Blindrunning Bharat

The Chinese Flu has sent severe jolts across the globe. A global lockdown has forced us into self-isolation and self-introspection. Patient numbers in India are going up. They will come down only once the primary transmission cycle is over. The show will go on. India, that is Bharat, will have moved on even before the flu subsides. It will cruise along, zoned out on an auto-pilot mode and blind to the lessons drawn from a global event. This is because Bharat has gradually ossified into a blind civilisation which prefers not to acknowledge issues initially, only to choose flight over fight later. This is the beginning of a four-part blog series where I try deciphering what ails us.

Indian problem-solving begins with denial before progressing to procrastination. It is followed by a phase of prayers to gods or governments, or gods sitting in governments. When prayers fail, Indians spring into action by resorting to risk-filled shortcuts. They delay taking even cognizance, let alone the charge of problems until possible. Example - The suddenness of COVID-19 virus spread caught us off-guard. Did we not know it was coming? We were simply inattentive.

The Coronavirus pandemic is not an isolated event. This pattern of nonchalance is not new. Bharat has known decadence from close quarters, yet it remains blind to the sea of issues it drowns in. It remains blind to origins, decays and extinguishments of sister cultures and civilisations. This dichotomic 'zoned-out' approach is to be half-expected. The inattentional blindness is unintended. The amnesic memory is a survival mechanism and an evolutionary trait provided to protect against horrible history.

What I observe is alarming. It is close to paralysis. Governmental actions, few of them unfair and excessive, must be seen in these lights. The virus lockdown allowed me to analyze some issues with a clearer mind.

Devolutionary denial

Current events are unprecedented. For the first time, Bharat realises why prevention is better than cure. It is a refreshing change from the slack which has harmed our progress since long. Bharat has a habit of denying the obvious and it thinks denial will make problems disappear. It rarely addresses issues in plain sight, and it is rarer still to seek conclusive solutions. For instance, death punishment is no longer an effective deterrent. Heinous crimes shake national conscience to an extent that society frequently finds itself baying for criminal blood as ancient Romans did. The devolution seems complete with increasing attacks on what we call the idea of India. Bharat is ridiculed for its struggles with straitjacketed western concepts like human rights, democracy and secularism. It does not even try redefining or tailoring tough concepts to own need, hoping somebody else will do it. It has become a nation where privileged students know the language of their long-gone conquerors better than mother-tongues. Human societies usually hold cultures dear to their hearts. It is different in India where colonial fetishes stare through windows of the countless English medium schools. Subjugation is complete when the conquered is seen adapting, adorning and worshipping the conqueror. Bharat does all three. It sits back and curses modernity for not providing it with panaceas. 

Modern miners

Modernity has not been kind to Bharat per se. It realises it is walking into the Information age - impoverished, uneducated and unprepared. Online freedom is beginning to feel like a trap laid by the usual suspects. Tech giants mine Bharat's data as colonialists mined colonies for minerals. Companies call it 'data mining', but we can call it 'data farming' because we are the crops. Companies turn wealthier and smarter at the cost of the poor and the unwitting. Unchecked internet is being provided to populations of third world nations, sowing seeds of endless cheap entertainment, onscreen-offscreen violence and technological imperialism. Bharat remains content in scrolling down screens mindlessly. It finds a valve in outraging online aimlessly. It remains blind to internet-led hikes in perversion and radicalism. The disrespect for time is such that it enjoys watching JCBs working just as much as it enjoys watching videos of people watching JCBs working. Few notice how Bharat zones in and out like violence-stricken people suffering from psychic numbing. Its lack of vision is a direct result of the thousand-yard stares into the traumatic past. This amnesiac sense of history and time is no accident. Bharat's obsession with self-inflicted injuries matches with its penchant for false self-appraisals. This situation gets worse with internet penetration. The numbness comes from long and continuous practice, and its observation requires clean-cut breaks like the current state of lockdown. Nothing is new for Bharat. It has seen it all, and it fails to recall.

Catastrophic callousness

The government was swift in enforcing a lockdown but it underestimated public denialism. Police are using batons and prayers to keep people in homes. Some sections of the society refuse to self-isolate, thus endangering the entire society. Unshockingly, the government remains indecisive (even in Corona crisis). Expecting a government to be different from the people it serves is wrong. Expecting a government to be different from goons is not right either, at least not in this part of the world. The government knew that the initial COVID-19 virus transmission was unidirectional, moving from urban areas into rural hinterlands where it should not exist. The government knew that COVID-19 virus came piggybacking with international travellers, that groups like Tablighi Jamat were high potential carriers. The government failed to act in time. Now, Delhi braces up for a pandemic right after a communal riot. Bharat braces up to fight a war amid an economic slowdown. The poor are left with no option but to wait for charity. Misplaced paternalism has robbed them of health and hope. It is not just the poor though. Bharat frequently finds itself forced to protect both the rule of law and rule-breakers. The know-it-all youth grows disenchanted but rarely offers anything viable. The brightest minds migrate to the West. Bharat does not call them back or stop them from leaving shores. It remains blind to wasted kids, communities and opportunities. The government has become a punching bag that is used perennially for both lamenting and venting.

How long can Bharat run blind like this? No idea. The psychological immune neglect needs to heal. We need to wake up and start working towards progress because unlike other nations we have nowhere else to go. Bharat is not ready for the future that is coming. The global order is changing. It is a good time for Bharat to bring reforms and reclaim development before its memory is reset again.