Seeing through a satsang and a spectacular wedding
EVEN though the government stimulates us to dream of ‘Viksit Bharat’, the fact is that there is no end to our cultural and moral decadence. The prevalent state of our culture cannot be confused with typical calendar art — say, a set of pictures/images of Kabir, Guru Nanak, Gandhi, Tagore and Vivekananda, and select quotes from their noble speeches, sermons and writings. Instead, if culture is the way we actually live, think, behave, act and choose our role models, we need to see its manifestations not in the museumised artefacts but in everyday practices like, to take two recent illustrations, a satsang and a lavish wedding ceremony.
If the ‘developed’ West — tormented by the contradictions of techno-capitalism and associated ‘burnout’ culture — has given birth to the entire industry of ‘self-help’ books, life coaches and motivational speakers to promote some sort of illusory psychic healing, we in India are never tired of producing all sorts of babas and gurus selling their ‘miracles’ and ‘salvation’ techniques. Yes, the English-speaking/affluent/metropolitan class living with the anxieties associated with ‘productivity’ and ‘success’ prefers fancy gurus, consumes the attractively designed package of Zen, Vedanta and mindfulness, and feels ‘relaxed’ and ‘peaceful’ in special ‘retreats’. These gurus, almost like Euro-American motivational speakers, do a fairly good business, and make their rich clients — business tycoons, corporate elites, and cricket/Bollywood celebrities — feel ‘good’ and ‘positive’. Live with power, wealth and privilege, but take care of your breathing exercises! What else do the rich need from their gurus?
And the poor, the downtrodden and the economically/socially marginalised class — tormented by all sorts of insecurities and everyday struggle for survival — can’t approach these celebrity gurus. However, the market manufactures yet another kind of babas for them. And these babas — gross, yet clever and manipulative — begin to play with the existential uncertainty and economic insecurity of the poor and the marginalised, and exploit their psychic vulnerability. It is like hypnotising them through their ‘miracles’ and mantras; it is like making them believe that a darshan of these babas in a satsang, or their very touch can heal all wounds. Well, the roots of this ‘false consciousness’ cannot be understood unless we acknowledge what this recklessly violent and exploitative society has failed to provide them — good education that nurtures clear and critical thinking, sustainable and dignified living, medical care and economic security. In fact, the rise of a manipulator like Bhole Baba, or, for that matter, the chaos and the resultant stampede we recently witnessed in the satsang he organised in Hathras, and eventually the death of over 120 devotees — largely poor, Dalit and women — indicate our collective fall: the unholy alliance of these merchants of illusory religion and the politico-administrative class. What else is it except our moral/religious/cultural/political decadence?
And now think of yet another kind of decadence that manifests itself in the naked and vulgar display of wealth, power and privilege. Almost like a glossy Bollywood film or a TV serial, the wedding ceremony of Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant looked spectacular and hyper-real. Never mind the gross socioeconomic inequality that characterises our society. Never mind the intensity of hunger, malnutrition and homelessness. And don’t expect the ideals like austerity, decency and simplicity from the elite class. Instead, as the mix of market fundamentalism, hyper-consumerism and psychic narcissism becomes the desired ideal in the age of neo-liberalism, the Ambanis found nothing wrong in transforming an otherwise beautiful and sacred occasion like the wedding of their son into a glossy spectacle to demonstrate what money could do. Yes, money, as the young, idealist, Hegelian Karl Marx wrote in 1844, can transform everything into its opposite: vice into virtue, or ugliness into beauty. It is, therefore, not surprising that this wedding ceremony lost its sublime music; instead, it showed the power the ‘billionaire raj’ in contemporary India holds over the economy, politics, culture and religion. From the galaxy of corporate elites to the icons of popular culture, and from religious gurus to influential politicians — the Ambanis seem to have mastered the technique of ‘holding and possessing’ everybody who matters. In a way, the lavish wedding ceremony showed its magical power to unite global capitalism, ‘Hindu traditions’, culture industry, religion and politics. And as ordinary/unknown Indians, you and I were persuaded to consume the tales of this spectacle — the flow of Rs 5,000 crore, the photo sessions, the fashion parade, the dazzling guest list, the diplomacy beneath the exchange of gifts, the food bonanza…
Yes, from a satsang in Hathras to a wedding ceremony in Mumbai — the decadence seems to be all-pervading. See the way everything has become upside down. For the elites, the Gandhian ideal of austerity or minimalism seems to have become a bad word in contemporary India; the nexus between the political class and the corporate elites is the new normal; religion has lost the religiosity of love and compassion as it has become merely an instrument for retaining the status quo; and ordinary citizens have been reduced into a crowd of non-critical/non-reflexive consumers of cricket, Bollywood, soap operas, the ‘magical’ deeds of babas and gurus, the dramaturgical performances of the political class, and the fairy tales of the galaxy of celebrities.
Will it ever be possible to resist this rot and move towards a sane culture — a culture that nurtures the spirit of equity and justice, values simplicity and decency and promotes the kind of critical thinking that enables us to say ‘no’ to the vulgar display of wealth through which the select billionaires demonstrate their narcissistic selves or the way the entire industry of babas and gurus reduces religion to a business?
