The Politics Of Spectacles In India !

 

BY R.K.MISRA

Karl Marx and cricket have little in common .And  yet how the two mesh.

 Religion is the ‘opiate of the masses’-disconnecting disadvantaged people from the here and now, and dulling their engagement in progressive politics, said Karl Marx.

But that was nearly 178 years ago. Nearer present times, in 2008,Top Scholar, the research and creative database of the Western Kentucky University(WKU) of the US showcased a paper on sports as the ‘opiate of the masses”. It represented a small part of a larger project titled, Game Day and God: Football, Faith and Politics in the American South.

To each their sports, to each their game. Baseball to one set of countries, soccer to another lot and cricket to the Commonwealth camaraderie….but bridging national divides and sporting fissures, is the games politicians play in hitching their bandwagon to power trains. The India-Pakistan World Cup cricket engagement in Ahmedabad on October 14, a day before Gujarat’s festival of nine nights kicked-in, provided a keen insight both into the game and into the power trail surrounding it.

How else would one account for the lack-lustre opening for an event billed as the most anticipated cricket event of the year, held in the sport’s biggest stadium globally named after a serving prime minister, in a country known to idolise the game. In fact, there was no opening ceremony at all for the first match between England and New Zealand on October 5 at Ahmedabad and the saffron coloured seats remained empty by-en-large.

In sharp contrast, all stops had been pulled out for the India-Pakistan engagement on October 14.There were a bevy of performers from tinsel town parading their prowess and unfolding the ‘works’. Pent-up enthusiasm in  an India- Pakistan sports encounter is understandable, even excitement bordering on exuberance as well, but in this particular case the nudge and push from political  quarters which dominate every quarter of most sports was discernable. Speculation was rife that the stadium was ‘expected’ to be graced by womenkind as a symbolic gesture marking the passing of the Women’s reservation Bill 2023. It would have been a fitting thanks-giving gesture from Gujarat for the gift from its son, Narendra Modi for women of the country, passed as the first legislation in India’s new Parliament building. However and for whatever reason, this did not fructify. It is common knowledge that the ruling political establishment lays great store by symbolisms in connecting the dots for perception management.

Then there were the usual hiccups with potential to muddy the waters  days before the match like a vehicle load leading chants of ‘ram-dhun’ while passing through a minority dominated area of Ahmedabad and following it up with a similar ‘programme’ at the cop-station after it ,for not registering their ‘complaint’. Then off course an advocate has filed a complaint before the ICC chair against a Pakistani cricketer for offering prayers on the field while his team mates were waiting for drinks during the break. However no such plea was in the offing when a player of the Indian team was seen praying silently before bowling an all- important ball.

Small games and petty guiles, at times, need to be seen on a wider canvass. Allen Guttmann, emeritus professor of English and American studies who has numerous sports publications to his credit is on record stating that sports is a principal spectacle that is both the product and producer of the social formation. French theorist Guy Debord carries it further when he points out that spectacles are cultural productions that act upon the masses, like an opiate- functioning in much the same way that religion does, giving the illusion of ‘heaven on earth’-leaving people oblivious of the real world of exploitation, alienation and general social injustice, in short their present plight.

Thus as Navratri, the festival of nine nights resplendent in its garbas in Gujarat got underway, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal (BD)  once again sounded their warning against non-Muslims participating in Garba festivities.

VHP has demanded that the entrants to Garba grounds be applied tilak on their foreheads and be sprinkled with cow urine before being allowed in the ground. This is a measure to ‘distill’ the Hindus from the non-Hindus, said a VHP spokesperson

 A BJP legislator of the state has already asked Garba organisers to apply tilaks on the foreheads of the men entering  garba venues as a protection against alleged “love jihad”.

 The spokesperson   made it clear that both the saffron entities has already appealed to the government as well as the garba organisers to ensure only Hindus get to enter the garba grounds and make checking of Aadhar Cards mandatory to ensure no one from other religions get to enter the grounds. The cops notwithstanding, their members will provide their own layer of scrutiny at all such venues, it has been made out.

 There is little new in the professed imposition of this  code-sprinkling cow urine and applying tilak-for such demands have been voiced since 2015. What is new however is the hearsay that the VHP plea to keep non-Hindus away from garba venues finds resonance in the reported advice in Friday post-prayer sermons to do likewise  to stay out of harm’s way. Though a definition of ‘non-Hindus’ would be enlightening !EOM

 This syndicated news column was published in the respective newspapers edition dated  October 17,2023  whose links are given below:-

https://epaper.lokmat.com/lokmattimes/main-editions/Nagpur%20Main/2023-10-17/6

https://odishapostepaper.com/edition/4678/orissapost/page/9

 

 

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