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[nihal-mangrati]

THE PARALLAX VIEW:

The State ( Nation-state today), had always attempted to make a society legible and to arrange the population in ways that simplified the classic state function of taxation, conscription and prevention of rebellion. These inextricable processes and interventions, which were often crude and daunding were deferentially resisted by the ensembles. Many of the categories that we most take for granted and with which we now routinely apprehend the social world had their origin in State projects of standardization and legibility. Be it Standarization of language, uniformity of the means of measurement, cadastral mappings, permanent surnames or traffic regulations, the buried accentuation and justification of the State however was " Social Legibility". As James Scott writes, "The aspiration to such uniformity and order alerts is to the fact that modern statecraft is largely a project of internal colonization, often glossed, as it is in imperial rhetoric, as a civilizing mission." The conflated State objective on the case of an Authoritarian government ignored the social dimension and its complexities, which on the other hand resulted in the anti-government/State feeling accentuated further by the incidence of the resulting Social hierarchies. ' What was simplifying to the State was mystifying to its population'.

With the apparent rise of the conflated spectre of a Hindu Nationalism- Capitalist government in India, we could apparently juxtapose some of its daunding and discriminatory legibility process with that of the Pre-Modern and Modern State side by side. One of the most controversial and draconian act related to it was NRC/CAA, that focused on the uniformity of a certain community solely destituting the beauty of diversity. However, from the State's perspective, it was a process of Social legibility (however exclusive), like a God's eye-view of an absolute ruler that involved miniaturization legible for collecting taxes, conducting a census, putting down a riot, etc. These kind of uniformity was also vehemently accentuated during the middle ages and with the State's focus on geometrical city-planning intended at military efficiency in suppressing oppositions. In both the cases, as in Today's India or in the middle ages, these slothish and controversial acts were met with requisite resistance. The said process is moreover rendered with conformity and punishment by the State in case of disapproval or resistance.

With the " so called liberal ideas" of citizenship which implied voting rights and conscription also contributed to the legitimacy of State's status-quo.

The great cultural barriers imposed by a National Language is perhaps one of the most effective guatantee that a social world, easily accessible to insiders, will remain mystery to the outsiders. Of all the State simplifications, the imposition of a single, national language may be the most powerful paradigm of State coercion intend to uniformity.

Hindu- Nationalist Government in India from its inception within RSS was inextricably pathogenic with their propaganda of "Hindi, Hindu and Hindutva". After its major victory in 2014, with Narendra Modi as their Supreme, this very propaganda is now pushing the utmost boundaries with accentuated focus on Hindi as the national language, New Education Policy ( Hindi as compulsory medium juxtaposing regional language), hastenly changing the names of various cities and places with the characters often than not embodying Hindu Nationalist ideologies which bears a distinctive history, culture, literature, and mythology. These process should probably viewed as 'Eugen Weber' suggests in the case of France, as one of the domestic colonization in which various non-speaking states are linguistically subdued and culturally depauperated.

In case of France, those at the periphery who lacked competence in French were rendered marginal and outsiders. They were now in need of a local guide to the new state culture, which appeared in the form of lawyers, teachers, clerks and soldiers. It is a kind of state coercion that promises to reward those who complies with its logic and to penalize those who ignores it.

With the Nationalist State's efficacy in India, the process of uniformity and simplification is also perpetuating apprehensions about the Outsiders in the private as well as public spatio. Example could be given of the Kashimiris, South Indians, North-East Indians, Mulsims and the immigrants or migrant labourers, who all defy and inhibit the process of State's legibility.

Today of course, there are many other State-impelled standard designations that have vastly improved the capacity of the State in destituting the diversity and identify an individual. The creation of birth and death certificates, more specific location trackers, identity cards, passports, Aadhar cards, fingerprints and recenty announced Digital cards. But I strongly believe Diversity and certain forms of complexity, apart from their attractiveness have deferential advantages which in India is one of its underpinning paradigm of "Unity in diversity".

[nihal-mangrati]

Rise of "Collaborative Commons" and the Relevance of Communist Manifesto:

With the apparent rise of the conflated spectre of Nationalists-Capitalism around the globe, more serious issue is the apparent rise of what 'Jeremy Rifkin' calls the "Collaborative Commons"; a new mode of production and exchange that leaves behind private property and market exchange. With their market civility, Consumers are provided with free products, especially with the growing demand and popularity of the "Internet- based Victuals" ( provisions). This intrinsic model interconnects individuals and the digital world more profusely, feeding on the growing sloth and indolence of the Consumers in the 21st century. Therefore, and we did observe amid this pandemic (also pre-pandemic periods) Capitalism (i.e.orthodox) transformed its underpinning foundations. This is the end of Capitalism, not in the crude orthodox Marxist sense but in the Capitalist sense itself, where everything would change but excluding its basic Hegemonic structure.

Our New worry is about this "Collaborative Commons" embodying the hegemony of the bourgeois who intends to alter our Sate and Civil society as evident in the research regarding philanthropy in the USA. If this is so, why the so called Post-modern Leftists are pragmatically/theoretically inefficient? I think what apparently lacks in the Post-Modern Lefts are the requisite revolutionary aspects in the spatial where the relevance of Communist Manifesto is being questioned and depauperated by the very idiosyncratic Capitalists. For this , I would like to highlight a wonderful passage from Slavoj Zizek's discourse. It reads-

There is an exquisite old Soviet joke about radio Erevan. A listener asks" Is this true that Rabinovitch won a new car on lottery?' The radio answers: ' In principle yes, it's true, only it wasn't a new car but an old bicycle, and he didn't win it but it was stolen from him'. Does exactly the same not hold for Communist Manifesto? Let's ask radio Erevan: ' Is this text still actual today?' We can guess the answer. In principle, yes: it describes wonderfully the mad dance of capitalist dynamics, which reached its peak only today, more than a century and a half later; but... Gerald Cohen enumerated the six features the classic Marxist notion of the working class: (1) It constitutes the majority in the society (2) It produces the wealth of the society (3) It consists of the exploited members of the society (4) Its members are the needy people of the society (5) The working class has nothing to lose from revolution (6) The working class can and will engage in a revolutionary transformation of society. None of the first four features applies to today's working class, which is why features (5) and (6) cannot be generated. {Even if some of the features continue to apply to parts of today's Society, they are no longer united in a single agent: the needy people in society are no longer the workers etc}. "Slovoj Zizek" calls for the Old Marxist path and shift the focus from politics to the sign of Post-Capitalism and writes about the public figures as our exemplification of Commons- Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zukerberg ( socially conscious Billionaires).

Moreover, this sudden inevitably Heterodoxical transformation among the Leftists idiosyncrasy in the name of circumstances is apparent. Precisely, example could be given of today's China.(capitalism and communism existing parallely). For example, if Capitalist-bourgeoisie are made to choose between China and the USA, they would go for China. Therefore, a radical approach is requisite for this mulatto of Capitalism, inextricably placing the ideas of Karl Marx only as underpinning resources. As Zizek writes, which I explicitly agree is " The only way to remain faithful to Marx today is to stop being a Marixst ( As Marx himself disregarded on being called a Marxist) and to repeat instead Marx's grounding gesture in a new way.

[nihal-mangrati]

SEEING LIKE A SUBLIME OBJECT OF APPREHENSION:

The horrific outbreak of Covid-19 and the repressive instances during subsequent lockdown in India attributed to the monotony of everydayness. This also perpetuated apprehensions about ''Selfs'' and ''Others'' in the internalized spatio. Example could be given of the pre-conceived anxiety attributed to North- Easterns and the immigrants, who are still tangled in a tension between their citizenship rights and self-determinism.

When these types of representation is in its fall, very attempts are executed to accentuate its basic framework by adding more complex and complicated notions/ apprehensions. These apprehensions are preceded by the universal reference of psychiatry and as Benedict Anderson writes "imagined communities". What do I mean by Sublime Object? Perspectives attributed to subjugated and immigrants open up the complex organisation of the social hierarchies, with subtle representation of " Self" and "Others" to normalize our idea of psychic self. Moreover, to be that 'shaded' object currently is to idealize and romanticize pre-pandemic spatio and politics, regardless of its ineligibilty and bigotry. This concept of representation appropriates various strategies we use to portray ourselves to others and vice-versa. I like to bring here, the concept of the "Looking-glass self" which states that part of how we see ourselves comes from our perception of how others see us. So, that very representation is accentuated heavily by the idea of social comparison which is succumbed even more through modern adjustments and print medias. Primarily, it occurs on dimensions on which there are no objectives and correct accountabilities. This current episode of quarantine within/ from quarantine oddly labels the imagined "Others" as bodies of pathological carrier. These type of prejudices with the conflation of that very idiosyncratic State stupendously attributes as 'Nail in the Coffin'. This objectification ( sublime object) is accelerated universally by conflated Post-Modern spectre of Capitalist-Nationalism. What is perpetuated beneath the mask is a point of controversy.

The lesson we could draw from this current social context is that, our ideas and peculiarities are always appropriated by the implicit social cognition which often obstruct the actual complexity.