As farmers protest at borders of national capital, the keyboard warriors are having their own slug-fest on social media with little concern for the plight and sufferings of those who are fighting a do or die battle on the ground.
When words like resilience, tolerance and sensitivity rile rather than calm the sensibilities, when faith in the existing establishment is replaced by restlessness and increased dissent and when the willingness to believe is replaced by doubts, it can be assumed that a revolution is simmering under the otherwise calm surface of a society.
For the past one year, India has been grappling with issues like economic slowdown, minorities protests, the skirmishes on the border, all of which have been compounded by the pandemic, migrant crisis and extreme polarization on communal lines. The situation is grave enough to suggest that if not a revolution than at least the stirrings of a revolutionary era are under way.
Making of a revolution
A revolution is marked by the presence of at least four characteristics in varying degrees. These can be explained as dissident elites, mass frustration, shared motivations and state crises. We can measure a fair share of each of these in the current times
Revolutions may happen organically but they need a leader to steer and spearhead the movement. Down the centuries writers, artists, and poets have been in the forefront of these social upheavals, goading and inspiring people to take up the causes. They have commented on the events of the day, giving a voice to the oppressed and downtrodden. Through their writings and works they have immortalized rebels and have stridently campaigned for social change. In the frontline of these ‘poets of protest’ was Percy Bysshe Shelly who described poets as “unacknowledged legislators of the world.” The outpouring of outrage in his poem ‘The Masque of Anarchy’ and “Song to the Men of England" were the results of heinous massacres and exploitation of poor.
Back home, India had the Progressive Movement where writers wrote about their fears over the outcomes of Partition in 1947, social injustice and tyranny. The brightest among them was undoubtedly Faiz Ahamd Faiz whose writings had the power to spark a rebellion. He took up the cause of the poor and oppressed, of the landless and powerless. His nazm ‘Hum dekhenge’, had shaken the military rule in Pakistan in the eighties and also became the anthem for the protesting students in New Delhi as recently as in 2019.
Songs of protests
If the forties and fifties were marked by the poems of protests, the sixties was the era of protest songs a culture which sprang from the music of Bob Dylan. The war torn world was anxious for peace and the idea of universal brotherhood began to germinate. Communism had an element of romance to it as Che Guevara caught the fancy of the youth while social justice and equality became the watchwords.
Dylan wrote songs about the injustices which also carried a powerful social message. That these were commercial hits too, reflects the mood of the times. His popularity got a lift with “Blowin’ in the Wind” a song that spoke about war, beating of civil rights demonstrators and the escalating nuclear arms race.
On the subcontinent, the songs of protest and change evolved from the writings of sufi saints like Kabir and Amir Khusro, who were known for their path breaking thoughts on equality and social justice. The folk songs popular among different tribes were about stories of servitude. In contrast, the new age rapper rhymes are all about getting a share of the prosperity pie.
Arab Spring
The 21st century ushered in the era of instant communication. It broke down geographical barriers and brought people together on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp and Instagram. Its power to connect people showed promise and has been utilised for mobilising support for causes like environment, social justice, crime against women. It works at stunning speed. The best example is the ‘Arab Spring’, a movement which began in 2010 in Tunisia and by early 2011 had spread to other Arabic speaking nations in North Africa and Middle East, where waves of protests, uprisings and unrest spread rapidly through social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. The movement succeeded in toppling the governments of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen.
However, the impact of social media is directly proportional to its ill effects. It can pull down a person just as fast as it helps in creating a persona. Soon after these revolutions took place, the governments took charge of the situation and reciprocated by unleashing their own propaganda against the architects of these movements. Wael Ghonim who spearheaded the movement in Egypt through his tweets and Facebook posts was discredited. A major campaign on Twitter gained momentum with the hashtag #unfollowedghonimbecause, criticising Ghonim for various failings.
The social media algorithms work in a manner which benefits both sides. It sends out more of material that is being viewed by a person even if it is being done only out of curiosity. So, if a supporter of a movement chances to click open the counter view on a digital device, he would get inundated by more of the anti-views to an extent that soon he will be wrapped in a smog of half-truths, affecting the ability to distinguish between what he stands for and what he opposes.
Trending and traction
The docu-drama ‘Social Dilemma’ on Netflix details the impact of social media on the social and political climate of a nation. The algorithms function in such a manner that totally bizarre content gets as much weightage as facts. Increasingly we are seeing its impact in India. Whatsapp is employed regularly to spread communal hatred and views that would otherwise be termed as socially sensitive. Twitter has this capacity to trend a falsehood to such an extent that it will become the gospel truth.
Social media has changed the manner in which we debate. It is no more about view and counter-view as its about how much traction can truth garner over a lie. Worst is that real news too is taking its cue from here and adding to the confusion. Today more than ever we need sane voices and a sense of fairness to lead us out of this cacophony of lies and flood of falsehoods that swamps us everyday via social media.
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