ONE of the great tragedies of contemporary imagination is that democracy as a discourse has become impoverished. As an imagination, it needs to renew its creation myths. The old social contract built around majoritarianism and electoral view is no longer adequate. It has the tendency to become authoritarian in its everydayness.
The direct democracy experiment did recharge the imagination, but it also revealed that democracy needs craftsmanship that renews its assumption in a changing world. One discourse that needs to be re-examined is the relation between democracy, knowledge, information and communication. These need a new discourse enacting out the dialogic nature, revealing the dynamics between technology, knowledge and democracy.
Democracy lost out in the age of the storyteller. A storyteller imparts more than news. He embodies the angst and enthusiasm to the creation myths of the time. Modern media has brushed aside the storyteller. The whole commons of fables, myths, parables and stories is tending to disappear.
One has to realise that news as information creates forms of obsolescence. It erases what is old, it erases the question of oral memory. Memory is not information. It is a lived era. It is like being more at home with the world. There is a phenomenological intensity to the way it unfolds.
One major illustration of this came when political scientist Chandrika Parmar was interviewing an entrepreneur. We wanted to talk to him on pollution, but he was intrigued by our studies on the partition. He insisted on talking about his experiences. He referred to the train from Pakistan-of hiding in the bathroom, of watching people being slaughtered. He spoke passionately time and again, until we discovered he was seven years old when the partition occurred. We realised he had internalised the story of his father.
Denne historien er fra September 12, 2024-utgaven av The New Indian Express.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra September 12, 2024-utgaven av The New Indian Express.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
'It Was Challenging to Make It Sound Like You Know What You're Talking About'
For those who haven't seen the first season of The Diplomat, how would you describe the show?
Back to Where It All Began
The star of Adarsh Gourav's Superboys of Malegaon is the Maharashtrian city that celebrates 90s' Bollywood with all its quirks and clichés
Understanding the Forgotten Self
Explore the profound relationship between the soul and body, uncovering true self-awareness and the journey towards spiritual fulfillment
Going Down Wikipedia Rabbit Hole
In new research involving more than 4,80,000 Wikipedia users in 14 languages across 50 countries, US researchers led by Dale Zhou at the University of Pennsylvania studied three distinctly different ways of going down the Wikipedia rabbit hole
One Man is an Island
The Majuli Music Festival in Assam shines the light on the world's largest inhabited river island and the need to keep its indigenous culture alive
Getting Dirty with It
A bizarre trend of eating dirt for health benefits is the new rage on social media
We Become the Stories We Tell Ourselves
Millennials at Work
It's Time to Divide the Bigger Indian States into Manageable Units
A time bomb, that could rip apart the unity of India, is silently ticking in the background.
Delhi's Pollution Crisis Needs Evidence-based Policy Reform
The capital of the world's largest democracy—Delhi—is grappling with a pollution crisis. With approximately 80 per cent of Delhi's waste being generated by only about 20 per cent of the people, the city is finding itself in an increasingly challenging situation.
Shaping Imaginations at a Pinch
Dolon Kundu's niche pottery blends cultural and mythological symbols from rural Bengal
