That which is a wonder is precisely that, a wonder. Indefinable. So the campaign launched by the privately funded New Seven Wonder Foundation based in Switzerland has taken no risk. It has decided to go for popular voting in order to compile a list of the new seven wonders of the world. Since it is a vote on the internet, the popular vote is limited to those citizens of the world who have access to the internet, as Unesco has tartly pointed out. Unesco has been anxious to dissociate itself from the private enterprise, and has emphasized that this media campaign has nothing to do with its own research, which leads to the registration of sites in the World Heritage list. It has also made clear that the private campaign will not do anything towards the preservation of the sites that will go up on the final new seven wonders list.

Although Bernard Weber, the man behind the wonder campaign, has assured a wondering world that the new list will redefine its cultural legacy, the point of making it remains shrouded in mystery. But it is typical of the juvenile enthusiasm Indians mistake for patriotism that they have jumped in with all hands on the keyboard, voting frantically for the Taj Mahal and urging others to do the same. Given the numbers that India can command — even without a Sunita Williams — Taj Mahal can well be a contender. In a land of astonishing cultural monuments, Taj Mahal has made it to the tourist map. Apart from its strange and alluring beauty and its entrancing history, this is its main virtue. It would have many competitors in terms of cultural heritage within the country, only they are not so widely known. But no one is thinking of cultural heritage here; very few of those who vote are interested in all that. Indians are quick to engage in mindless competitions with the rest of the world. It is not for them to pause and think whether merely voting en masse makes them democratic or plain stupid. The electronic media’s anxiety to encourage people’s participation has inaugurated a culture of dumbing-down — a culture in which expertise is irrelevant, considered judgment of specia- list issues just so much waste of time, and popu- lar opinion everything. The beauty of the Taj Mahal, or its history, cannot be rendered more or less significant by inclusion in a list. It would be better if it and all the other wonders that India has, manmade as well as natural, could be loved and cared for.