November 28, 2024
Recently I read an essay by George Orwell on the Spanish civil war of 1937. Some of the things he wrote about are as relevant today. Things like the spread of misinformation, the war between fascism and liberal ideologies, the rewriting of history. Orwell was a prophet of the times to come and his skill I think came from seeing the understory of things, seeing underneath the most forceful narratives of the times and being able to show and tell it. Also put himself in the story and describe his internal dilemmas.
The rewriting of history by the victors, so that future generations have a one-sided view of what happened is a concern I feel deeply. And I’m not sure why that’s important but it is, right? Isn’t having as objective a history as possible for our children important? Yet how many of us do much about it?
Our ideologies, and political affinities sway us, and misinformation which is easier to spread than in those times mire us in a bog of ideas that suck us down and suffocate us and then we operate not from clarity but from that bog and perhaps many of us just give up and get on with our days, our cups of coffee in cafes, our social evenings, feeling helpless, believing that there isn’t much we can do. I do this but I also feel empty at the beginning, the middle, and the end of every day.
Orwell had a suggestion for preserving history. He spoke of us — everyone, individuals — recording the moral atmosphere of the time with as many visceral details as possible. And I thought why not attempt it. It might be an antidote to the helplessness I feel.
Sitting here at my desk in Singapore I can only record the details of what I see on TV, which is limited as I can only see what somebody else, in this case a govt appointed channel, decides to show. I don’t know what the camera has omitted and what the editor has included. But still, one doesn’t need to be a seer to guess who builds what narrative.
The moral atmosphere in visceral details...
I saw chaos in both houses of Parliament. The Rajya Sabha redone in garish red with Dhankar sitting over the proceedings. Kharge introduces a need to have a JPC on Adani. And all Dhankar says is nothing is going on record, nothing is going on record, nothing is going on record. Isn’t Parliament where everything is discussed – at least in other times it was.
In the garish green house, the Lok Sabha, before even anything was done, on day one the proceedings were stopped as the opposition demanded a probe. I saw on the second day the opposition still demanding a probe, shouting on one side of the room, business as usual on the other. Things introduced and passed without the speaker looking up at all. Just saying, I think the ayes have it. How does he see the arms raised when he looks down at something I cannot see on his table.
Outside the ruling party blames the opposition for the chaos, the non-functioning of Parliament. I was told when this ruling party was in opposition that the business of running parliament even in 'noisy' situations was the job of the ruling party. But the PM stands on a podium, surrounded by yes men, before the start of Parliament and says, these 80-time losers haven’t learnt their lesson yet.
They have won something — that’s why they are inside though. Besides just because you lose in an election doesn’t mean you have to shut up until the next one. You still are a voice, a leader, of those who didn’t vote for the rulers. Of course unfortunately our leaders don’t necessarily act for the best interests of the public, the voiceless, the ones who have chosen them as representatives of their needs.
I see highly paid lawyers calling a press conference to defend Adani. Doling out incomplete information to the public to convince them of his innocence and about Big Bad USA bullying poor little Adani and trying to destroy the forward growth of India. BBU is jealous of India, they say. Lawyers who at one time seemed intelligent, and perhaps ethical, dole out partial truths.
I see Adani using the might of his channel — the channel he acquired because the channel’s owners suddenly came under a probe by SEBI, and the CBI, for failure to disclose some assets, and other things —to distort facts, to shout out his innocence. BTW the charges against the previous owners were miraculously dropped, a few years later after Adani had successfully acquired and made the channel Modani TV. There was no evidence of wrongdoing SEBI and CBI said.
This isn’t visceral detail, there are no sounds, no smells, no atmospheric descriptions, or even details of what who wore what (and somebody did wear an ill-fitting suit and somebody else a suave turtle-neck), and whose nose was bigger than whose, who was bald, and what the mike shoved into somebody’s face looked and felt like, but it is images — though second-hand, and memories — all raw and fresh and mine, and I am glad to record this as my truth.
I watch independent channels. They are not allowed inside Parliament. They don’t have the resources to stand outside too. They are moving faces in boxes on my TV. They offer alternate views that I want to hear.
But I too only write with incompleteness. The ‘everythingness’ of happenings is too huge. But a short addition here — the opposition also wanted a probe into Manipur and the continuing violence there. And a discussion on the revival of temple/mosque politics despite an act called The Places of Worship Act. A discussion on the deaths, only of minority men despite both religions rioting, caused by police actions in Uttar Pradesh. Of course denied by the police but then we know how that state operates.
That is even more sickening and it makes me more determined to tell my temple story if, if, if… only if I can get out of the stuckness and silence that the enormity all this creates, and find the words.
Meanwhile if your story is a marginalised view continue to tell it in any way you can. I am sure at least one person is listening.
I am not reviving a weekly blog, still not able, but I will write about the moral atmosphere of things, whenever I can.
