India: Sense, sensibilities and no humour

‘There is more logic in humour than in anything else. Because, you see, humour is truth,’ noted Danish comedian Victor Borge. He had it on point. Often, a comedian’s joke cloaks a dose of reality, its inflection point is when it hits home. In India, where free speech itself is being lampooned, it can also bring jail time. Societies that peel the layers are progressive; those that even laugh at themselves and their leaders are golden. Sense of humour becomes shaky when citizens bury their present in digging up a centuries-old past.

Actor Amitabh Bachchan, in his heyday, was the angry young man of Bollywood. That era is being played out for real within India’s political class and on the country’s streets, where people are like characters from Orwell’s 1984 – dour and grim alongside a heightened state of resentment.

Misery loves company, even if it is from imagined hurt or perceived grievances. A comedian said a joke, and goons taking offence on behalf of their political leader, abdicated all wisdom. They vandalised the venue, believing that by destroying it, they cleansed India of a comedian’s words. Somewhere, there is dark humour in these events.

Unintentionally funny, the police sent the comedian a summons, and last heard, a case against the audience was not ruled out! Will it be for not putting cotton in their ears? The phone calls to the comedian are akin to a mafia movie playing out in a theatre with no audience. Only, this is happening in India’s big cities.

The humourless trail changes track faster than a comedian’s pun. Should we process the current manufactured outrage or pad up for the incoming one? Just the other day, the police proudly handcuffed a content creator puffing up as though they had taken on the underworld. The young man was dragged straight to court for comments rated adult and frankly not even funny. Indians, meanwhile, wait for decades to get a dispute solved in court. The outrage reached Parliament, and leaders scrambled. It is a mad rush to forget India’s democratic credentials.

In many parts of the world, comedy is a mirror. It flags the uncomfortable and, in the garb of humour, lays out the unvarnished truth. Importantly, it is a tool that speaks up, whether for the right, a cry for the marginalised or by flagging the ugly. At times, what cannot be said openly is voiced through satire. That is where it stops. It is not here for thinning sensibilities or education, but it reminds us, time and again, how societies develop when truth isn’t buried or conditioned by hegemony.

In the words of Greek philosopher Aristotle, ‘It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.’ Perhaps, he should have clarified humour as well, for the lack of it has consequences. From state actors to a simpering media and a mindless mob that never includes any politician’s child, history is tinkered with, and critical thinking is being substituted with an assembly line of human robots.

Another comedian, George Carlin, said, ‘The role of the comedian is to find where the line is drawn and deliberately cross it.’ The fine line is a barbed wire these days, and it has moved closer. An actor was arrested for mimicking a self-proclaimed godman who has been convicted of rape. Another, a Muslim, was arrested for a joke that he never said, but nevertheless, ‘offended sentiments.’ He spent more than a month in jail.

The Prime Minister, in a rare interview, spoke about ‘criticism being the soul of a democracy.’ The definition of criticism becomes fluid in a sullen society which loses sight of justice. News anchors and politicians who lambasted the comedian for taking freedom of expression too far, unabashedly or surreptitiously, vilified an actress for the suicide of her partner. When misogyny meets anger, society itself becomes a parody.

In the past, were leaders more thick-skinned? Politicians, by and large, have always taken themselves seriously. Nowadays, with social media as the third eye, even regional leaders clamp down on any adverse comments. There is a reason the much-maligned Jawaharlal Nehru was a global personality; he was lampooned in thousands of caricatures and responded by saying, ‘Don’t spare me.’ Politicians across parties in the decades after him were also roasted; seldom was an FIR filed.

Humour keeps checks and balances in a society. Without it, anger is raw and naked. Notably, it stifles the social milieu. Public imagination thrives in an open-minded environment where satire at times substitutes for constructive criticism. It speaks where many have lost their voice.

Have we forgotten to be comfortable in our own skin? An Indian has always learned to laugh at himself or events beyond his control. How else can an ordinary citizen survive the grind of daily existence where bribes, bureaucracy and entitlement merge?

Civilisations across centuries have had one commonality, an identity in their diversity. With all its cultural nuances and habits, both wondrous and peculiar, societies emerge with their uniqueness. Without a healthy dose of self-deprecation tinged with humour, India would not have reached where it is today. Plundered, attacked, and partitioned, it has remembered to smile even when the challenges over centuries seemed insurmountable. Some others would have thrown in the towel. So, what changed?

India’s vibrant democracy can handle a joke. Let us not stop testing the waters, a comedy won’t leave it floundering.