Technology will bring the Social changes…….
India
or the “Bharat”, the more appropriately should be called as; is evolving as a
nation step by step for better from the shadows of dominant views and acts of
few rich, powerful and governing classes and their agents. Bharat is also step
by step evolving for better from the clutches of mental slavery and cult
worshiping masses who in the past treated their political masters as demigods
and ‘ruling mai-baaps”. There was a time couple of decades post independence
when the personalities like Gandhi, Nehru & Indira were worshiped as gods
and whatever they said was considered sanctimonious, not meant for questioning.
During those days, the passion of new free India and patriotism was so
overwhelming that children used to feel proud in singing songs like “vande
matram”, “jana gana adhinayak jay he” “kadam Kadam badhaye ja, khushi ke geet
gayeja” during “school prabhat pheries” and national celebrations. As an
example of cult worshipping (vyakti puja), I myself remember an incident in my
childhood days in the summer of 1964. The people of my village, a hamlet of less
than 5000 population had expressed their profound grief at the demise of Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of Bharat, by observing a mourning for
thirteen days and performing the “terhavi’ ceremony, (the thirteenth day
ceremony to offer prayer for peace of the departed soul) by offering food to
entire village. Of course, this was with their own financial contributions,
without any media propaganda and government support. The emotions running across
the country must have been similar. In
those days, there were only the print media, news papers, magazines, journals
and radios for mass communication though accessible to a fraction of population.
The general masses could only express their voices through the ballot boxes and
that too with few exceptions of a segment of society riddled by extreme
poverty, illiteracy; caste and class biases whose voices were silenced by
powerful and they could never used to see the ballot boxes.
As
the time passed and country progressed, the technologies started penetrating
across the width and breadth of the geographical regions, in far flung areas
and in villages and towns. The diesel pump sets across the farms, followed by electric
pump sets, electricity poles in connecting villages and towns, better roads and
vehicular transportation facilities, spread of educational facilities, movement
of people from one corner to another; all these stared making a difference in
the lives of people. The dark period of emergency also came as anti climax and attempts
were made to silence the voices of dissents. The JP movement united the
opposition which gave birth to new leaders like the brands of Sharad Yadav,
Lalu Prasad Yadav and brought an experiment of short lived united Janta Party government
lead by Morarji Desai, soon to be collapsed. The voices of the people again
gave rise to the re-emergence of Indira Gandhi lead Congress government back to
power. The Asian games in Delhi in 1982 gave a big impetus to emergence of
television, a visual media in the country. The monotonous Doordarshan news
programmes were supplemented by interesting TV serial and the first soap opera,
“Hum Log” became so popular that the character of Dadi, her health, Basesar and
Lallo used to become the topics of lunch talks in offices and on the roads all
over the country. Then came the Vinod Duas and Pranav Roys to start
interviewing dignitaries, conducting TV debates and feeding hungry minds of
people waiting for thrills of investigative journalism. Simultaneously, the
common man also started finding space in the visual media and the growth in the
sector made the TV an essential item in everybody’s drawing and bed rooms
irrespective of his/her financial status. With the spread of visual media
leading to rising awareness among masses, the fire walls between the common man
and those unquestionable political and wealthy demigods started crumbling. The
people started questioning each and every action of government authorities.
Mighty government fell and Rajeev Gandhi, who got whopping 411 parliamentary
seats in 1984 election, could lose in 1989 to his fellow politician, V P Singh
under the onslaught of corruption scandal in Bofors gun deal.
The advent
of main frame computers and personal computers and subsequently the internet technologies
have further armed the masses. With the information boom, they started
demanding more and more transparency and accountability from government authorities
and agencies that matters in any field of governance and public services. The
rising awareness further fueled the demand for information sharing and
consequently, the government of the day had to legislate the RTI act. For a developing
country like Bharat with large population and scarce resources, information technology
has now become the greatest tool for social transformation. The information
technology has revolutionalised the field of communication and as a result, the
governments of the day were forced to introduce ways of stopping leakages in
the subsidies and benefits in many social schemes by introducing direct benefit
transfer to the bank accounts of eligible population. The multifold spread of
mobile penetration to the remotest corners within the country coupled with the convergence
of mobile and internet technology has changed the way now Bharat communicates; conduct
e-governance, e-commerce and e-business. The present Prime Minister’s Jan-Dhan
Yojna, a scheme of financial inclusion of population lead to opening of 20 Cr. bank
accounts in the country during the first year of its launching with facility for
Rupay cards, will also change the way masses transact and do business.
Along
with the above, the foremost social transformation is also happening as the
technology is giving the “voices” to masses on day to day basis, 24X7, without
waiting for the reach to ballot boxes. The millions and millions of accounts of
Indians on social websites like Twitter, Facebook, Google, e-blogs, blogs, e-news
papers etc. demonstrate the trend in rising voices of the masses on any issue. The
impact is immediate, reach is instantaneous and the masses become more and more
powerful to make or break an opinion. Earlier, only those in position of power
or authority, or a celebrity could find a way to express his/her voice in news
papers or in TV programmes but today, through the social media, everybody like
you, me and a person walking on the road within or outside the country can
instantaneously express his views on any issue. The casualties of the process
are the demigods whose sanctimonious temples of authorities have started taking
serious dents. Their unquestionable authority and every actions/reactions go
under scrutiny which may become questionable. Even the powerful position of the
prime minister is not spared. The
beneficiaries are the masses, armed with great powers. Rare beneficiaries are
also the activists like like Arvind Kejriwal, who claims to be holier than
thou, but as people say, has a great driving expertise while negotiating
U-turns and standing tall hand in hand with Lalu.
The
dominant views on social media can make or mar a career of a politician, a common
man, a worker, an official or a even a celebrity. The media demand more responsible
acts from every person in the society. Also, like any other arms, the fire-arm
of social media can also be misused by vested interests and therefore puts a
greater accountability on everybody to conduct himself/herself on the social
media as well as out site its’ domain in a responsible manner conducive to
social norms, national ethos and interests. However, the trend will definitely bound
to bring the social changes in the country, make the governments more
accountable, and people friendly, transparent and more responsible society eventually
to empower the common man more and more.
