Hazare & Leisure Economy

[The Hindu : Looking back at the Emergency HARISH KHARE Sunday, Sep 21, 2003 Magazine IN THE PAST

If history has to indict, as it must, J.P. for embarking upon a path for which he was neither organisationally nor politically nor even intellectually equipped, then what was Indira Gandhi's excuse for resorting to an extreme solution? In the Name of Democracy: J.P. Movement and the Emergency, Bipan Chandra, Penguin paperback, p. 384, Rs. 350. Tusar N. Mohapatra  -  5:22 PM, 5:43 PM]

[State vs Anna Posted By  Jug Suraiya   TOI 16 August 2011, 10:49 PM IST

Perhaps nothing exemplifies the gulf between the two Indias than the idea of the fast. In the privileged urban India of Hazare and his fans, fasting is a legitimate form of neo-Gandhian protest. In the other India, fasting is not a morally superior form of dissent; it’s a brute necessity and its name is starvation. 5:43 PM]

[Vinay Sitapati, a former journalist who is currently a graduate student at the department of politics in Princeton University, expands the logic some more in the Indian Express:

The new corporate middle class has little patience with the politics of dignity and identity that are — for better or worse — central to Indian politics. For them, the state is about providing services for which they pay with their tax money. Representation and social justice have little meaning. Consequently, they have contempt for electoral politics…. Is only ‘urban middle-class’ in love with Anna? from churumuri] 

Crowd behavior as flashed upon the TV screen gives the impression of a carnival. Hazare’s protest has turned out to be a fit pretext for coming out of the homes and thus escape boredom. Hence, the hegemony of Leisure Economy is a principal underlying factor.

Competitive careerism, on the other hand, is also driving various sections into the vortex of this protest industry. Aspiring politicians and media persons alike go for the kill, and between them there are any number of other vocations benefiting. One good thing that emerges from this whole chaos, however, is that the young adults of the country are receiving a crash course in Humanities and Political Science. [TNM55]