Grand Narratives vs Ordinary Lives

Nations like their stories large. They prefer epics to blog posts, victories to routines, slogans to conversations. In these grand narratives, history marches forward with flags unfurled and voices raised in (manufactured) unison. But ordinary lives do not march; they wait – at bus stops, hospital corridors, ration shops. Their lives are not shaped by moments of national glory but by small negotiations with time, money, illness, and hope. Grand stories are fine; the problem is they ignore the arithmetic by which most people survive.

One grand story that India wrote recently was the celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the RSS, the fascist, nationalist organisation that wants to convert India into a Hindu Rashtra. Ironically, 2 October (Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary) was chosen for the grand show in Nagpur which brought many eminent international guests. Many prominent American journalists were among the guests.

“The presence of the US journalists … conferred international legitimacy on an organisation known for its fascist moorings and violent past,” wrote Dhirendra K Jha in The Caravan. The grand narrative that the RSS fabricated in Nagpur on the birth anniversary of the Mahatma whom they killed 77 years ago did receive the international legitimacy that was so eagerly sought after.

Jim Geraghty, senior political correspondent at National Review and contributing columnist for the Washington Post, eulogised the fascist organisation in his Washington Post article. As Jha says, “Geraghty’s interview with the RSS chief, Mohan Bhagwat, uncritically reproduces the Sangh’s narratives – effectively serving as a conduit for an organisation desperate to conceal its true story from American readers.”

An ordinary citizen like me feels absolutely bewildered and helpless before such grand narratives and false fabrications. What do these seductive narratives mean to most people who are as ordinary as I am? Honestly, I don’t know. Countless posts on social media (Facebook and X, particularly) baffle me because seemingly very ordinary people are going out of their way to shower praises on the grand narratives manufactured by the ruling party and its partisan organisations. Not all of these are posts generated by paid agents. On the contrary, too many are from ordinary Indians who are apparently convinced that India is marching regally towards the birth of the Rama Rajya, a utopia.

Grand narratives are seductive because they simplify chaos, offer belonging, and relieve individuals of moral thinking. The flip side is they don’t touch ordinary lives; they tower above. Grand narratives are like the glorious skyscrapers in a city; ordinary lives squirm in the adjacent slum.

Bills are being passed in the royal Parliament of India, one after another, apparently for the benefit of the ordinary people. The truth is that the Bills are cogs in the wheels of the giant machinery that makes up the grand right-wing narrative. The bills have seductive names too such as G RAM G. Or Shiksha Adhishthan – what does that even mean?

All these Bills strip the ordinary citizen of their power even without their knowledge. Rather, they are hoodwinked into believing that these Bills will bring them the promised utopia. That is what grand narratives do: sell dreams to the ordinary people and make them think that the dreams are going to be real soon.

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