While going through the website of a magazine, I came across the sub-text just below the title. It said, or rather described the magazine as, “a journal of politics and culture”. The words ‘politics’ and ‘culture’ caught my eye and my mind started to weave some thoughts and questions, that in turn, created a sort of link between the two terms.
Some questions popped in my mind:
“Has politics become a part of our culture?”
“Has our culture become completely political?”
“Or has it always been so? Politics and culture have always gone hand in hand?”
I started to play these questions in my mind, and many supplementary thoughts came up. During the last six years, politics has become so rampant that it is impossible to call oneself ‘apolitical’, as no such term exists in the current scenario. Even calling oneself ‘apolitical’ is a political act, which originates from the political culture of the country. The culture has become so political that even a simple, biological act of procreation, is also a political one. According to some right-wing groups, the coming of babies into this world would contribute to the majority population that is in ‘danger’ of being outnumbered. The majority (100 crores in number), but still under a threat from a particular minority (17 crores in number).
Where do these thoughts come from? Who perpetuates such thoughts that make people believe in such ideas? It is the current Culture; the Culture with a capital C. Because it has become a proper noun, with its own identity and individuality. And this Culture could be simply exchanged with the word ‘Politics’ because both have come to mean almost the same.
The question that arises here is that what is this Culture, and how is it political? The answer is that this Culture is the one designed and shaped by the politics of the country. The politics of the country, for consecutively six years, has revolved around the same idea and concept: the idea of creating fear and then equating that fear in the form of a person, a community, a place and so on. First, they created fear in the majority of the minority. Then they created fear of an educational institution all over the country. Then during the course of the recent elections, they created fear in the minority, of the majority; that the only way to progress and development is by voting for them. They even created fear of an animal and a mythological figure that are known to connote words like peace, motherhood, equality, respect and brotherhood. Such they created a fear that motherhood stood against—motherhood and brotherhood against brotherhood.
Who is ‘they’ who created the fear? They are actually the ones who are to be feared. And the simple, uncomplicated reason for this is that they have the capacity and capability to present completely harmless ones as the fearsome ones. The ones who are after your lives and will rip your souls and feed on you.
Is the culture that is being forced upon us, actually, to be precise, ‘Indian’ or ‘Hindu’ culture? Or is it the corrupt ‘Brahmin’ culture? A culture that has no authenticity because the roots to it were in the control of a particular section for hundreds of years, and no one knows what exactly was the ‘Culture’ and what we are following and being asked to follow, was it even culture and more importantly, would it be our culture in the years to come?