Obscurantism aside, time for India to seize the narrative

In the olden days, rulers would build magnificent palaces and temples to distinguish their rule not so much because they needed space but to awe their subjects and detractors, as well as brandish the extent of their power. The British decided to move their capital to Delhi and build a magnificent new city for similar reasons. The aim was to reinforce the narrative of absolute power and dominance over their subjects.

The establishment of a dominant narrative is the primary goal of every successful State as well as its most formidable instrument to establish its writ. Unfortunately, in India this core aspect of statecraft is poorly understood and rarely explicitly utilised. This leaves the field open for competing narratives and ideologies which reduce the credibility and ultimately the authority of the State. Nations and rulers ignore the battle for hearts and minds at their own peril.

Former R&AW chief, Vikram Sood, is only too aware of this shortcoming in our national psyche and hence his book, The Ultimate Goal. The book’s message is not difficult to grasp: “The Indian narrative has been run for far too long from elsewhere. It needs to change and cannot be determined in Europe, America or anywhere else. India and Indians must tell their own story…We need to manage our narrative to control our destiny.”

The problem, as Mr Sood explains, is that the West has dominated the world for more than four centuries now. That domination has been maintained not merely by force but also by controlling and influencing the minds of lesser nations and subjugated people. The world today has become more complex and the stakes are increasingly higher. In his words: “The battle of narrative has never been so grim as it is today, because real power comes not from the barrel of a gun but from those who control the narrative.”

“In the past, in the days of empires, conquest or victory in war automatically bestowed superiority to the victor and, as a corollary, inferiority on the conquered. In the present age, superiority is sustained and executed through other means. Narratives are also constructed to justify a cause of action, to give it a rationale — be it a threat to peace, violation of treaties or humanitarian consideration.” One example was the Iraq war where the Western powers made it out that Saddam Hussein was developing nuclear weapons and hence had to be eliminated. No such argument was put forward in the case of Pakistan, which continued to be supplied arms and financial aid.

The book, in the author’s words, “is an explanation of the storylines that are created by States to rule or dominate others and exercise control. Narratives evolve over time; they cannot be made available at the flick of a button. Narratives have to be nurtured over years, sustained and fed all the time from multiple sources and agencies. Narratives are about the superiority of one’s own country, civilisation, culture and, in every possible aspect, by implication, innuendo or if required, quite brazenly, about the inferiority of the other.”

“Six media giants in the US control 90 per cent of everything that is watched, read and heard. Five billionaires run and control the British media, with Rupert Murdoch controlling the largest share; others being the Barclay Brothers, owners of the Telegraph; and Viscount Rothermere, owner of the Mail group. Some of the most powerful figures, including those from the media world, are linked to influence-creating institutions in America. This makes narrative control all that much easier.”

Most of the book is about the West, which has with remarkable acumen and undeniable success, constructed a narrative that dominates, influences and coerces mindsets, thinking processes and socio-political discourses the world over. The last section is on India.

“For the British to establish control over India, a narrative of Western superiority in all aspects over the Eastern systems — military cover economic, intellectual, cultural and technological — that is to say between the ruler and the ruled, had to be created and asserted. A gap between the rich and powerful West and a poor and powerless East had been created by then,” the book explains.

The narrative of dominance has been “preserved well into the 20th century and beyond… Modern day narratives about the ‘developing and undeveloped’ Third World are only refined and strengthened versions of what was used in the past.”

In the past, the author writes, “British imperialism projected itself as benign, wise, essentially truthful, even a gift to humanity. In fact, it was a typical great power that achieved its status by being ruthless and mendacious. Myths about their own superiority have always been foisted by the ruling classes — for their foreign subjects and sometimes also for domestic consumption.”

Milan Kundera once wrote, “The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history.” The author believes the same was effected in India first by Muslim rule and then by the British. India’s ancient history and culture were derided and downgraded as those belonging to an inferior civilisation. This, he believes, must be reversed in order to build a new narrative without becoming obscurantist.

“Big or small, powerful or not, a country must be able to tell its story itself”, the book argues. “And this is not for domination alone; it is to prevent itself from being dominated as well. India has many stories to tell the world, which it must do in its own words and not be informed by outsiders.”

The Ultimate Goal
Vikram Sood
HarperCollins Publishers
pp. 349, Rs.699