Hate at first sight

Aditi Garg

Hate has become the new love and everybody is falling head over heels into it. There are way too many things we are against and get rattled by, yet very few worthy causes manage to hold our attention. Gawking at celebrity lives, scrutinising them, putting them on trial for every misstep, however minuscule; ripping apart the creative works of artists looking for implied meaning where there is none; or taking offence at another’s way of life or casual conversation, has become a favourite pastime for the nation where intolerance is in vogue.

Gagged guffaws

There was a time when humour was unabashed and everybody joined in for a hearty laugh whenever the opportunity came. With limited sources of entertainment, jokes were cherished and comics were devoured. With globalisation and digitisation of entertainment, like everything else, humour is being mass produced, lame jokes masquerade as witty messages and subtlety has given way to crudeness. With plenty comes saturation and people either become totally desensitised or hypersensitive.

In today’s world, we find it very hard to laugh without consequence. Santa-Banta jokes are no more considered a laughing matter but an issue of ridicule; soon kanjoos baniya jokes or the jokes on business-savvy Sindhis maybe a thing of the past too. Today, motu-patlu jokes would face criticism from the body image crusaders and be pulled up for body shaming. Laughter may become like sex; something that happens only behind closed doors.

Hashtag activism

Today, anyone can be an armchair activist with a smartphone , retweeting or sharing or adding a hashtag to any kind of post. Appurv Gupta, a stand-up comedian based in Delhi, says, “It is the age of social media and that is where most of the interactions happen, making a reality check difficult. You don’t have to know anything to be a part of any for-or-against campaign, especially on social media. But when there is a worthy cause that seeks active participation, there are hardly any crusaders. The easiest thing to do is take offence, which is usually temporary, till something bigger comes along. I have done shows in big cities and small and found that people can have a problem with anything — your satire or a phone brand or even photography. The boss and the employees laugh at the same things but not when they are together. The bottomline is to take it in your stride, ignore it and do what you do best - tickle that funny bone!”

What the AIB, and more specifically Tanmay Bhat, have had to face time and again is a sign of just how intolerant we are towards almost everything. It doesn’t occur to us that if something is not good enough, it will die a natural death.

Here comes the troll

Earlier when you hated someone or something, you had to raise your voice and face the consequences. But what happens when you can be a hater anonymously? You can troll everyone who is vulnerable, in high places and low, for reasons valid or invalid, and with no repercussions. There are people out there who thrive on just this kind of thing. Appurv has also been trolled online but he says he chooses to ignore it as reacting will only get the trollers unnecessary attention. But Preeti (name changed) wasn’t so lucky. She started a fashion blog where she would model different styles and looks. She had gathered a good fan following but that soon things went wrong. An anonymous person started cropping her pictures, pasting them on semi-nude images and posting them in the comments section. Fearing defame, she decided not to press charges and quickly deleted her blog. “That was the worst one month in my life. I blocked him but he would be back by another name. Eventually, I created a moderated blog by another name.”

Lost without a cause

The only way people interact with each other is online and there the best way to make your presence felt is through the causes you stand up for. From news anchors, storylines of prime-time soaps and tweets to celebrity lives, everything, however mundane, is under scrutiny. It has come to a point where if someone addresses men, they are sexist, if they talk about a superstitious religious practice, they are biased towards a particular community, if they are anti-death penalty for rape, they are pro-rape, and so on. The issues and causes that need support are defeated as people prefer to keep quite on those as it would call for actual action.

And the next big issue is...

India is a traditional society that is trying to assimilate the modernity that the new generation is embracing. Manjit Singh, a Sociologist at PU, says, “The interface between tradition and modernity is the reason for this growing intolerance. We are a society built on religion, caste and beliefs where as the modern society is individualistic and in contrast to belief. The society is under pressure to be more oriented towards consumerism which undermines warm traditional culture that offered collective security, leading to individual insecurity and tension. This makes people hostile as the old system falls apart and new system is not fully in place. Another reason for this sensitivity is increasing politicisation of everything from culture, sports, art and more. With total negation of customary rules set by communities and elders, people, who are using issues for political gain, find it easy to polarise opinion amongst already insecure people.”

To end on a lighter note, let us share a joke about a man.. And a woman... Who were Punjabi... or Gujarati or Marathi or Bengali or Pahari... Forget it.