Following the London riots, one hoped that the Indian Government would have realised the frightening adversary of the new social media under the furiously texting thumbs of the barely literate.
Will this new social media be relegated as just another form of limp political expressionism in India’s democracy or will it be an actual threat to democracy?
With the historical cases of cabinet corruption, there has been much discussion in the Indian media over the so called failure of India’s democratic institutions.
The twitter sphere was set ablaze by youth, thoroughly repulsed by the ill-gotten gains of (disgraced former Telecom Minister) Andimuthu Raja and (disgraced former Commonwealth Games Secretary General) Suresh Kalmadi.
There were tweets that appealed to the Government to be more democratic.
But democracy has not failed in India, India has failed in democracy.
Ballooning Institutions
For 60 years it has embraced the philosophy far too enthusiastically and is drowning in the blessed thing.
Indian democracy has seen the birth of hundreds of institutions in a plurality that would have left Plato gob smacked.
The Indian democracy complex now has the look and feel of a post war computer that was the size of a three bedroom house and took an afternoon to balance your cheque book.
If you have enjoyed the company of Delhi’s pseudo intelligentsia, you would have a clear understanding of this diatribe. You would have ridden the acronym mail in Delhi’s hopelessly complicated mocktail circuit.
You will attend a seminar at the IIC about the misdeeds of the IMF, nip the other road past UNICEF to the IHC for a discussion on the CAG. You would then feel robbed because you did not have time to go the HT at the ITO to give your article on the CWC.
This is a marked point of difference to North Africa that was set ablaze by activists exploding on social media after been violently constrained for years.
It is easy to voice your democratic right in India, with far too many avenues. The instinctive reaction of any political crisis is to form yet another committee or a dusty red bricked institution.
TV debates
Many of the academics who attend these never ending talk shops are brilliant scholars. When I watch a NDTV panel discussion, I am always impressed at how far more in depth, as compared to an Australian TV panel, the debate proceeds.
There is no scarcity of brilliantly eloquent, if not slightly bewildered intellectuals.
But this beehive of higher thought is in conjunction with the Brahmanic curse where the intellectuals that flee between these multiple forums largely do not connect thought with action.
Carrying embryonic ideas to full term and implementing the thousands of schemes that have been excitedly consummated by the heat of the overhead projector is not their bag.
Ironically an academic relationship with democracy has instilled a paralysis; a matrix of pressure valves that emasculates any head of steam.
Overtly expletive
As the Arab world and the UK have experienced, Blackberry messenger and Twitter not only vent rage but also focus that intense rage into a social changing blinding light, which is perfect opposite effect of India’s democratic institutions.
Treasonous tweets and Facebook status updates are not diluted by coma inducing committees and Parliaments. They are not censored by the hidden ethics of contemporary media editors.
These short explosive slogans are out in the world in a Mumbai second, unformed and mutinous.
‘Flash Mobs’ is the phrase of the month, where thousands of disaffected mobile phone users assemble for what is almost exclusively antisocial behavior.
This is of interest to law enforcement agencies and the political elite.
Did the London youth attack Westminster and St Pauls? No. They attacked Footlocker and Debenhams. They did not attack radio stations and broadcast a political agenda; they smashed high street shop windows and looted sandshoes.
This was is the new paradigm. We are not citizens, we are consumers. One in three under 18 years of age in UK is officially in poverty. They are too young to vote but not too young to be disenfranchised consumers.
Anti-Capitalism?
The Capitalist society has created such a overwhelmingly powerful illusion that consumers are ready to go to even murderous lengths to keep up with the Sharmas. This is where India has to pay focused attention.
The mobile is Kalashnikov of the 21st Century. It is a weapon that can help form a flash mob in minutes, which in the Indian context could mean hundreds of thousands of rioters.
Six months ago, Hindi was rarely seen on Twitter. Now it is increasingly becoming common. It is an obvious sign that the all powerful media is no longer in the hands of gymkhana groupies but in the hands of a far more representative cross section of the society.
As India experiences greater economic progress, mobiles will penetrate deeper down the rungs of the social ladder. These Kalashnikovs will increasingly be in the hands of people excluded from the economic miracle.
This mobile owning underclass will not give two samosas about the latest acronym institution or the drafting committee. They will impossibly demand a Mercedes and a Macbook in a broadband instant with a murderous passion that will not have the faintest whiff of democracy.
Editor’s Note: Roy Lange is our Melbourne based Columnist, whose love for India often induces him to take a long lasting nostalgic and irreverent look at the country in which he was educated and married. We need more Roys to make us laugh and think!
