water has traces of opium. Over time, they become addicts and remain permanently in a drugged condition.
What can happen to monkeys can happen to human beings too. If we consume for long periods of time certain kinds of narratives, we can become addicted to them, even against our will. I sometimes worry that this is precisely what is happening in India.
There are five ‘opiates’ which we are consuming daily. Perhaps the most lethal is religious divisiveness. Whether because of resentments at earlier minority vote bank politics, or the transparent pursuit of a Hindu majoritarian agenda, the pernicious consequence is increasing hate, intolerance, violence, exclusion, resentment and social disharmony.
Most recently in Nuh, Haryana, we had communal riots, which spread like wildfire and singed Gurugram, the millennium city, where almost every Fortune 500 company has an office. Both communities accuse each other, but such incidents of violence and hate take place in some form or the other almost daily in some parts of the country, and extremists in all religious communities are having a field day. We have, like any drug addict, become ‘dependent’ on this ceaseless narrative. If there is no news on this front, we feel withdrawal symptoms.
A second ‘opiate’ is the culture of freebies, or as Prime Minister Narendra Modi calls them, ‘revdis’. Of course, one person’s revdi is another person’s welfarism. All governments, at the State or the Centre, promote freebies, because a very large number of the poor and vulnerable need help, and also because their vote is important. However, we have now reached a stage of competitive freebie campaigns, where the goal is to outdo the political opponent even if the treasury goes bankrupt. The beneficiaries have become addicts to this largesse, without realising that the real problems for their deprivation are not being tackled. When solutions are not found, opiates help, as painkillers, not remedies.
A third opiate which has our society and polity in its stranglehold is the continued demand for quotas. Every segment of our society is now vying for them. Affirmative action, through reservations for the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) is necessary and is part of the Constitution. Now, Other Backward Classes have also been included. But every community not included wants to also benefit from quotas, including the forward castes on an economic criterion. Quota politics, instead of radically increased opportunities for all, has drugged us.
A fourth ‘opiate’ coursing through the veins of our society is social media. People are addicted to the content put on it, without verifying its truth, and fake news abounds. At one level, social media has led to the democratisation of communications; but at another, it has given license to all and sundry to use the medium for abuse, violence, religious provocation and threats. The more vicious the acrimony the more people seem to enjoy it. We are prisoners of the phone we hold in our hands.
A fifth opiate is the acceptance by most people of ‘bulldozer justice’. In a country where the rule of law should prevail in accordance with the Constitution, the condemnable and illegal resort to summary punishment as an act of primitive retribution is being cheered by people, whose reaction is exactly like an addict immune to the voice of reason.
Most recently, after the bulldozer demolitions in Nuh and other parts of Haryana, the state’s high court took suo motu cognisance of the situation and thundered: “Apparently, without any demolition orders and notices, the law-and-order problem is being used as a ruse to bring down buildings without following the procedure established by law. The issue also arises whether the buildings belonging to a particular community are being brought down under the guise of law-and-order problem and an exercise of ethnic cleansing in being conducted by the State.” However, most people seem to endorse this lawless vandalisation, drugged by this misuse of power.
Last, but not least, is the ‘opiate’ of a new addiction to censorship. Somebody or the other’s feelings are perpetually ‘hurt’ by what is shown in films, books, exhibitions, and other creative formats. The attempt to enforce conformity of views, in a diverse country, where differences of opinion are a democratic right, has become rampant because some think it is their ordained right to decide what people should eat, drink, watch, read, wear, and behave. One of the oldest civilisations of the world, which was known for its profound belief in freedom of expression and belief, is now addicted to this new milieu of arbitrary impositions.
Like monkeys at the opium factory, we too have become a society of addicts to certain narratives, which if sober we would have resisted and fought against, but have now accepted as the new normal.
The author is a former diplomat, an author and a politician. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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