Outrage Nation
THE NATION SEEMS TO BE ALWAYS IN OUTRAGE OVER SOME ISSUE OR THE OTHER. ARE WE BECOMING TOO SENSITIVE, TOO SERIOUS, TOO MORALISTIC AND SANCTIMONIOUS?
India has become an outrage nation. From being offended over the auction of a uniform costume from Rustom to PeeCee’s hemline when she met PM Modi — there is no dearth of issues that offends Indians and seemingly trivial matters snowball into sparring debates that kick up dust and make headlines. The
Padmaavat controversy refused to die down for months as different communities fumed over different issues related to the controversy, Javed Habib came under attack for using Hindu gods to promote a salon in Kolkata, Lisa Haydon received flak for posting a picture of herself breastfeeding, Zomato was criticised for posting an ad that played on Hindi swear words. While it’s important to raise one’s voice against injustice, most of the outrage is focused on things trivial, flimsy, ludicrous and absurd. We look at why Indians are offended at the drop of a hat. Are we becoming too sensitive, too serious, too moralistic and sanctimonious, with egos too brittle and tempers running high, and losing the ability to laugh at ourselves and brush off the trivial?
Online outrage is political strategy and has nothing to do with reality. I think we are the same people who have always been free-thinking. PRITISH NANDY, Poet-politician
A FALSE SENSE OF IMPORTANCE
Public intellectual, Shiv Vishwanathan says, “A lot of emotions we have mark the idea of sensitivity. Indians have taken these emotions to react to trivialities. The violence around these trivialities helps them evade real issues. PeeCee's hemline is more important than environmental issues. It is always relative but it allows a sense of scandal where there is no scandal. It allows a sense of publicity for an issue which otherwise would not even get two lines. It gives a false sense of moral solidarity, a false moral community around issues that are empty. So we end up policing trivialities.”
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