Satyameva Jayate went on air today and the cyber world is full of comments about the pros and cons of doing such a show, its format, its timing, its tone and delivery etc. I thought I would focus on the intent of the show and see what does it mean for us as Indians to do a show about our issues?
For as long as I can remember the underbelly of India has been the domain of foreign documentaries, foreign journalists at times enamored by the India is so poor and so exotic routine. I don’t mean it as a derogatory remark about the quality of research done by foreigners. I am only saying we have by and large looked at ourselves from the lens of others.
Post-independence we kept hearing the phrase colonial hangover and even now and then the phrase does pepper our vocabulary. As a nation we have been ruled and we have been dictated. We have been angry and hurt about it and we have also been guilty of being indifferent to the privilege of being born in independent India.
This coupled with our daily struggles to get to the top in a world where there are a billion others fighting for the same / similar goals have meant we as Indians and specially as urban Indian have rarely reflected upon these fundamental questions that govern our identity and existence in depth and from close quarters.
Who are we? What does it mean to be us at this point in history? What does India mean to us? How do we feel about our Indian identity? Do we even fully comprehend the vastness and the complications that arise from such a textured identity and context?
It appears that the makers of Satyameva Jayate are making us more sensitized to these questions and hoping that over time we will begin to find some answers.
I can’t but help thinking of the time when music channels were launched in India. In its debut avatar “it was ohh so firang and English and hence oh and so hip”. We lapped up the same and venerated that style and content for some time. But then liberalization happened and we discovered that “we are like this only and very happy to be so”. We were also very unapologetic about the same.
Social scientist, ad gurus told us then that this was this was the spirit of new India who is not riddled by the baggage of the past and has enough youth verve and passion being largely under thirty to believe that they can change the world.
Given that the show is created on its own terms (right from channel slots, time slots, distribution ides etc.) and by people who are very successful in their own domains we can safely assume that the primary motivation for such a show was more about what can we do differently and how much can we push the envelope on the same rather than just the money alone. And that makes the symbolism around this show even more relevant. It is our choice at this point whether we adopt this show or not and not our fate. The very act of creating such a show in a still developing country is an act of empowerment.
A show such as Satyameva Jayate hints at our growing maturity about ourselves and also underlines a subtle coming of age cue. It says that if we are honest and adult enough to acknowledge that issues exist and that they do concern us the resolution can’t be far behind. And for that thought alone must the creators of the show be complemented.
