LET’S TALK ABOUT DEPRESSION

It was not without reason that the World Health Organization (WHO) has identified depression as the theme for the World Health Day this year. In fact, one estimate suggests that by the beginning of the next decade depression will be the second most crippling health problem after heart attack. In India alone five percent of the population is assumed to be suffering from depression. But the actual numbers may be much more given the degree of ignorance that is there with regards to mental health. To make things worse people are reluctant to report cases of mental health given the taboo that the problem carries. The more serious aspect is that people do not go to the qualified health experts and are misled by quacks and sorcerers. Particularly the gullible village folk who consider mental health ailments a result of influence of evil spirits.

There is, then, need to take this issue of depression much more seriously because in the prevailing condition only about 10 per cent of the affected people have access to right treatment. But there is another alarming angle to this problem of depression. The rate at which the incidence of depression is rising, we may have to probe into the basic reason behind the aetiology which may have more to do with stress, pressure, work life balance and the likes rather than anything else. The malaise is catching up across age, profession and class and this suggests that there is something fundamentally wrong with the way people are coping with challenges of living, which no doubt are becoming increasingly demanding. But that should not be the reason to fall prey to the debilitating disease. Given the human ability to adapt there is every reason to believe that something is amiss somewhere in the human response.

And, yes it is. The pace of change of the past few decades has outpaced the changes of the past several centuries by miles. The unfortunate part is that rather than developing the resilience to cope with the challenges of change the human beings are simply getting swayed. The result is the change in basic human temperament. That temperament that should have given balance in times of distress is catalysing the distress by forcing life style changes that do not behove human nature. We are running at double the speed we should be and aimlessly. Or rather with an array of purposes which in fact are at cross purposes.

Lewis Carroll has very succinctly summed up the plight of today’s human beings in the conversation between the Queen and Alice in the classic Alice in Wonderland. It is worth recapitulating and has been paraphrased below: Alice tells the queen that one has to run at the top of one’s speed to excel in a competitive race. The queen disagrees and we see the essence of competitive existence when she tells Alice that in her country one has to do all the running at the top most speed to retain one’s position. But if you want to get somewhere you have to run twice as fast. This is the paradox. Everyone wants to go somewhere. But where no one knows. This is the reason for growing incidence of depression in the society. You want to run twice as fast as you can. But can you? Rightly has the WHO pointed out depression as the theme to be pondered over. And yes, “we need to talk”.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CHAMPARAN

Till very recently Champaran was a forgotten name. The last time it was big news was sometime back when Rajiv Gandhi had visited the place as Prime Minister in the late 1980s. But thanks to the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Champaran is in the news and in a big way for the Champaran Yatra to commemorate 100 years of Gandhi’s Satyagraha for the indigo peasants. Champaran, apart from being a sleepy town of Bihar, has a far greater significance for Indian history and the Indians of the twenty first century. Lest we forget, it was Champaran, where Mahatma Gandhi threw his hat in the ring against the British rule for the first time. It was in the month of April that Gandhi stood his ground against the British for the cause of the poor peasants.

These days when there is a systemic attempt to devalue Gandhi from both left and the right, writing anything on Gandhi may bring more brickbats than bouquets. But his essay at Champaran is worth remembering. It not only marked the beginning of Satyagraha but also paved way for the mass awakening that was to follow.  Yes, it was Gandhi and Champaran that proved that the mighty British could also be made to relent. Despite his failings, Gandhi’s conviction had something in it that needs to be admired. He had the guts to challenge the British head on. His exploits at South Africa were based on his fundamental premise of equality of rights and his Satyagraha experiment at Champaran only accentuated that.Champaran, was Gandhi’s, and arguably India’s first successful experiment with Satyagraha. Gandhi’s journey that began there at Champaran never looked back.

The British oppression was at its peak during those days and they literally treated common Indians worse than dogs. It was the time when the poor peasants of Champaran working in the Indigo Plantation fields were given a completely raw deal. They were forced to grow indigo on at least 3/20th of their land and to sell it at a price fixed by the white planter. A similar condition had prevailed in Bengal in 1859-61 that resulted in a major uprising and subsequent freedom of the poor peasants from the indigo planters. Gandhi’s name had been well known due to his campaign in South Africa and when he came to India several peasants of Champaran invited him to come and help them. Gandhi readily agreed and accompanied by Babu Rajendra Prasad, Mazharul Haque, JB Kriplani and Mahadev Desai, he reached Champaran. He started moving amongst the poor peasantry and started carrying out a detailed investigation of what was going on.

His interactions with the peasants were viewed as defiance and Gandhi was ordered by the British district officers to leave Champaran. He was presented before the collector and asked to explain why he may not be arrested for preaching disaffection against the British Government. Gandhi held his ground saying that he was ready to be tried and arrested. The British Government was forced to retract by Gandhi’s courage and defiance and appointed a committee which perhaps was for face saving. Ultimately, the disabilities and helplessness of the poor peasantry improved. This was the event that signalled the first success of the strength of civil disobedience movement. The Champaran Satyagraha also proved the exploitative and despotic nature of British rule, a milestone achieved in the Indian freedom movement. For the young Indian, Champaran must be revisited.

REDEFINING THE IDIOT

In classical English, idiot was a term that denoted poor IQ. However, the information age seems to be changing that. Finding somebody with poor IQ may be difficult these days when information is available for free. This age has brought among other things a new class of people, the pseudo intellectuals, ‘the infolectuals’. While infolectual may not be a standard expression of the lingua franca, yet it very aptly describes a new class, and a growing one that has emerged from the deluge of the data that has otherwise submerged the thinking being mankind was once supposed to be. The presence of this infolectual has created a new problem at the work place and medicos suggest it is stressful to a very high degree. Rightly has a Swedish team of researchers from the Lindberg University Medical Centre concluded that the most common cause of stress nowadays is dealing with idiots. But this idiot is of a different kind. There was a time when idiot was a term indicative of Intelligence Quotient (IQ).

That has changed with information, rather data is freely available in overdose. It is not poor IQ but poor Emotional Quotient (EQ) that has become a parameter of idiocy. It may be worthwhile to define this infolectual mind-set that is an information driven idiocy. Roman wise man Cicero had described four kinds of man. One who knows not and knows that he knows not. He is the gullible, the innocent type. Rely on him. There is the second type who knows but knows not that he knows. He is the simpleton. He can be trusted. The third type is the one who knows and he knows that he knows. He is the knowledgeable. Join him. The fourth type, however, is the one who knows not, but knows not that he knows not. He falls in that category of the infolectual, the idiot who can kill you with stress. Avoid him. This is the type of person about whom Dr Dagmar Anderson, the author of the Swedish study team mentioned above warns that working with them is hazardous.

The good doctor says that you can cut back on smoking or improve your diet or even change your life style, but the kind of coping skills that is required to deal with the stupidity of these infolectuals is lacked by most people. Quite tragic that this tribe is growing. The interesting thing about this class is that they can be so confident to that you may find difficult to disagree, rather be forced to agree. Persistent, pushy and loud. Little wonder, post — truth was voted as the Oxford word of the year in 2016. Thanks to the infolectuals. The one interesting feature of this type is their assumption that they are knowledgeable and hence can ignore knowledge. They are not receptive to knowledge and not amenable to reason. Their favourite stance is ‘I-know-what-I-believe-and-do-not-confuse-me-with-facts’. They are the knowledge-proof guys, the hard nuts to crack. So hard that they can frustrate you to the breaking point. Rightly has the Swedish team warned that it is not those dopes that you get at the stores, but these dopes that can kill you. Unfortunate that your probability of working with such people is on the rise. Rightly did George Carlin say: “Never argue with an idiot. They will first bring you down to their level and then beat you with experience.”

REDEFINING LEADERSHIP

What makes leaders tick? The question has bothered social scientists for a long time. But the welter of research and the theory jungle has hardly led to any kind of conclusion. However, most agree that it’s the ability to connect with followers. But what is this ability? Is it the personal charisma that mesmerises the followers? Or the mix of traits constituting the leader’s personality like appearance, communication styles, mannerisms, etc. Theories don’t help. This is the reason there is so much focus on leadership development training. Rightly so, as leadership makes the critical difference between success and failure. Though managements make big investments to develop leadership, they draw basic insights from political leaders. Thus organisations and nations have one thing in common — they all need to be led by person’s who can hold sway over the followers.

Against this backdrop, the qualities that make leaders tick need to be discussed. And what better a model than the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He proved pollsters and psephologists wrong. In fact, what he did is historic. No Prime Minister in the country had ever done this — spending so much time in a State election. It was a great risk. What if UP had not gone the BJP’s way? His very leadership would have come under cloud. More so, because he had already burnt his fingers in the past in the Delhi and the Bihar Assembly Elections. Moreover, the UP elections were held in the aftermath of demonetisation, a drastic action that was widely criticised and its benefits not yet discernible. Actually,it had put a question mark on his leadership style. Yet, he went ahead, undeterred and unapologetic. That is one quality that makes leaders tick. Take a decision, own it and stand by it. Decisiveness rather than being fickle is what brings the admiration of the people. The way in which the Prime Minister went on defending demonetisation offers a vital lesson on leadership. He took the act to the masses in a unique way, challenging his detractors whole hog, without doubt or regret. And the UP results proved that he could connect with the people convincingly.

It was the sheer dint of faith in his actions that helped him achieve this. UP was crucial and it was one major battleground where demonetisation was challenged. It was a test where failure could have proved costly. Rather than playing safe, he went without restraint, aggressively with all his body, all his mind, all his soul. Perhaps it was this confidence that made his opponents sound shaky in their convictions. This made the difference as they could not in any way pierce many holes in demonetisation. It is the leader’s conviction that instils doubts in his opponents.

Another significant aspect was his aggressive strategy. What he did in Varanasi has never been done. No PM would have spent so much time in one parliamentary constituency, that too his own, in a State election. Particularly when initial reports were not very encouraging. The ground report would have made other leaders play safe so that if things went wrong, an escape route was there. Modi did the opposite. And turned the tide by sweeping the opposition in Varanasi lock, stock and barrel. He chose to lead from the front, willing to accept the results for his actions, and gave hundred percent for the cause dear to his heart. That is transformational leadership. In Mandalised UP, he made caste irrelevant.

THE HINDU RENAISSANCE

Uttar Pradesh elections shocked many and surprised most. While the post-mortem may persist there is need to see more objectively what really went behind this ‘modivating’ performance of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). We are talking about UP because this State mattered most last time and will also matter most next time. The analysts may offer many reasons for division of the so called secular votes. From confusion of the minority votes to similar other gibberish that comes almost always after results of every election. But there is need to see the historical side of this story. UP was not won in a day. Nor was it the simple caste equation that mattered. It was much more than what simple poll arithmetic can explain. Some credit for this is also due to the old guard of BJP. It all started in the Eighties when the BJP had only two members in Parliament.

The party was on the verge of extinction. It was the post-Mandal era that the caste divisions of a fragmented Hindu society were further accentuated and a new power block called Other Backward Class started extracting its pound of flesh. This was the time when the BJP found itself in an unenviable position. It was now or never kind of situation. The challenge was to reinvent the Hindu society badly divided on caste lines. It was then that BJP came with the catchphrase that meant they will divide through caste and creed; we will unite in the name of Ram. For the Hindu psyche, facing a conditioned subjugation after centuries of alien rule this was just a feeble spark. But it did give some ray of hope for a revival of the Hindu identity. That was the time when for the young Hindu youth, a popular slogan was coined — “Garva se kaho hum Hindu hain — “be proud to proclaim that you are a Hindu’’.

This was the post-Independence generation that had been brought up in a milieu of a misplaced secularism, which was more like selective appeasement than neutrality. The march of the BJP and revival of assertive Hinduism that began then was slow but steady and subsequently paved the way for a BJP-led Government with noted Lohiaites and secular socialists like George Fernandes joining the government of what the western media called Hindu Nationalist Party. The turnaround was just beginning. Subsequent elections saw further rise in the Hindu assertiveness and with more and more youth joining the voting class the ancient religion got a modern boost. There was a time when the sign of modernity was being irreligious as the so called secularism was the fashion. Sporting atilak on the forehead was not correct socially and wearing saffron was a sign of backwardness. All that started to change as the Hindu youth embraced religious symbols with confidence. The participation in shravaini melas became fashionable. What happened in the recent UP elections is a continuation of that trend! With the Prime Minister Modi symbolising the assertive Hinduism, the UP results portend even more. So wishes are not horses and the BJP is here to stay. The 19th Century renaissance of Raja Ram Mohan Roy was just a reform having the endorsement of the west. But this Hindu renaissance is a kind of cultural nationalism that may once again pitch fork India to its pristine glory of the past. The Zeitgeist has arrived with Modi as the Renaissance Man.