On Intolerance and Media

What does the Hyena say?

Intolerance needs interlude. Media needs regulation. India needs a sense of humour.

By Vikram Grewal

Nations mostly need education, healthcare, agricultural and industrial growth, employment and several others of these ‘socio-economic-political’ nuggets to develop. India currently, apart from these vital entities, needs a sense of humour. Although the Indian society is in dearth of the said virtue since a very long time, the grave need has been exacerbated by the ‘intolerance fiasco’ it has been engulfed by.

Intolerance became the most ‘googled’ word online in India- which isn’t the issue. Getting the usual meaning ‘unwillingness to accept views, beliefs or behaviour that differ from one’s own,’ and still not realizing it- is the issue at hand! Several so called ‘nationalist’ social groups might have appended ‘use of violent means to make them accept your views’ to their understanding of the buzzword.

An even greater issue came up: that of ‘Intolerance towards intolerance.’ Now, basically and perhaps technically one intolerance must nullify the other but unfortunately that isn’t how this society works. Post the ‘award wapsi’ movement kick started by artists and scholars, the situation got aggravated by the two incidents that hit the headlines last week. (i) Lalu hugging Kejriwal at Nitish Kumar’s swearing in ceremony; and (ii) Aamir Khan affirming to the growing of intolerance in the country. These two instances had two things common between them- absurd popular reaction and unnecessary media hype.

There was a debate on why Kejriwal should or shouldn’t have hugged Lalu. This non-issue was given so much media coverage that the ‘hug’ seemed to have overshadowed even the Chennai floods in terms of tele-time on news channels. Then came Aamir with his better half’s contemplation about leaving the intolerant country everyone calls India. A bizarre riot followed: Khan’s effigies burnt, protest marches, poster-blackening, cycle marches (with BJP MP Vipul Goyal pedalling awkwardly posing for shutterbugs) and frivolous threats (such as ‘Slap Aamir, get one lakh’ by the Shiv Sena).

The best results one could get out of these two events from last week were the amazingly hilarious internet trolls and memes. The amount of trolling and hence laughs shared has been huge.  Indian comedy groups particularly East India Comedy (EIC) with their Outrage videos on Intolerance and the ‘Bihar elections’ on YouTube have been extremely witty, humorous and interestingly rational! Such channels have been making their ‘comic’ hay while the ‘bizarre politics’ sun shines. The accomplished comedian Vir Das’ ‘Potcast’ series has been appreciated for its political incorrect hard-hitting rational humour.

At the same time there is a huge sect of people who are offended by jokes and digs on ethnicity, religion, sex etc. The internet is, as a consequence, flooded with hateful comments and inappropriate content. It has always been that way though. And well, remember- democracy? Freedom of speech? A right only the politically influential seem to have presently. Despite this fact, there is an audience- a learned, rational sect of people with ‘a sense of humour’.  

However the question now is- who is to blame for the disappearance of this audience who appreciate such humour disappear when absurd incidents hit the screen and stay there until the non-issue has been ripped apart to pieces? The media of course.  And who gets the credit of getting this comedy through to the masses? The media of course!

The point I am trying to make here is that presently there is no such thing as the “broadcaster’s discretion” (except the unreasonable censoring of films by an orthodox censor board chief). There exists only the “receiver’s discretion” in such intolerant times. You create and you receive through ‘media’- which in no way can be narrowed down to news agencies as the consumer of news is very much a part of the system.      

In my argument, humour mustn’t be stereotyped to laughter emanating from lame Comedy Nights with Kapil jokes. Humour acting as a social element stays ‘a vehicle of truth’. Umberto Eco’s classic The Name of the Rose states ‘Humour is based on the inversion of norms, on shock, exaggeration, incongruity, ridicule. Laughter stands things on their heads, turns the world topsy-turvy to show its other side. Laughter gives perspective… Laughter is the rational man's instrument, by which he converts discomfort to relief.’

It must be realized that the media is a ‘rabid hyena’ (‘dog’ remains relatively innocuous in this case) in search of TRPs. India is represented as a country ‘suddenly’ suffering from intolerance (which in fact it always had like any other country; intolerance remains an innate virtue of a diverse society) and raises a hullabaloo seeing people hug on stage. Watching erudite spokespeople debate on non-issues and demean the idea of news and make a mockery of the Indian viewership isn’t what the viewer wants. However, the key is to develop a sense of humour- to mock the news which presently is mocking your senses- to be indifferent to the sensationalism. Forget about the fox, I wonder- what does the hyena say. Actually, it doesn’t seem to say anything at all- it just keeps its mouth open all the time.