It is favourably claimed by some voices within the Opposition that the victory of the BJP and its allies in the 2019 Parliamentary Election was actually the victory of ‘WhatsApp University’. How? By “manipulating minds and misguiding in the name of religion, xenophobia and national security”. But what about people within the Opposition itself, who do not subscribe to BJP’s WhatsApp university system and are anti-BJP in nature, but fall prey to social media posts? Recently, a few incidents have opened up new passages for fresh concerns for a ‘New India’.
A young friend of mine, who had to leave school after seventh grade and started working in a factory in Delhi forwarded a video captioned “Bangalan drama’ where a few women are jeering absurdly during what looked to me like a yoga session or maybe a religious ritual. I did not bother to see the video. Later on, when he met me, he insisted that I watch the video and started laughing hysterically at the deeds of Bangalan (as some people in Delhi derogatorily call Bengali women).
I tried to explain that the language and dressing in the video is probably from any of the Southern Indian states, or particularly from Telangana or Andhra as I could recognize the Telugu language. But I was sure they are not from Bengal. He demonstrated his WhatsApp and Facebook ‘forward-ish’ knowledge and went on laughing as he wanted me to make me a murga (a fool), knowing very well that I teach at one of the Delhi University colleges and address me as professor Sahab (maybe my ‘foolishness’ amuses him).
A friend of mine who is an M.Phil research scholar and a soon-to-be professor sent two videos with a caption “Massori ki neher m magarmach. Ek admi kha liya isne. Video mein hai” (A crocodile in Mussorie’s canal eats a man. It’s in the video) with one video showing a few young men looking at a crocodile eating fish and in another video it can be seen that limbs of a man are being half-swallowed by a crocodile. Just one glance at the videos and I realized those videos are from two different places. The first place is a kind of plastered canal and the second place a water body surrounded by jungles. I was astonished to see how the mind of a would-be college/university teacher could be manipulated with a video and a caption. Thank God, we both have a deep belief in secularism and we did not get blinded by any sort of provocation!
In another WhatsApp forwarded video, it is captioned “Mamata is arresting young madrasa kids on the suspicion of terror” where it could be seen many young Muslims kids are being escorted by police and a few women. I immediately discovered it is an old video, and that they were kids who were rescued at Sealdah station in 2015. This friend of mine is an anti-BJP and anti-‘WhatsApp university’. He is a graduate and doing his own business. But he too fell a victim to WhatsApp forwards.
The last shocking moment came when I received a forward, from a professor of English literature at a college, of a picture of melting car lights and the caption “Kuwait on Saturday recorded the highest temperatures in the world; reaching up to 63 degrees Celsius under direct sunlight, according to Al Qabas newspaper“. It is true that Kuwait has recorded high temperatures in its history but AltNews showed that the pictures are from the USA where a fire broke out damaged the cars.
In all the mentioned cases I tried to explain the whole situation with rationale and logic by asking basic questions and pointing out the mismatch. That both the places are different in the case of man-eating crocodile, that if it takes 100 Degrees Celsius to boil water, then it will take 255 degrees to melt strong plastic like a car’s backlight, and that the video is not from a madrassa and that the boys seem to be at a railway station and there is more to the story than the caption.
But in all the cases, the individuals rejected my logic and rationale until I shared some hoax slayer news with them. Let alone the BJP IT cell, in all the instances above, the concerned people were ‘well educated’ and aware with the circles of fake news, yet they fell prey to it.
So, what is the difference between the pro-BJP and anti-BJP minds? What is the difference between those people who believe in WhatsApp forwarded narratives and vote for BJP and those people who vote against BJP? And most importantly, how many people shall I correct? How many people will be approached by (not the vice-versa) AltNews and other hoax slayer news? Where are we heading? Is this the death of rationalism and logic?
Yes.
Truly, in this age of post-truth, the truth only has a relative value, not a humane or universal value. Now the truth (factual, I mean) is not accepted but countered with other truths having beneficial affiliations to an individual or an organization. I strongly feel that truth and rationalism are not just in crisis, but are dead totally and cannot be brought back to life. We are entering a world totally polarized on race, religion, economic backgrounds, caste and all the other markers of human civilization which divide men. This polarization shall strengthen itself further, ending to what conclusion we do not know (perhaps like the Nazi ending?).
I have the same and strong impulse when Arundhati Roy says one day people will automatically act against this “formidable, money-filled hate-filled formidable machine.” But when? I ask my fellow, when will people get tired of WhatsApp or Facebook, as I believe nothing is permanent? He says never. WhatsApp, Messenger, Facebook will always keep coming with new features to keep the users interested. It shook my nerves. Perhaps it will never end and the polarization that has started with social media will bring man’s civilization to a great turning point. Will it be good?
I do not convict individuals, rather I convict the ‘age’, this time and this machine of propaganda, ignorance, and block-headedness. Individuals are mere victims, and (I pray not) who knows, even I might become a victim tomorrow?
While teaching Plato to my students, I argued that Plato did not want to ban the poets from a ‘civilized’ city-state in real, rather he wanted to ban ‘ignorance’ which has the potential to cause great harm to human civilization and I gave them the example of WhatsApp. It is surely an achievement in man’s innovation, but Plato would not want to ban WhatsApp which creates so many troubles in our country. He would want to ban ignorance which makes people believe in forwarded videos and captions without verification.
Bookish wisdom and traditional pedagogy have become completely valueless in front of this machine. But, this bookish wisdom has brought many renaissances uplifting human civilizations across the world. So, are we standing at the verge of a (bad) renaissance to be brought by social media?
With this situation in front of us, who do we blame for all the problems ‘New India’ is suffering from: a particular party, a set of people or a whole generation? Most importantly, what future lies ahead of us? We need to find an answer immediately.