Ranters all: The fatal weakness of the Hindutva troll

Homo Indicus Hindutvawadi is focus of a recently published excerpt of Ramachandra Guha’s new book, Patriots and Partisans. The rest of us  know him either as the ‘Hindutva troll’ or ’true patriot,’ a difference in perspective that says as much about the viewer as the object. And I say ‘him’ since, as Guha points out, the hyper-vocal Hindutwadi is invariably male, upper caste, and often a non-resident Indian. [Read the excerpt in Outlook here ] Guha’s dissection of the rightwing ideologue focuses primarily on the descriptive. Letters he’s received over the years are employed as evidence of his essential traits, i.e. a “deep suspicion of diversity and pluralism”; “tendency to think in black-and-white”; “insistent (if ultimately unconvincing) claim that they are history’s inevitable winners”; and “an utter lack of humour.” [caption id=“attachment_524200” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AFP.[/caption] Much of this – especially the lack of humour – could just as easily used to describe an ideologue of any stripe, left or right. Guha who has publicly debated Arundhati Roy both knows and acknowledges the same, opening with a reference to a debate with a Marxist. What is strikingly absent from the list, however, is the vitriolic rage that has become the signature trademark of the online right-winger around the globe. (Not having the read the book as yet, I don’t know if Guha addresses this elsewhere.) In this part of the world, comments boards and twitter are rife with shrill rightwing rhetoric about Mozzies, sickular liberals, Congi lackeys et al, which in turn provokes equally intemperate responses. National security expert B Raman views rightwing trolls as part of a darker conspiracy:

They  do not call themselves the NaMo Brigade, but they make no secret of the fact that they support NaMo as the next Prime Minister of India. Their worrisome methods, reminiscent of the methods used by the Storm Troopers, consist largely of abuse, vituperation, disinformation, character assassination and psychological pressure. Whereas the Nazi Storm Troopers did not have the benefit of the computer and the Internet, the NaMo Brigade, which has established a dominance over the means of propaganda through the Net in the absence of any opposition to their methods from secular and liberal elements, has been using the social media networks in their PSYWAR.

At the time, his not-quite-convincing analogy sparked an interesting conversation with a colleague who observed of the Internet commentariat, “Liberals rarely ever get that angry.” One reason, she argued, is that right-wingers believe “they are being silenced or ignored by a liberal media.” Hence the sense of victimhood, accompanied by high decibel fury.  They yell because they want to be heard, like those people who stuck their heads out of the window in Network to yell, “I am mad as hell and I won’t take it anymore.” Or if we prefer the less flattering movie reference: like Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction insisting, “I will not be ignored!” And that brings me to the greater weakness of the online troll. However loud and angry, he inevitably stops being scary. Ugly rhetoric loses its power through constant repetition. People start to tune out. They stop reading, and start blocking. Soon, the trolls are only talking to each other, or warring with trolls from the opposing camp. The wild-eyed rightwing hater, therefore, does greatest disservice to his own cause – reducing himself and his politics to caricature and often driving away even those who may be on his side of the argument (For example, Raman who supports and admires Modi.). He also ends up ignored by the very people whose attention he seeks through constant heckling. The online world is an overcrowded public square with the added comfort of anonymity. It encourages us to scream ever louder to be heard, but also made us a little deaf. It doesn’t matter if you’re right or left, as a political strategy, hyper-aggression in the virtual world yields diminishing results. Trolling may seem empowering initially and even have a chilling effect, as others become more wary of airing opinions that invite a virtual lynching.  But over time, Homo Indicus Hindutvawadi has become one more symptom of an unpleasant social phenomenon, like paan-spitters or eve-teasers on the street. And as with them, the time-tested and reliable response is inevitably, “Just ignore!” Now… let the trolling begin!