Unpalatable Truths on the Entertainment Platter: Satyameva Jayate

The popularity of the recently started TV show ' Satyameva Jayate' is surprisingly on the rise. Surprising, because it speaks of some of the most unpalatable truths of Indian society like female foeticide, child abuse,dowry system, and corruption in health care sector, and these are the things which traditionally belong to more or less 'sarkari',or non sarkari NGOs or academic platforms, and not on the celebrity-page 3 and entertainment formats. Nor is the great Indian middle class which devours saas-bahu soaps and crappy reality shows famous for displaying genuine concern to tackle the real social issues. It is embarrassed by the reality of Indian society and prefers to skip the discussion of these things.  Aamir Khan's accomplishment lies precisely in bringing up on the hugely obese TV entertainment space, the one obsessed with titillation and sensation, those things which belong to the other genres and platforms which have been traditionally considered 'serious' and non-popular. He achieved something similar in his hugely popular films like 'Tare Zameen Par' and ' Three Idiots'.  A very significant strength of the program, in my view,  lies in Aamir not playing the usual blame games but asking us to responsibility for the systemic evils and asking people to take action.

Obviously, many people are critical of this ' celebrity/filmy activism'. Some people claim that Aamir is simply making money and becoming famous by talking about serious social issues and there by trivializing them. However, I dont think Aamir is in such a bad need either for money or for fame. When celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan are busy hosting 'Kaun Banega Crorepatis', and Shah Rukh Khan is getting attention by brawling with cricket ground security guards , I think Aamir's work is outstanding. Celebrities can do wonders when it comes to contributing to society, and I think this is Aamir's way of doing it. Most of the skepticism seems to stem from Aamir's celebrity status and the entertainment genre of the program, which actually is unjustified. Nor do I think he is ' trivializing' or 'diluting' issues. In fact the one about female foeticide was a real shocker.Not that I did not know about it, but I was largely unaware of its magnitude and growth. Like many of the viewers I used to think this was practice was more prevalent in rural areas and in more conservative states of the country and I was also unaware of the scale ,and I was really alarmed by its rampant growth. The episode on malpractices in health care sector was straight and eyeopening. 

Some people, especially academic-minded ones, were critical  of the discussion on gender without referring to social categories of caste, class or region. This criticism is definitely valid, but if you consider the format of the show and the audience of the show, a nuanced sociological analysis would actually take away its edge. The caste-class political configurations are extremely region specific and would make little sense on the national TV.

Some people, especially the activists, wonder if all this is 'real activism', after all they are the 'real' activists-don't they have a reason to be insecure when an upstart film-star, one time ' chocolate hero', starts doing there things and by being a hugely popular celebrity, taking all the attention and limelight? Well, they may not like it, but  then who cares, this is contemporary activism. It has moved away from socialist jholawala cynicism of the eighties and become more 'fashionable' , but what is more important contemporary activism is unimaginable without media, especially TV and social networking . The platforms which it has to invariably use - digital technology or corporatised media TV etc has dubious relationship with the evil it seeks to combat - capitalism in various guises. Having Reliance Foundation as 'philanthropy partner' for program on social evils is bound to raise eyes brows. Or is it very Indian? Gandhi had his ' philanthropy partners' like the Birlas too !!

For me, however, the real question is what will its impact be. Will it be another ' Anna Hazare'-type hot air balloon which hardly achieved any concrete results? Will it impact the nation of youngsters and teenagers? Will it impact the entertainment addicts solely interested in saas bahu soaps? When many of the middle class Indians who feel that these things do not happen to them, and they are 'out there',  such programs may be useful in hinting that you and your family may be the next victim and hence it is high time  you did something about it. And I am also waiting for the one on corruption and mafia-ization of education system. Let's wait for Rancho baba to give his gyaan....

Education as Gang Rape: The Dark Tropes in 3 Idiots

You don't have to be Rancho to tell  that Aaal eez Naat Well with the Big Bad Indian education system, which boasts of being one of the biggest in the world. Some Hindi films have dealt with this monster in an interesting way : I can think of Gulzar's Parichay (1972), Aamir Khan's Taare Zameen Par (2007) and Rajkumar Hirani's Munnabhai MBBS(2003) and 3 Idiots (2009). All these films are extremely funny, sensitive and are critical of the very idea of education in India. The attack is on coercive aspects of mass education system and how it murders the student's instinctive curiosity, spontaneity, creativity and individuality.

The films are  also critical of the undue emphasis on examination which only tests information retention capacity instead of thinking skills, creative problem solving skills and knowledge.The chargesheet against education system is well known. However, the films also take into account the fact that education system is a social institution and hence it reflects the widespread social values of success and failure in life. The cut-throat competitiveness either produces cut throats or people with deep inferiority complex. A society which believes in rat race produces mice. The films also try to persuade parents against imposing their expectations on their children .All these charges, of course are well-known.  3 Idiots, too, tries to persuade people about rethinking the whole idea of success in contemporary Indian context. It argues against measuring success in terms of marks, wealth and fame and sex. The film is not intended to be profound or artistic, but deliver its message in an entertaining and contemporary way and needless to say it succeeds in its objectives.

Though very glossy and hilarious, it has its sinister undertones. It talks about suicidal tendencies among todays youth which are abetted by the educational system and society's notions of success and failure.The media is hasty in making connection between the film and a wave of suicides among students in Maharashtra. Media also accuses the film of encouraging ragging. It is like blaming Sholay for the rise in dacoity.The films like 3 Idiots are sugar-coated comedies which are really tragedies.

The education system is an integral part of society. The roots of the problems of education system lie in the social values. If society defines success as acquisition  of Fame, Fortune and Fuck (though not necessarily in that order-Freud, I think, talked about Fame-Female-Fortune as three basic motives behind man's actions) either by a crooked hook or a crook-with-a hook using all the shortcuts possible, then education is reduced to the function of ladder in the brutal game of social snakes-and-ladders. If it fails to be a ladder, it is perceived to be a snake. Education, however, is neither a snake nor a ladder.

Though lot of idealistic bullshit is parroted by the mikephiliac educationists regarding the basic purpose of education, when it comes to implementation of educational programmes,  it is seen as  more of a mass-producing factory for producing low quality skilled labourers for an underdeveloped economy. Though it is widely accepted that education is about development of ability to think and behave critically and creatively, the success in educational system is measured in a small minded way of measuring one's ability for information retention. Hence the outcome of the examination, is obviously no indicator of one's intelligence.And though there is lot of blah blah regarding `examination reforms', hardly anything is done on the front and no genuine alternative to the present system has gained wide acceptance. Consequently, what goes under the name of `education' in India is actually a monstrous machinery which has brutal impact on the child's sensitive mind. However, most of us are forced by the society to feed our children to this Rakshasa.I feel that what we do to our children is similar to marital rape in India. Just like marital rape is not seen as a rape because its done by socially accepted partner, education is not seen as a form of torture just because it is seen as `doing what everybody is doing' and hence legitimate.

Hidden beneath the banter of 3 Idiots is the dark trope of rape. In the famous Speech scene, Rancho replaces the word ` chamatkar' with `balatkar' and `dhan' with `stan' in a speech which Chatur Ramalingam- a student who wants to use education to get Lamborghini and Green Card by mindless mugging- is going to deliver in the convocation and in a language he does not know  , simply by rote learning it. Chatur delivers the speech without any knowledge of distinction between ` balatkar' ( rape) and ` chamatkar' ( miracle)  and between `dhan' (wealth) and `stan' ( breasts). What needs to be emphasized is that today's society, including students, teachers and parents have lost the ability to make the crucial distinctions between `miracle'( of becoming successful) and `rape', and between wealth and breasts. Males, the film just hints, seem to think of wealth as if it is woman's tits or mother's breasts from which they have been weaned.

Hidden underneath the hilarity is another dark trope of sodomy or anal rape. In the famous ragging scene, the juniors are supposed to undress and tell their seniors pointing to their own bottoms, `Jahapanah, Tohfa Kabool Karo' or `O Mighty Emperor, please accept this gift'. Ragging which is seen as an `initiation ceremony' is also an initiation ceremony of the novices to the Big Bad Darwinian World of Survival of Cutthroats. Initiation into the World which only worships the Winners-- Prof Viru Sahasrabuddhe or Virus ( played brilliantly as ever by Boman Irani) points out the no one knows the name of the second person on the moon--is traumatic and extremely humiliating experience. People who participate in this ragging and gang rape of the young minds are Parents, Employers,Teachers, Senior Students (PETS)- in short, the entire society. Growing up in society such as ours amounts to mental, emotional and even physical rape by the perverted societal arrangement.Education seems to be one of modes of violation and torture. The only way to change it is by EDUCATING Parents-Employers-Teachers(PETs).

It is very fashionable and so very easy to blame Our Big Bad Politicians for all the Evils of the Society from Terrorism to Tuberculosis. It is very difficult to accept our own responsibility and act with integrity. We want to impart `morals and ethics' to our kids without we ourselves having it in the first place. We feel we have to `find out' role models for youth and like everything else we expect OTHERS to be the role models. We feel that teaching moral amounts to PREACHING, when in fact, it is about ACTING honestly and responsibly. Corrupt, dishonest, inefficient, and ignorant parents, employers and teachers produce a society which is corrupt, dishonest, inefficient and ignorant. We are the serial killers of the dozens of students committing suicide.
We have become rapists by allowing ourselves to be raped -we offered it our assholes, didn't we, saying ` Tohfa Kabool Karo'. It is a vicious circle.

Recall WH Auden's 1 Sept 1939

" I and the public know

What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return. "

In fact, this has been going on in India since ages- think of caste-system, feudalism (the Palace Paradigm in Prof Handoo's words), dowry related violence, the convention of Sati ( both literal and symbolic),colonialism and what not. All these things were systems of rape. No doubt our education system is as bad as our society: it is casteist ( Rancho says that marking is creation of new caste system, but it is casteist in many more ways), feudal, patriarchal, and colonial. It will be modernized only if the society is truly modernized ( not in superficial sense of modernity as fashion, but in terms of critical and creative thinking).

Here in lies our Paradox for Today: education will be modernized only if society will be modernized and society will be modernized only if education is modernized.We have to go in circles to break this vicious circle. But we HAVE to break it, if we want to save our children and grandchildren from abuse. There is very little choice in this matter.