Every time I read an op-ed in an English-language newspaper, every time I sit through a panel discussion at a Lit Fest or any other event, this is what strikes me: that you are preaching to the choir. The people in the audience have already bought into what you’re selling: women need to be respected, religious tolerance is a must, people should read more, so on and so forth. Even this blog attracts a certain kind of reader who is bound to agree with my worldview (even if they disagree with a review, say), so what good is hand-wringing in the comments section except to let off a bit of steam?
The real challenge — and I’m stating the obvious here, because I don’t think it gets stated enough — is how to engage in a discussion with those that don’t read op-eds in English-language newspapers, those that don’t attend Lit Fests. In other words, how to reach the other India? I am not saying we are above everyone else, just that we think in a certain way, behave a certain way. And now, how to get across to those who think differently? Because all the op-eds and panel discussions are just bits of hand-wringing, little bouts of letting off steam. They make no difference in the larger sense. How does one get to see change at a grassroots level?
PS: The comments on the Anbanavan… review made me want to write this. Actually, the newspaper headlines today made me want to write this.
PPS: If others have little, bitty thoughts (as opposed to longer “Readers Write In” pieces), would be happy to host them.
Baradwaj Rangan 
Madan
June 25, 2017
There may even be those who read op-eds and don’t necessarily subscribe to your point of view but, feeling outnumbered, may stay silent in that forum/venue and vent elsewhere. I know somebody (shall not name the person) who regularly writes letters to the press and has made appearances in NDTV’s debate shows (Big Fight/We The People) and subscribes to a very conservative point of view. More on the India-Pak issue than women’s rights in this case, but basically the core audience of Times Now/Republic TV. In an office chai-pe-charcha session, things got heated up when two people in a senior position were either apologetic for or outright approving of gauraksha. So, in their worldview, gauraksha is about preserving Hindu culture but triple talaq points to the backwardness of Muslims. Pointing out the inherent contradiction in this stance did not persuade them to change it.
This may sound very pessimistic, but I don’t think we can persuade adults to change their position easily. We have to start with the kids. As I mentioned in the AAA thread, making both boys and girls more open minded about subverting gender roles would be a good start. How many schools do this? I think schools have a very important role to play here. Unfortunately, even though most of my school teachers were women, none of them took such an initiative. Of course, I am talking 90s, but this sort of thing has been going on for much longer in Europe and if they haven’t completely licked the problem, they are at least much more successful in addressing it. And I don’t even think it’s about advanced or developing/undeveloped. It’s about mindsets.
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Madan
June 25, 2017
A very interesting observation from an interview with ad guru Sr John Hegarty:
Q: With five decades in advertising, how do you keep your eyes fresh and understand a buyer’s viewpoint?
A: You have to be connected to the world out there….I walk to my office in Soho every day, a 30 minute walk one way. Whenever I’m in a taxi, I always talk to the drivers. They are often bigoted, but you are getting a point of view. One thing I say to colleagues is please take the ear plugs out. I know the headphones look cool, but you are putting yourself in a bubble.
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tonks
June 25, 2017
I don’t think we can persuade adults to change their position easily. We have to start with the kids
I agree with Madan. Once our values are established in our formative years, I feel it is very difficult to change them. All of us in fact selectively read articles and books that reinforce our established beliefs. Though I think there can be some gradual changes to attitude with experience, it seems unlikely that they would arise out of discussions alone.
That said, one way to address change would be to start in the formative years, with schools and colleges. Hold these discussions in forums where young people are exposed to them. Make short films showing these ideas and play them before movies and in schools. It’s when we visited the UK and Malaysia that we realised how much more smoking there is amongst the young and middle aged people there when compared to India. I later read that India is one of the countries with the most dramatic fall in smoking addiction in recent years. Perhaps the enforced watching before movies of the short films showing soot squeezed out of black lungs (and that sad voice warning us that we will have to pay badly for our addiction) have made an impression on our collective subconscious. Heck, if it means less people dying of cancer and cirrhosis, I probably don’t mind those ugly cigarette/alcohol warnings that appear during movies either.
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tonks
June 25, 2017
I remember that I started questioning my own religious beliefs when I studied about Darwin’s theory of evolution and the big bang theory in school. Some countries have found a solution to this : don’t teach children all such atheist stuff in schools, postpone it to college, when religiousness is already established.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/turkey-evolution-secondary-school-education-national-curriculum-recep-tayyip-erdogan-regime-a7804016.html?cmpid=facebook-post
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Madan
June 25, 2017
tonks: Agree with both of your comments. Definitely, what you learn in school is very influential (which is why both Left and Right attack something as seemingly innocuous as school syllabi). We have to start from school if we want to meaningfully shape the behaviour of kids. It may sound like subtle indoctrination but if it goes some way to avoiding repeats of the senseless wars, riots or financial crises (which were all essentially a product of out-of-control ego/greed), it’s worth it. If we truly want equality, we have to subvert gender roles and make both genders comfortable with doing things that were traditionally associated with the other gender. Only then can we remove the sharp distinction – and resultant discrimination – between men and women. I read somewhere that Finland already has similar sort of conditions.
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Jyoti S Kumar
June 25, 2017
Madan, I opened the comment section to talk about schools! Well made points
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vijay
June 25, 2017
The media can never engage with the “other India” because they are not meant for this Other India in the first place. Their target audience is the metros and urban centers. You need to speak a different language, have a totally different platform to engage this Other India. Current English print and news media ain’t cutting it. Plus engaging via media itself is a challenging proposition. Big bang educational and social reforms needed, which this joke of a govt. simply doesn’t seem to be interested in. I don’t see any hope in the near future.
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Honest Raj (formerly 'V'enkatesh)
June 25, 2017
So, in their worldview, gauraksha is about preserving Hindu culture but triple talaq points to the backwardness of Muslims.
Of course, you realise the triple talaq issue was merely a political stunt? That said, what’s even more amusing is that these rakshaks/sevaks – by joining hands with Islam fundamentalists – were among the earliest opponents of the Hindu marriage bill.
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Madan
June 25, 2017
@ Honest Raj: I know it was. Unfortunately, their core constituency doesn’t think so. They think, yes, there’s no place for triple talaq (because Muslims should progress with the times) and yet, there’s a place for gau raksha (because Hindus are like that only). As I said, even pointing out that this is contradictory would not get them to change their stance. They even came up with the old chestnut of Muslims rearing and killing bakras in the compound. There’s no point telling them that all Muslims are not like that and further that some sects of Hindus also indulge in animal sacrifice. I have seen it myself; just behind where I grew up, they used to bring goats for killing in front of Hindu idols somewhat resembling Shiv lings. I have found that a certain section of (vegetarian) Hindus from the Haryana/Rajasthan/Gujarat have a very narrow understanding of what Hinduism is and tend to be very intolerant of other viewpoints. I know that’s stereotyping but it can’t be helped. In my profession, I deal with them, especially Marwaris and Gujaratis, regularly and this is the one aspect about them that I don’t like at all. One such called Chembur a Mohammedan area. What a laugh (just in case, Chembur has a significant Tamil population, Tamil Brahmin to be specific, including an Ahobila Mutt)!
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Jyoti S Kumar
June 25, 2017
This is another reason why movies and television are very important as an influential medium… It does speak to a very broad spectrum of people and has a great capacity for “inception” (read – plant an idea in one’s head)
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Anu Warrier
June 26, 2017
I agree with Madan and Tonks. Especially with Madan about ‘us’ protecting our ‘culture’ while ‘they’ are ‘backward’.
re: rearing goats and killing them – how is that any different from raising hens for eggs, and killing chickens for food? Or raising ducks for eggs and food? Goats my Muslim friend’s family raised were not killed as anumal sacrifice, but for food. My Christian friend’s mother raised both hens and ducks in her backyard. Eggs first, roast meat later. Our Hindu neighbours also kept chickens. I’m sure the chicken biriyani served one night was the final resting place of one of them.
I can understand that you don’t want to eat beef. Or pork. How the heck is it your business if someone else eats it? (*generaly you) When I was growing up, we knew that other than the Brahmins, other Hindus happily ate meat, includng beef. We knew Musllims tended to eat meat anyway, other than pork. As long as you didn’t serve a known-Brahmin beef or pork to a Muslim, everyone lived and let live. Today, with this ‘gaurakshaks’ lynching people for eating what they suspect is beef, and the ban on cow slaughter, we are fast descending into a perpetual state of taking offence.
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rkjk
June 26, 2017
The right wing the world over is all over the spectrum both fiscally and socially. The Republicans and even the Democrats are fiscally and socially right of centre, the BJP is social right but fiscal left, European right wingers are anti-immigrants etc.
But the one similarity, the one hidden agenda that all right-wingers possess and execute with fervor is the dismantling of the public education system. This is done by such nefarious methods as slashing federal funding in favor of more military funding, injecting “creationism”, “Ayurveda”, “Aurangzeb was a Hindu hater” and other bullshit into the system, playing around with the structure and syllabus, pay teachers a pittance, encourage ‘non-profit’ private schools etc etc.
It is in the best interests of politicians to keep the populace uneducated, fed only on the cat-piss that they serve up through the media interests that they control. This country needs a social revolution, but the environment right now is not really conducive for one. A total change in the education system from University right down to kindergarten is required.
I have had several long and harrowing sessions of debate with close relatives over several years. One long session would make you think you managed to make them see your POV, that they are actually being swayed from their position. But the next time you meet they are back to square one,armed with more ‘facts’ to counter last week’s assault. A few of these sessions were enough for me to realize the futility of my efforts. There is no point in convincing the previous generation. They simply refuse to be convinced. My fear is that the same thing is happening to my generation, and quite possibly several more generations to come.
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Anu Warrier
June 26, 2017
Bejeezus, I must either have been sleepy or drunk when I wrote the above post! I seem to have made so many errors in spelling, I can’t even claim ‘typos’!
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Ramchander Krishna (@ramctheatheist)
June 26, 2017
Thanks for bringing this up Rangan! I’ve felt the same, especially when I read the kind of articles about Neeya Naana in English media.
I feel Neeya Naana is a great platform for facilitating the kind of discussion you’ve mentioned. There have been several topics relevant to the “other India”, like the life of mimicry artists, the condition of government-aided schools, rice being a staple diet, are daughters ok with mothers wearing makeup and casteist surnames to name a few. I don’t see any other popular forums where discussions on such topics take place.
Unfortunately, a few episodes like women demanding dowry become controversial and people judge the show without watching it fully. And in English media they make fun of the regressiveness of the participants and fume about it in English articles, which none of those “regressive people” are going to read. Hence, I prefer a Neeya Naana discussion over an op-ed piece. Watching Neeya Naana closely you realise that the show makes several participants reconsider their opinions and beliefs. Also the show introduces you to several local think tanks, bloggers and activists who’re engaged with people at the grass-roots level.
In one of the episodes, when Namitha made fun of the regressive guys on the other side, Gopinath immediately intervened saying people like her cannot ignore the males on the other side. They need to engage in a conversation with them and make them see their perspective, rather than dismissing or mocking them. That’s what Neeya Naana is all about. Sadly not many realise this.
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GODZ
June 26, 2017
Let me get straight to the point here
a) We are talking about reaching grass roots level which means that includes people who never go to school at all or drop out at very young age. How do you reach them? One of the effective options is Cinema. Because of less cognitive effort involved.
b) This is where mass hero movies come handy. MGR did this. You can keep arguing about this but there could be little doubt that his movies instilled great values whether it’s respecting a woman or to abstain from drinking, How much effect did it had we never know as we don’t have any data. But Considering the dedicated and sincere fan following that MGR had even to this day, it’s likely possible that his fans who mostly belong to this “other world” respected his words and followed his values at least to certain extent
c) Today’s mass heroes can do this. Rather than doing this for blind political aspirations or without being preachy, they are the ones who can bring the change. May sound laughable at first. But that’s the power of this medium. If these mass heroes can get the message in the form of powerful screenplay, situations, and emotions without being preachy or melodramatic, it’s going to hit the people of other world and it has to. Will it change everyone. No. Will it change the mindset of half of the population?. Maybe. Will it change few? Definitely. that’s how the change starts…
If Vijay can distribute one free book every year to his fans and ask them to read, you can argue that his fans may run away from him but it’s equally possible that majority of them might read it. He did not try this but what if he did and indeed quite a number of his fans read it, is that not a change?
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Madan
June 26, 2017
GODZ: I agree that cinema exerts a great influence on young and impressionable minds, for better or worse. But the question is whether the values that the stars believe in are the same as the English speaking/reading intelligentsia. I know that most if not all of the stars are very comfortable with English (Suketu Mehta had observed that English was the working language of Bollywood!) but they often behave like Chetan Bhagat and pretend to be anti-intellectual and speak on behalf of the masses. The conversation has to be steered around to the point where respect for women and opposing misogyny is not seen only as a cause for the ‘posh’ crowd but for the general betterment of society. Ironically, Modi did a good job of addressing this in his first I-day speech as PM though it goes without saying that precious little of his governance since then has lived up to what he said that day.
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GODZ
June 26, 2017
@Madan..Do you mean to say Woman freedom and other high values are shared only by English Speaking/Reading people or are that a perception? I may be wrong but if respect for woman is perceived as a topic for the posh crowd, Bharathi could never have been a household name. This is how I see the question by BR and i may again be wrong. Instead of writing open ed or instead of arguing in forums, How do you bring real change at the grassroots level. Coming back to you question of do stars share these values, Of course, they do and they do know what messages will hit the right chord(Target audience) with the right group of people. But will they do it? Pawan Kalyan is already doing it through his social media. But considering the current social scenario, my best bet is the cinema and its stars. Will they do it. Honestly I dont know. But Considering most of these stars have political aspirations, I don’t see that as a bad bet
Politicians will never do this ever. Trust me. They won’t do anything that’s going to affect their bottom line or that makes people smart.
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brangan
June 26, 2017
GODZ: No, you misread me. I am not saying ‘posh’ people – whatever that means. (I think you refer to the class that eats burgers in Tamil cinema.) I am referring to the educated class, people who come from progressive backgrounds, and so on. I’d imagine a Bharathi would very much reading op-eds and attending Lit Fests had he lived today.
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Madan
June 26, 2017
“Do you mean to say Woman freedom and other high values are shared only by English Speaking/Reading people or are that a perception” – Yeah, I mean it’s a perception that Bhagat/Tamil film stars play on to simultaneously comfort the masses and tell them they are AOK and also mock the so called posh set. I mean, I don’t know see how a middle class youth trying his luck in Mumbai is better off than a zamindar in rural TN just because the former speaks English but that is how this debate is being increasingly framed.
You are right that Bharathi could never have been a household name if it was true that the masses could not have opened their minds to social progress. A better example, as in on a pan India scale, is Gandhi. This is a problem that the liberals today have that they don’t want to engage the masses in the language the masses speak. Gandhi was also ‘posh’ in a manner of speaking, a well educated lawyer who had once practiced in South Africa. How was he able to connect to the people if liberals find it so difficult these days?
There is a clue as to why in an excerpt from a British ad guru that I have reproduced upthread. People are constantly in their own bubble these days. Talk to watchmen, talk to taxi drivers, you will get a better sense of the pulse of the people. I had spoken to my building’s watchman (from UP) about demo a few days after it happened and I could sense that their strata of society (presumably the most affected by it) was very happy with the move. He and many taxi drivers from UP I spoke to were very confident that BJP would sweep UP in a big way. I even reproduced the convo in my blog at the time and remember an acquaintance now living in NY mocking the watchman’s financial illiteracy. Well, he may have been right but the likes of Modi have captured the space vacated by the liberals. If ‘we’ don’t talk to them, ‘they’ will.
However, unlike you, I don’t have much hopes from TN’s filmstars. At least when it comes to respect for or liberation of women, they have only tried to reinforce the patriarchy in subtle and not so subtle ways. It would ideally be the best bet to reach the masses and influence them, but I suspect the filmstars will only continue to influence them in ways that suit them. You said politicians will never do this because it affects their bottomline. Well, it affects the bottomline of (male) superstars also. Once you upend this ridiculous idol worship and demiGod-ifcation of people who just perform in front of a camera, their riches and their position of privilege will all be threatened so why will they give it up? That’s why I mentioned examples of Bhagyaraj in the other thread. It continues from Bhagyaraj in the 80s to this day and will continue in the future. And the way the system is organised, if anybody dares to reach out to the people with a more socially progressive message, the censors, the exhibitors, distributors et all will gang up at the behest of the stars to sabotage their attempts. Tell me why are Myskkin’s films seen as pandering to elitists when they are usually shot in far more down-to-earth and ‘real’ settings than mass movies? So this Bhagat-style anti-intellectualism is framed very slyly to make it difficult even for someone who has the pulse of the heartland to reach them with an anti-conservative message. To be clear, Bhagat himself doesn’t espouse particularly regressive views; I am just using him as an example because the tactics are similar. Pretend to be a son of the soil when you are every bit as entitled as the ‘intellectuals’ you attack.
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Ram Sedhu
June 26, 2017
Yes indeed, BR. There is no conversation these days. Only mutual backslapping among the like-minded. However I’m sure you will agree that respect to women, religious tolerance, importance of education and knowledge etc., are universal values. Let’s get that out of the way. Nobody in their right mind can be opposed to these things. Except, what exactly is respect? What is religious toleration? What can be termed as education and what constitutes knowledge?
The problem with English-speaking liberal elite is that they don’t realize these things need to be constantly debated among various sections of people of all ideological persuasion including those they viscerally hate. (Spot the irony.) They are more interested in preaching their own ideas rather. So they preach. In op-eds, in lit-fests, in NDTV talk shows. The rest of India pays no attention.
Strangely enough, it is not that liberals don’t want to reach ‘the other India’ as it were. They do. But not to have a conversation, not to understand other POVs, not to learn something from them if possible. No, they seek conversion to their line of thinking. They are not going to be very successful in that. I remember the astonishment of some of friends when so many young people hit the streets for Jallikkattu. Why don’t they catch a bus to villages around Madurai and see Jallikkattu for themselves? Or talk to those who rear cattle for their livelihood? Why read/write so many uninformed op-eds that are not worth the paper they are printed on? Why waste so many hours dreaming a holiday in English countryside and southern France?
So to get back to your question, mutual respect is essential for effective communication. More than anything else. You have to respect your audience, and if you wish to communicate with them, you have to earn their respect as well.
During Chennai Floods, my grandmother who was watching the disaster on TV in our village exclaimed, “What kind of mad people build their tall houses inside water bodies and discharge canals?” You can be a public intellectual of international repute, but few villagers will have time for your uninformed views on Jallikkattu or Perumal Murugan issue (or urban planning for that matter). You can give a lecture on these issues to your own ilk. There is no stopping that.
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Ananth
June 26, 2017
Thank BR and those who’ve posted comments. It’s quite interesting (after all i following this blog).
I’ve been breaking my head with such questions for a long time now and have come to some tentative conclusions.
May be it is not a case of preaching to choir, but a case of devil quoting the scripture.
We have conveniently forgotten the fact that the “Other India”(OI) is the real India where all the writers and readers of op-ed have originally come from.
It is ironical that we are still trying to understand the ‘OI’. All the facts are there in the open. What are we waiting for?
*Problem is we have actively disengaged from the ‘OI’. It is much easier to sit in the ivory tower. (Actually, i wanted to meet a couple of my neighbours but i didn’t. Opening the laptop and participating in this debate is much more convenient!)
I am still trying to understand why my (late) father, one of the first graduates from his village, never contributed ‘directly’ anything worthwhile to his village community. He had no time to visit his village. He preferred to read op-eds and spend time with ‘us’. All his education in reputed institutions helped his family to become ‘us’ far removed from the ‘OI’. BTW, i am following in my father’s footsteps – reading op-eds and commenting.
*And the school is not about education/character building, it is about training for literacy and rat races. Only families and communities can train the minds. Educational reforms follow social reforms and not the other way around.
*Films can at best provide the pithy punch dialogues (basically messages recycled from the scriptures and simplified for the masses) that reinforce the ‘social conscience/super ego’ embedded deep in the sub-conscious.
*I feel Gandhi has some answers. He was able to connect with the ‘OI’ because he became one of ‘them’, literally. Actions speak louder than words.
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Madan
June 26, 2017
“I am still trying to understand why my (late) father, one of the first graduates from his village, never contributed ‘directly’ anything worthwhile to his village community. He had no time to visit his village” – Not a comment on your father’s specific situation but sometimes people get far removed geographically and are unable to re-establish links even if they wish to. My late grandfather grew up in Pudhukottai in the 1930s but spent his entire working career in Dhanbad as a professor at ISM. Post that, he moved in with my father who by now had landed up in Mumbai in search of better job opportunities. Many years after retirement, my grandfather did visit Pudhukottai again but this was almost seventy years after he had left the place, It happens. Today, we the so called middle class (who are really upper class if defined strictly by income segmentation) can afford to buy air tickets but back then, even sleeper class travel had to be carefully planned. And with the passage of time, people adapt to a different set of values cherished in the cities,especially the metros, and lose touch with rural life.
Your point about school education promoting a rat race was also brought up in an excellent episode of Neeya Naana. Somebody else above also said that Neeya Naana can often be excellent. I find its discussions more constructive than the cacophony on English TV channels. And no, not only because of politicians. In one Big Fight episode discussing the future of liberalism which had no politicians among the guests, the liberals shouted down two who tried to voice more unpopular opinions. It was interesting to see that our Indian Mihir Sharma and a foreign liberal were both united in this trait. I also don’t understand the anxiety of modern day liberals to attempt to stop somebody with a politically incorrect opinion from expressing it. At least respect the rules of engagement in a panel discussion and allow them to express their argument. The host Vikram Chandra also came to the aid of the liberals by steering the discussion adroitly away from controversy. Which defeated the purpose of a soul searching exercise ostensibly intended to identify why liberalism was under siege. If you don’t want to listen to opinions you don’t like, then what’s the point?
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Honest Raj (formerly 'V'enkatesh)
June 26, 2017
Madan: All this happens because, as they say, ‘Hinduism is not a religion but a way of life’. 🙂
And, the Hindu society is far from a homogeneous entity—it can never become one.
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tonks
June 26, 2017
Anjali Menon’s recently launched programme, “Parasparam”, uses gender sensitisation modules in schools in an attempt to reduce crimes against women.
The programme is fully practical and not theoretical. It comprises of modules of 24 hours in all, which are spread over three months, she adds. “It might sound academic but in practice they are taught through fun activities which they will enjoy but at the same time make them think. They have the freedom to question everything; we just give them a mind space to think, to let them know that the gender filter exists.” The programme is for girls as well as boys, with the motto, ‘bringing empowerment for girls and empathy for boys’
http://m.timesofindia.com/entertainment/malayalam/movies/news/to-reduce-crime-against-women-lets-teach-school-children-to-question-gender-bias-says-anjali-menon/articleshow/57872614.cms
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"Original" venkatesh)
June 26, 2017
@BR: The answer is that irrespective of what anyone says , Human beings are Tribal., once they are part of a tribe with its value system, shared beliefs and talismans, its not possible to change their views.
Countless psychological studies have shown that even if human beings know they are wrong, they will insist on sticking to their views . Facts at this point do not matter.
So how can we engage them ?
Answer: We cant.
How do we fight them?
Answer: Kill them.
End of Story.
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SR
June 27, 2017
“I’d imagine a Bharathi would very much reading op-eds and attending Lit Fests had he lived today.”
They would need to invite him first 🙂 Unfortunately, there is a wide divide in contemporary Indian society between what is being written in the English media and what is being written in the vernacular space. There is either a tendency to look down upon vernacular literature and media, or even if there is engagement, the tendency to wait for vernacular writers and thinkers to reach them amidst the English-speaking liberal elite. Only those vernacular voices that are amplified by the English media are considered ‘important’ and ‘valid’ in some way. There is seldom any effort to engage with the vernacular speaking world, beyond very superficial popular culture. I think this is absolutely necessary to breach the barrier and understand what the rest of the state/country thinks about issues, if we want to engage with them as equals.
The liberal bubble is indeed a bubble. There is a lot of political correctness in the liberal elite space that leads to an echo chamber that may even be harmful in the long run. For example, when I talk to Tamil speakers (who don’t or can’t read English newspapers and magazines), I actually find the lack of political correctness, tone politics, pronoun anxiety etc. refreshing. It allows me to re-examine a lot of my learnings from the liberal elite spaces (which are often moralistic, absolute and reductive), and look at things more critically. What I accept for myself after the process, is more rational and considered than simply accepting liberal wisdom as the revealed truth. At the same time, it helps me be more empathetic, as well as to be more convincing when I talk to people, because I have truly examined these ideas and believe it.
I recently read Tagore’s Gora, and I kept wishing as I read it that more and more Indians would pick up that book. It seems more relevant than ever today.
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GODZ
June 27, 2017
Nothing can be achieved by working in isolation. The collision of mass heroes and educated intellects may sound strange and as I said laughable too. But it’s a model. I don’t want to bring in politics here..But this model bought the unimaginable in November. It’s this coalition of ideological intellects and a reality TV star that reached the other world and changed the real world. In short, they were looking for a voice and they found it. Had they did this alone, the same people would have rejected them as Elites. So No matter what the values or messages is educated elites can never do this alone and they need appeal of Stars of the Visual medium to get their message transcend across any barriers and boundaries if they have one
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"Original" venkatesh)
June 27, 2017
“I actually find the lack of political correctness, tone politics, pronoun anxiety etc. refreshing.”
This is bullshit speak. If it confirms to your specific prejudices then its Political Correctness, if it doesn’t then its lack of Political Correctness.
This is an example of blinkered thinking with no intellectual rigor behind it.
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jaga_jaga
June 29, 2017
It is just not possible. Mine might be an unpopular opinion. But the English language is an outstanding currency through which intellect flows throughout the world these days. A major reason for this is, it is only through cutting-edge Science/Technology and Art that intellect typically sprouts as well as spreads. In India we have no dearth of first-rate artists. But we are nowhere close when it comes to state-of-the-art Science and Technology. Whereas, it is predominantly the English speaking countries (exceptions do exist) which excel at both Science and Art.
A society such as ours which is driven by superior art, yet lags behind in the scientific aspects, will always only be aspirational, guided by emotions. So unless the the science part is also addressed logically, the other “India” will never have access to cutting-edge ideas. It is not enough to attend lit-fests etc. OK you develop your vision that way. But what about the skills?? Of what use is vision without proper skillsets?
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doctorhari
July 4, 2017
I’m have always wondered about this issue you have raised BR. My rather delayed two cents. (I’m not spreading the net too wide and am expressing here a few thoughts solely about how to make your film reviews reach the masses. It’s easier bringing light to the globe if we concentrate on our corner in it, you see.)
After his famous Oxford speech on the British plunder of India, when Shashi Tharoor was asked to write a book based on that, his first response was, ‘But doesn’t everyone know about it?’ However, as it turned out, that was not the case. When he eventually wrote it, the book’s sales and popularity surpassed all that he had written before, though the book had nothing new to offer for a reader of history; just the fundamental truths about the nature of British rule in our country.
I bring that here to make this point.
Every good writer, when he writes, or for that matter every artist when he creates, has a target audience in his mind, albeit unconsciously. For this blog, I guess that audience comprises of the people who are well-educated, progressive thinking and who already have a good knowledge of cinema. Even when you write for yourself, you’re in a way, serving as a mouthpiece for them. Comments like ‘You have expressed eloquently what I thought about the movie’, ‘Your review echoes my opinion’ and so on that we see routinely in this space affirm this.
Now, apart from this, every now and then – or at least once – I feel you can try taking a radically different direction and do your bit to educate the larger public, passing on your knowledge on films in a way that would educate them. Unlike your posts here, you can consciously make the citizen of ‘other India’ your target reader and consider writing a book like Tharoor on the fundamentals of good cinema, explaining every part that goes into making one – screenplay, character arc, dialogue, staging of scenes and so on. You can take, say, Robert McKee’s or Syd field’s book as a model, and explain the reader, from the viewpoint of an Indian film critic, why some films are good, simultaneously explaining how those elements are incorporated in them. It would be a stretch for you, sure. Like a college professor asked to take classes for second graders in school. But I think you are the one most qualified to do it. These people are, indeed, in the infancy of their movie tastes and need such education. And in a way, for a knowledgeable and well known film critic like you, it can be considered a social responsibility too. (Am getting reminded of Sivaji’s dialogue on கடமை in Thevar Magan. 🙂
My life has given me quite a bit of experience in moving closely with this ‘other India’, and based on that, I can tell you – these people are not as rigid in their beliefs as the elite intellectuals, and are indeed, quite open to new wisdom when it’s presented in a palatable way for them. I’m sure, as you write it, you can find a way to make the process enjoyable for yourself, too. (Making it a simultaneous satire on mindless masalas could be one way to do it. Would give good bite for your predatory side 🙂
Stepping out of one’s comfort zone and pushing the envelope need not always be towards higher, shinier goals. It can also be a stepping down to reach out, imo.
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sravishanker1401gmailcom
July 4, 2017
Very nice post doctorhari
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doctorhari
July 4, 2017
Thanks Ravishankar ji. 🙂
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Madan
July 5, 2017
” it is predominantly the English speaking countries (exceptions do exist) which excel at both Science and Art.” – The exceptions would encompass basically all of West Europe except UK and Ireland.
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Madan
July 5, 2017
doctorhari: Your comment could be applied to the Indian English TV channels (I mean non movie/non news like Z Cafe/Colors Infinity). There were reports a week back or so of the low audience base of these channels and their struggle to make money in a Hindi/regional languages dominated market like India. But I am thinking, look at the shows: right now TV programming in USA is going through a ‘high end’ phase. The shows are great but I am also aware that they don’t cater to the LCD and are generally more complicated than 90s sitcoms. So how do you expect to be successful running a TV channel with shows like that in a country with a minority English speaking population (of which an even smaller minority may be interested in such shows)? And if USA isn’t making those kind of shows, why not make your own homegrown English TV shows set in the four metros or even the smaller cities or wherever and reach out to the audience? I wonder if both Bollywood and TV programmers increasingly curate based on their tastes and not the audience’s? That is not necessarily a bad thing because we have seen where too much pandering leads to. But it’s not going to get you reach, that’s for sure.
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arielsomebody
July 29, 2017
Hilarious that 1. BR ascribes ‘progressive’ to his value set and to people like him, whereas it is more correctly described as dangerously regressive, or hypocritical or communist,all of which are synonyms.
BR thinks everybody who reads this blog and comments agrees with him. This is mostly true. There is zero dissent in the comment space. I of course don’t agree with his value-system at all, but still comment occasionally. Of late, i’ve found better quality reviews elsewhere, that are less out-of-touch than BR, so i don’t read this blog as much either.
So nothing to shake up your cozy status-quo then. Just commented here today because his lament at not being able to influence more people with his shitty biased viewpoints made me giggle. Adios!
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