Cultivating Deception

In the 1920s, as the Punjab countryside was aflame in what was till then the largest mobilisation against British Raj, the Government of India noted in its files:

The Sikh peasant has been committed to a policy of “self-determination” imposed by men who are not his natural leaders, and has been induced by some mysterious process of mass psychology to enter a sphere of activity hitherto [interdicted] by all traditions of loyalty and self-interest.

If we substitute the term “Khalistan” for “self-determination,” and the word “misled” for “imposed” we have precisely the same framework that the government and the mainstream media is putting out today regarding the ongoing farmer protests against three recently enacted farm laws: of Sikh peasants being led astray by Khalistani elements.

The British, writing for their own files, had at least to pretend to provide some explanation for how such a large body of men could be so imposed upon by a few. (Their answer, though, was no answer at all, induced as it was apparently by some mysterious process of mass psychology.) The Modi government, on the other hand, posturing for a pliant media, feels no such pressure to reach for an explanation regarding the vast turnout of farmers demanding the repeal of the farm laws. It finds it easier to project farmers as simple folks misled by rogue elements than to recognise their political demands. The government’s supporters reveal their bias regularly. “The poor landless farmer for whom WOKES are crying,” the mediocre filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri tweeted, mocking a protester who is seen speaking in English to a policeman on video.