PRAGOTI

The roles of media and 'sushil Samaj' in Nandigram incident. The spectre of Gramsci still haunts!

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”

“The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly - it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over”

Are not these lines too familiar? Don’t they sound very homely in our present day situations, especially, what is happening in West Bengal? Same kinds of lie, harped again and again, with only a few points like ‘land would be grabbed in Nandigram’, ‘CPIM goons are creating terror’, and ‘hundreds of women raped by CPIM, thousands of babies killed’. For the last 11 months these two or three lies are being sung by political parties, the media and a part of intellectuals, our ‘Sushil Samaj’. And these lies are big enough to paralyze the mass, to grow such apathy towards CPIM that enables the mass to have only hatred for the party in future. That is expected from TMC and it’s newly found ultra left friends. They eat politics, after all! And to regain the already lost ground, they have to repeat these lies. Panchayet election is a tough game! It is not also easy to maintain the Maoists with their daily warfare! Lies are necessary to grab a certain part of the state within control. Lies can make you scared like hell, and you will then have no choice to surrender to anybody that comes in the guise of a savior. That is all right, we are not worried about them. They did their job, Siddharthashankar Ray is proud at their children’s success, and Advani is seemingly overjoyed at the new possibility of finding comradeship in the ultras. Nothing unexpected in that.

But what makes us interested is the reaction of the intelligentsia, many of them claiming to be sympathetic to the left, some of them known faces in the left cultural front. What happened to them? What happened to the media? The intellectuals’ rally is hailed by the media as a new horizon in the formation of ‘Sushil Samaj’, a third world counterpart of civil society. The paparazzi become busy in taking snapshots of this page 3 rally. AnandaBajar Patrika hopes that this rally would pave the way for a new structure of apolitics where the civil society would snatch its demands without the help of any political party. Well done, ABP! We were saying to ourselves. It has, once again, exposed its character! But did something go wrong with our much-lauded intellectuals? Or was that expected?

Civil Society : specter of Gramsci

“Does there exist, in a given country, a widespread social stratum in whose economic life and political self-assertion (effective participation in power, even though indirectly, by "blackmail") the bureaucratic career, either civil or military, is a very important element? In modern Europe this stratum can be identified in the medium and small rural bourgeoisie, which is more or less numerous from one country to another – depending on the development of industrial strength on one hand, and of agrarian reform on the other………. These two elements impart to the entire social stratum a certain homogeneity and energy in its aims – and hence a political value, and an often decisive function within the entire social organism. The members of this stratum are accustomed to direct command over nuclei of men, however tiny, and to commanding "politically", not "economically"…… this stratum has no economic functions in the modern sense of the word. It has an income, because legally it is the owner of a part of the national soil, and its function consists in opposing "politically" the attempts of the peasant farmer to ameliorate his existence – since any improvement in the relative position of the peasant would be catastrophic for its social position. The chronic poverty and prolonged labour of the peasant, with the degradation these bring, are a primordial necessity for it. This is the explanation for the immense energy it shows in resisting and counterattacking whenever there is the least attempt at autonomous organisation of peasant labour, or any peasant cultural movement which leaves the bounds of official religion.” [Gramsci: State and Civil Society]

Replace Europe by India, and the term ‘rural’ by ‘urban’. What picture do you have? Faces of Mamata Banerjee, Medha Patekar, Subhaprasanna? The struggle of homeless peasants in Khejuri camps? Look at the line ‘This is the explanation for the immense energy it shows in resisting and counterattacking whenever there is the least attempt at autonomous organisation of peasant labour’….can’t it explain the immense energy of Bratya Basu, Kaushik Sen, Shaoni Mitra in that rally? Can’t this line throw a light on ABP’s overwhelming reaction after the rally?

But that would be oversimplification if we blindly put Gramsci’s civil society in our situation. Gramsci articulated a concept of civil society that differentiated it both from the economy and the state. In Gramsci’s version of a threefold society, culture played an important role in providing societal cohesion and continuity in the event of societal chaos triggered by the failure of both an undemocratic state and a totalitarian economy. However, Gramsci could not fully articulate the nature of and an independent role for civil society and had a difficult time freeing it from being an instrument of State politics. So, this theory can’t be plugged here. Moreover, Gramsci analyzed purely with respect to Europe [Italy Greece and Spain especially]. In these countries capitalism had somewhat grown up by then. The development of capitalism helped the way of forming an enlightened group of neo-bourgeoisie that could place its demands to the state. But India has different class character. In a semi-capitalist semi feudal structure, where capital can’t develop in its full growth, where industrial strength and agrarian reform have not been fully achieved, enlightened civil society can’t be formed. If such a structure is being set up by force, it gives birth to a degenerated form of mixed class, where a section of petty bourgeoisie walks hand in hand with the lumpen bourgeoisie. This is due to the mixed character of Indian capital, where national capital coexists with its comprador counterpart. That is why Kabir Suman sings in the rally of Mamata Banerjee, that is why Subhaprasanna and Subrata Mukherjee walks like comrades, and that is why Sankha Ghosh, scraming so much about fundamentalism, Congress terrorism in the seventies and state repression, joins the rally with Anandamargis. The extremely forced perception of forming a civil society gives birth to a carricature, ‘Sushil Samaj’. Different in class character, this structure matches with civil society in various respects, like trying to dominate mass consciousness, protecting status quo and placing itself diametrically opposite to peasants and working class.

Spectre of Gramsci still haunts the ruling class! They are shit-scared at the thought of an alternative hegemony. That is why as the refugees are going back home and the prospect of life returning to normalcy is getting brighter day-by-day, the old cronies came back in action and tried their level best to present their brightest possible show! But they did not understand that a mere caricature of Gramsci’s civil society could boil down to the third graded comedy of ‘Sushil Samaj’.

Politics of apolitics

The forced perception of forming a civil society to protect the interest of the ruling class is evident in the reaction of that rally. The intelligentsia told that they don’t want any politics there. No political party should come in that rally. ABP was overjoyed in that statement. That was what they have long craved for. A society without any political consciousness, a group of individuals that would do away with all party politics. Such an arena would be ideal for the free flow of capital, for unhampered activity of open market- the dreamland of ABP. Look at the ABP reports on that rally. The main focus was the ‘apolitical’ nature of ‘Sushil Samaj’. The bourgeoisie, without all political consciousness, would command the peasants and working class about their welfare, would fight, within its limitation, for constitutional rights like right to information, peace for all, legal justice etc and we, the not so civil part of the society would be overjoyed at this new revolution! Peasants and workers can’t understand their welfare, and political parties are too corrupt to achieve that job. Hence this enlightened class would tell the peasants about their good! Bravo! What an elitism!

Here we can draw a parallel to Gramsci model. Gramsci splits superstructure into "two major . . . 'levels': the one that can be called 'civil society,' that is the ensemble of organisms commonly called 'private,' and that of 'political society,' or 'the State.'" Civil society includes organizations such as churches, trade unions, and schools, which as Gramsci notes are typically thought of as private or non-political. Civil society always tries to alienate itself from the political part, or more specifically, tries to destroy the political domain of superstructure, the structure of class society and replace these by an abstract idea of humanism. This is necessary for him because Power has assigned him this task in order to make the free flow of capital. That is why this rally vents hatred to party politics and ABP embraces the statement.

But, again, specter of Gramsci goes on haunting! A major piece of Gramsci's project is to show that civil society's ways of establishing and organizing human relationships and consciousness are deeply political, and should in fact be considered integral to class domination. The more it pretends to maintain distance from politics, the more its practice of hegemony protects the interest of the bourgeoisie. That is why this seemingly apolitical rally is lauded by Mamata Banerjee, that is why Subhaprasanna the new comrade of Mamata Banerjee leads the rally and that is why all brands of Naxalite groups and other CPIM-haters [TMC, Anandamargi, APDR etc etc] mix their colors to form a vibgyor! The only common goal is to destroy CPIM. So, ultimately it does not remain apolitical. The dark politics becomes clear as daylight.

And finally, lies,damn lies and statistics!

Basically, these page 3 celebrities are being directed by big media houses. They vent the same stories that are being spoon-fed to them by the media. Star Ananda, in a footage on 6,7 and 8-th November, showed that some goons are throwing bombs. They alleged them to be CPIM goons where TMC itself told that CPIM entered that locality not before November 11. Manik Mondal, a Naxalite activist, is presented in front of the camera as a relative of a BUPC supporter killed at the bombs. What a tear, gentleman! He went on with flawless acting crying for his relative! The TV camera showed some people putting a deadbody inside a bag. The camera was very near to these goons, and the reporter screamed ‘look at CPIM terror’! As if CPIM goons have invited the reporters to take such a close shot at their misdeed! ABP has its own style of reporting. Each conflict is reported as the battle between BUPC ‘activists’ and CPIM ‘goons’. This reminds us of the famous shots of the freedom fighters of Keshpur! When CPIM activists were being chased out, both in Keshpur and Nandigram, no one uttered a single word. But when the party, in order to protect its supporters, began to retaliate in Keshpur, a famous Bengali poet cried at the gangrape of democracy. He cried ‘ King Oedipus, how can you rule dead city?’ This same poet is now throwing verses at the atrocities of the government. We did not forget anything! We are very much aware of the nature of such intellectuals! They really have no politics, only the dirty politics of apolitics! That is why floor-changing is in their blood. But they don’t know that there exist a gigantic section outside this ‘Sushil Samaj’ who would reply this elitist hypocricy. Calcutta has not yet become the city of only JOY!

And there comes the number game. Each of them competes with others at describing the brutal state atrocity with the help of statistics. But Mamata Banerjee surpasses them all! Once she claimed that 12000 women were raped in Nandigram, the breast of 6000 among them being cut. Now she screams about the murder of 200 people. Bartaman Patrika, her mouthpiece, once continually highlighted the murder of 500 persons on March 14. Others are more polished. They know where to draw the lines. Hence Aparna Sen remained satisfied with only 50 deadbodies. Star Ananda, that same day, reported back with 12. The extraordinary manifestation of such statistical jugglery really amazes us!

Most of these intellectuals are associated with media houses, and are behaving according to their lords. A stage actress still harps on the splendidly concocted story of infanticide on 14 March, in spite of knowing fully well that not a single child was missing in the entire block. Big lies again and again! Some very few facts constantly harped on. Why? What was the purpose? To make people paralyze in fear and hatred? Who was behind the screen? Who was feeding this ‘Sushil Samaj’ those wonderful stories? A renowned female writer said that in her opinion the happenings in Nandigram are parts of a clever ploy to distract public attention from the Rizwan incident, which has purportedly put the Left Front Government on the back foot. That is, the refugees are braving all odds just to stage a carefully plotted play! Do not all of these opinions match with the reports of ABP, Bartaman and Doinik Statesman? Today the media houses direct our cultural lives. They purchased the chunk of intelligentsia with bundles of money. The ‘Sushil Samaj’ is now just a puppet at their hand. It will do exactly what it is being ordered. The intellectual prostitution would earn publicity, and media houses would happily employ paparazzi to snap the pictures for printing in the first page. Media, in this capitalist mode, understands only one thing, which is money. If it sees that supporting the Left Front would raise the sell, it would convert to die-hard Left-Front supporter from tomorrow. And their pet intellectuals would then laud Buddhadeb Bhattacharya as a true human face! Nothing ideology there! It is like horse-trading. The corporate that can bid the highest money would trap most of the intellectuals, and then they would utter the words of their lord. That is why so-called leftie intellectuals like Kaushik Sen do not hesitate to give shoulders to staunch anti communists like Subhaprasanna.

Still, a line can be drawn between these intellectuals. One part of them are dedicated anti-lefts and we hope that they will continue to be like that for rest of their life. But there is another big section who are confused. Lost touch with reality, they are basically dependent on electronic media.Their main problem is alienation from real world, from fellow beings.Alienation in this capitalistic world gives birth to crisis of political identity. That is why the rally of Wednesday was rally of the individuals. No one could communicate with others. A tragic portrayal of Paris Manuscript!We hope that these people would one day return under their own flag.

That is the main character of our ‘Sushil Samaj’. They are not apolitical, rather directed by Power in order to maintain the status quo. They would not hesitate to stand against the interest of peasants if Power directs them to do so. Yes, so-called leftists would also then join that rally of hatred. They would not hesitate to vent slanders and lies against the communist party if their lords tell them to do so. They would not shake in uttering some very few big lies and repeating them again and again, if they find that to be gainful for their owners.

We started this article with two quotations. They were made by Goebbels. Now, my friends, everything becomes transparent, isn’t it? See, how naturally the role of media, TMC and these intellectuals fit with these two remarks? How fantastically ‘Sushil Samaj’ puts on the jacket of Herr Goebbels? Thanks to Nandigram, we have once again become sure that Goebbels might have died, but his jacket did not wither away!