In this age of information overload, our understanding of both our immediate neighbourhood and the world around us is determined by a blend of what is presented to us and what we choose to believe. It is an unfortunate reality that despite all of India’s pretensions of becoming a global power with a seat at the high table, its understanding of world affairs is disproportionately dependant on the perspectives of the Anglo-American media. To a very large extent, this is due to the paucity of media investment in reportage from overseas. The average educated Indian looks entirely to publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Financial Times and The Economist for their global understanding despite an underlying awareness that India’s self-interests are increasingly at variance with the priorities of the Western world.

Of course, the binaries are not all that stark. Over the years, particularly since President Donald Trump began his second innings, the unity of the West has been jeopardised, first by variants of the "Don-roe Doctrine" and, second, by the West’s conflict with Russia and, occasionally, China.

High politics apart, there is another complication. The intellectual hegemony of a settled Establishment has been broken by the simultaneous challenge of two conflicting forces. At one level, the editorial classes that once represented the settled world order have conceded the upper hand to a 21st-century liberalism that incorporates nearly all the fringe thinking of the university campuses. This would have seemed perfectly in order had it not been for the sustained challenge to the post-World War II consensus from a new conservatism that has incorporated an adherence to family values and patriotism with a disavowal of the ultra-cosmopolitanism promoted by multilateral bodies such as the United Nations and the European Union. Finally, there is the clash between conflicting versions of nationhood which has created enormous social ruptures on both sides of the Atlantic. Liberal indulgence of Islamism in civil society has produced a backlash that has destroyed the coherence of what was hitherto understood as Western civilisation.

It is in this hugely muddled context that the uprising in Iran assumes importance. As of now, given the complete blackout of all telephone and internet services by the beleaguered Islamic Republic, it is impossible to be certain over the future of the regime. In the past decade or so, the custodians of the theocratic State have successfully — but with unspeakable brutality — beaten back protests against the regime. These included brave and spirited protests by Iranian women against the compulsory wearing of the hijab, protests that were completely at odds with the enthusiastic endorsement of religious conservative practices by the Left and liberals in both Europe and America. The present uprising in Iran that has claimed the lives of estimated 3,000 protesters has combined the persistent anger of women with the frustrations of ordinary people who have seen the country’s economy collapse before their eyes.

For the Left-liberal intellectuals and the media Establishment, the uprising in Iran has raised awkward questions they would rather not face.

First, there is the unresolved question of Iran’s Islamic identity that became the new normal after the overthrow of the Shah in 1980. The theocracy that was put in place by Ayatollah Khomeini and his successor, the supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, consciously suppressed the distinctly Iranian, pre-Islamic identity that the last Shah had tried to enshrine as the foundation of the country’s national identity. At a time when large swathes of the Muslim world are aggressively positing their Islamic identity, the anti-regime protests in Iran seem a wonderful aberration. If the regime is indeed overthrown and the Pahlavi dynasty reinstated — as a large section of the protestors are demanding — they will send shock waves throughout the Islamic world. Iran has the potential of puncturing the halo around Islamism in the liberal ecosystem.

Secondly, since the cowardly attack on Israeli civilians by Hamas on October 7, 2023 was celebrated and made the focal point of a global solidarity movement for Palestinian Statehood and the destruction of Israel, West Asian developments have been viewed through the contorted prism of anti-Zionism. The colossal damage to the self-esteem of the Iranian State by Israel’s retaliation — that included the collapse of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, the emasculation of the dreaded Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the weakening of Iran’s nuclear capabilities — was not sufficiently grasped. The tears shed for Gaza and the visceral hatred for Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, distracted attention from the shifts in the region’s balance of power. Insufficient importance was attached to Netanyahu’s broadcast to the Iranian people on the occasion of Nowruz calling for regime change. Today, the Israeli flag is seen fluttering alongside the pre-1979 Iranian flag in demonstrations all over Europe that are being wilfully glossed over by a bewildered Left-liberal media. If Jews were the villains, why are Iranian protesters viewing them as allies? Equally odd, why is the much-reviled President Trump being seen as the person whose final blow will send Ayatollah Khamenei to his home in exile?

Iran is making the world go upside down and demolishing a multitude of certitudes. The silence of the usual suspects in India whose voices resonated across newspapers and campuses over Gaza is not as intriguing as it appears. Muslim women throwing off symbols of patriarchy should have excited the feminist world. But there is silence. Muslim intellectuals who have come to rail against ‘fascism’ at home are as silent as they were when the Pakistani army unleashed a wave of terror in East Pakistan in 1971. The Bangladeshi liberation movement got no support from Muslim co-religionists when the country assaulted Islamism.

The Indian Establishment’s silence over the happenings in Iran is more understandable. Regardless of the feelings of ordinary people, India’s foreign policy is propelled by an extraordinary measure of caution and, in many cases, an imperfect understanding of ground realities. An inclination to play it very safe and repose total faith in the status quo has often led to India missing the bus. We don’t know if circumspection is going to yield returns in Iran. However, even if the regime survives after a bloodbath, it is only a matter of time before Iran rediscovers its true self. The proverbial counter-revolution warrants our unequivocal support.