While traveling to China, the theory of extremes struck me again. What I am referring to is my observation that it is not hard to get people mobilized and excited if you provide them with some extreme political agenda with tangible outputs. The soft or politically correct midway seems to work much worse.
I felt Chinese right now are really excited by the way things are going, the impositions on the free expression they have to face does not seem to bother them as much as their appreciation and excitement for the work and campaign of the communist party - and it seems completely understandable. Instead of hollow promises and ambiguous motos, their government gave them a clear direction, a clear motive to make China the first world country. The way they implement it might seem a little autocratic to people like us who are used to living in an open democracy (atleast to me it does); but for an average Chinese, things are looking much better than before. They have a sense of pride for their country and trust in their government that you will almost never find in an average Indian. History has seen such mass pride emerge from many extreme campaigns before: some of which we treasure, while others which world would like to erase from the history books.
To start on a positive note, let us talk about the biggest mass campaign in Indian history (or may be the world in terms of number of people involved): the Quit India movement. As I gather from my readings on the independence struggle, things were not moving that much when Congress was trying to achieve a middle ground with the British Government - getting resolutions passed in the parliament, negotiating laws etc. People did not idiolize the Congress leaders yet. It was only when Nehru announced the agenda of Congress as "Poorna Swarajya" that the masses of India started to get involved (both physically and emotionally). And, "Quit India" is the perfect example of an extreme moto with tangible output that I am talking about in this post. It mobilized the crowds as never before, and generated a mass pride for the country that India has never seen either before or after this event.
I felt Chinese right now are really excited by the way things are going, the impositions on the free expression they have to face does not seem to bother them as much as their appreciation and excitement for the work and campaign of the communist party - and it seems completely understandable. Instead of hollow promises and ambiguous motos, their government gave them a clear direction, a clear motive to make China the first world country. The way they implement it might seem a little autocratic to people like us who are used to living in an open democracy (atleast to me it does); but for an average Chinese, things are looking much better than before. They have a sense of pride for their country and trust in their government that you will almost never find in an average Indian. History has seen such mass pride emerge from many extreme campaigns before: some of which we treasure, while others which world would like to erase from the history books.
To start on a positive note, let us talk about the biggest mass campaign in Indian history (or may be the world in terms of number of people involved): the Quit India movement. As I gather from my readings on the independence struggle, things were not moving that much when Congress was trying to achieve a middle ground with the British Government - getting resolutions passed in the parliament, negotiating laws etc. People did not idiolize the Congress leaders yet. It was only when Nehru announced the agenda of Congress as "Poorna Swarajya" that the masses of India started to get involved (both physically and emotionally). And, "Quit India" is the perfect example of an extreme moto with tangible output that I am talking about in this post. It mobilized the crowds as never before, and generated a mass pride for the country that India has never seen either before or after this event.
I do not have any doubts on the patriotism of the people involved, and extreme respect for the heroes of the idependence struggle. The point I want to make is that in every age, there is a large section of society - especially youth - looking for a purpose, a purpose which is clear, and has (or atleast seems to have) the capability to change things around. A leader who can provide such purpose can hold great power of the masses in his fist, and use it for good or for bad - the distinction of which only history can tell. We see this phenomenon in many other events in India after independence. The topmost (and most "dark" in my view) is the demolition of Babri Masjid. Most recent: the "Marathi Maanus" campaign by Raj Thackery, which I categorize as "colored" going fast towards "black". The world has many other examples: "Nazism" on the top of the list. Those who have taken any interest in studying this event must know that Nazism did not start with only motive as eradicating Jewish race, it had lot to offer to German people: a clear motive of making Germany a prosperous nation, resurrecting the nations pride. But the extreme methods to achieve that - which excited and mobilized people in the first place - became the very reason that when the campaign took a wrong road and no one could control it.
To summarize, the extreme political views and methods might seem a faster way to achieve tangible goals, but the history is witness that when they go out of hands the damage done is nothing like the world has seen before. I hope the path China is taking remains in the sunlight. And, to people who are involved in any such campaign of change, please proceed with extreme caution.
To summarize, the extreme political views and methods might seem a faster way to achieve tangible goals, but the history is witness that when they go out of hands the damage done is nothing like the world has seen before. I hope the path China is taking remains in the sunlight. And, to people who are involved in any such campaign of change, please proceed with extreme caution.
