Increasingly feeling hurt ?

 

                                                                                                                                  

Increasingly feeling hurt ? A View

Come the month of September , lots of festivals are celebrated in our country. Each of these festivals has substantially different social purpose and has different way of celebration. People across the country spend money on clothes , sweets and other items of household or personal use some of them are expensive and purchased on such occasions only. Obviously , markets feel upbeat and place lots of advertisements in different media channels.

Three years have passed when  at least four  very big corporates faced ire of some individuals or groups for their advertisements in media on the account that these hurt cultural , religious and traditional feelings  or codes of them. Now whether those issues were right or not is not the subject of this write-up. Doing so may add to one more number to these incidences. In our nation , India  a vast and diverse in all the aspects , the chances of someone having offensive feelings for anything in public,  are quite significant. But what is causing focus  is the rising frequency and repeat of such  incidences in the country. 

Above example is not unoque. Regularly , we are coming across situations where someone , far away from the actual occurence feels hurt and lodge FIR. Many stand up Comedy Shows have faced and some still facing legal actions because somebody find the ststements impinging on someone's soul. Past history narratives (many generated) are also adding to this trend. Selfstyled Gurus or Dharm Rakshak raising their sudden dictats causing loud public debates. So many bubbles are popping up on regular basis  that we find it uncertain when a whirlpool will pick up any body. 

Brooding over this, I feel some of the changes,  ‘good’ and other ‘not so good’ and still others ‘nowhere close to goodness’,  have crept in our society over last five to six decades  playing major role in bursts.

Tripling of Population

According to UN report , current estimated population of India is about 139.89 crores(say 140 Cr. Approx..)  with a growth rate of around 1 % per annum compared to 45.05 cr. In 1960. Though growth rate has come down from peak of 2.33% per annum in 1985 to 1% still India’s rank is 2 in terms of absolute number, China at around 144 cr. is no. 1. With land area remaining same (about 2973190 sq. KM) , population density has gone up from 152 persons per sq. km. to 464 persons per sq. km. Urbanization has also increased at double the rate from 17.9% population living in urban areas to 35 % currently.

With increase in population density and absolute number, all living-beings acquire a natural phenomenon of ‘creation of self-differentiation’ in order to generate better chances of individual survival and growth. We see normal examples in plenty in nature. Flowers of the same spices with different colors , patterns and basic design even . In human-beings also , one of the process of differentiation is through generation of own individual identity among the crowd. This gives him/her a  confidence of being better visible in some way and therefore can exert more effectively in  getting resources.

I realised the concept and  necessity of 'Self - Differentiation' when I joined Engineering College in chandigarh . One of my home town friend , a simple boy by all standard joined mechanical engineering in Aligarh Muslim University.  After a month both of us met in home town and I found a big Tilak on his forehead. He told me that he goes to Lord Hanuman  temple in Aligarh every Tuesday. Asked this was never his routine earlier in last ten years, he told me that in AMU, all Muslim students ( in majority there) go for Namaz on Fridays without fail. So all Hindu students (much less in numbers there) started going to temple on Tuesdays to give them  a separate identity and visibility. Extrapolation of this example on any type of  crowd is likely to give the same results. Doing anything which may be entirely different and may be unique is one sure technique for gaining the visibility.

Penetration of Politics at Grass Root

Political trends  in India have changed over a period of these six decades. With fragmentation of  national parties and entrance of persons with criminal background ,acquiring political power became not only a prestige issue but also a profitable and safe venture to cover-up all kinds of activities. With weak central leadership, regional parties started gaining ground and flourished on regional issues more than national issues of growth and nation build-up. With increase in population but the number of elected representatives remaining same, it is obvious that representatives found it difficult to reach masses at grass root level to exercise their control. Moreover many of these leaders were more busy in greasing their own ways and started giving freedom to some close aides to adopt whatever way to achieve the power and other goals. Moreover, ‘Vote Bank’ political considerations for each issue , however insignificant it may be , have found top rank in any political game. In such environment , even if some individual or group does something tangentially different is being absorbed quietly even if it is grossly illegal.

Some central leadership , while in power , took very active missions to streamline local government institutions like Municipal Corporation , Panchayats etc. Big budget allocations to these institutes developed power struggle there at local level as it used to be at state and central levels. So use of local issues to make your presence visible and attract vote bank , with apt concerns became the norm. Most of the time , such issues were not of administrative or development nature but of ‘Local Vote Bank’ nature. Language , Cast , Religion , Local Boundary Disputes , Water etc. were and are still there which are used to inflate the local passions by these local, grass root but effective agents of  big ones elsewhere. With eyes on profits through local welfare schemes , tenders etc., local group fragmentation and formation of new groups increased  resulting in more competition among them to hold  local political ground . Many ambitious persons also found that penetration in local politics , beside getting power and profit are useful steps for rising further. A constant visibility as a person with forceful attitude  is must for this through any means.

Information revolution and social media

This need no explanation to the contemporary society. Wherever a person is living , majority has smartphone and use of social media is getting all type of information every minute. With  development of AI and easy Media tools , visible narratives are easy to generate and transmit through Social media which are also increasing in numbers and their tools. Many users are so addicted to media use that they are not concerned about logics or authenticity but adopt it if sound convincing. With tools available , they forward such messages without  any ven primary thought. We have seen well educated and matured persons also falling in this trap.

While above three scenarios were unfolding , a tool of using intolerance to raise emotions started showing its presence elsewhere in the globe. Big writers from India , Bangladesh and many others  got threat from radical organizations issuing Fatwas against their creations  declaring them blasphemous and hurting their sentiments , violating their religious codes and practices. Recently , we have seen some violent incidences in France. No one can perhaps deny plainly that all such techniques were never used for power and monetary bargains. At what stage and level ? A question for any guess.  

To Conclude

In summary , increased tendency to create own recognition to gain strong social ground (leadership) and get benefits (power and therefore profit) with large but may be less authentic information is ultimately resulting in the attitude of getting offended on any pretext and creating a situation where one get media and public attention.

With media availability, this attitude cost practically no or low cost but spread is very large and reactions are fast.

In such an event , when the issue of hurting someone’s  feelings is raised, it becomes difficult for even moderate seniors also to intervene and settle the without further moves. Because any such efforts , many fence sitters and opportunity seekers will jump in support and the situation may bounce somewhere else.

Well , no standard management strategy for this exist. Each has be resolved considering may prevailing conditions.

 

N K BANSAL