The dumbed down press was in evidence the other afternoon at a rather deft and exciting game of polo. All the cameras were directed at Saif Ali Khan, who deserves to be photographed but not tortured by lensmen pointing cameras at him for one solid hour, rather than at the polo game or its players, particularly a young sixteen-year-old who was playing a very promising game. This ‘page three’ syndrome, indulged in by mainline dailies, has reduced those national newspapers into being tabloids from broadsheets. Maybe the time has come for newspaper barons to decide what kind of journalism they want to be in. Everything sells. Celebrity celebration, as is done in the Financial Times weekend edition stands apart as the best. It honours pathbreakers in all fields and spends great effort in interviewing their chosen few, giving them prime space, putting them on a pedestal that is solid and exalted. In comparison, we put all and sundry across our city pages because they hosted a party! It has become ludicrous and the press encourages and endorses this superficial rubbish because it is easy to ‘cover’, not requiring any brains or mental exercise.

We have been in the throes of five days of Dhanteras to Bhai Dooj culminating with Eid. Sadly, the traditional way of celebrating these festivals has given way to uncouth lighting of firecrackers that make deafening noise rather than beautiful sparkles. The bangs carry on even after Diwali, making a complete mockery of happy enjoyment. This selfish and perverse public spirit has made living in our cities and towns utterly devoid of dignity. Clearly, there is a brutish and crass band of citizens who can only ‘assert’ themselves and show bravado because they have nothing else to show. It is upsetting to see this degradation happening with no checks.

Dumbed down

Often this is due to anarchic growth that happens outside of civilized norms of functioning and without stringent rules that enforce integrity of operation. This belief that money can buy all moral values and ethics, that it can overrule all laws that govern civilized society, that it is the final power, has made modern, middle-class India into an ugly monster that has begun to feed on itself and is running riot destroying every semblance of gracious human activity. Wherever one looks, in any social and economic area, there is a dumbing down that has resulted in a breakdown.

Ostentation, this great overriding need to show off in public spaces, has overwhelmed our urban, fast-becoming-rich society. Aesthetic sensibilities have changed radically as people try and follow the style of the international middle class. Quiet elegance, the like of which you see across rural India despite its economic deprivation, is lost in the bustling urban areas where a wild and robust all-over-the-place manner has taken root. It too will pass, but after having done its damage. For a country like India, where style, design, skill and aesthetics has been an intrinsic part of life and living, to have to go through these tiresome contortions is a waste of energy and time. If only our public institutions and educational systems had recognized the real and true strengths of this varied and dynamic culture, we would have emerged as a solid and secure nation sixty years after having got our political independence.

Our governments dumbed India down. Our administrators ruled us much like the colonial power did. Our strengths were put on the back-burner, shunned and neglected. We began to ape all that was alien and those who ruled addressed their interests and not those of the many levels of the Indian social structure. They failed us miserably and we fell into their trap because they operated within rather draconian inherited laws. That is the irony of India and the people will have to bring in the corrective and make the rulers accountable.