A Republic of Decay

What O V Vijayan wrote in the context of Indira Gandhi’s Emergency is more relevant today than in those days. For those who are not aware of Vijayan, he was one of the finest novelists of Kerala in the second half of the 20^th century. He was also a brilliant cartoonist whose cartoons appeared regularly in The Statesman and The Hindu. He was a recipient of many awards and honours including Padma Bhushan.

His novel, The Saga of Dharmapuri, was published after the Emergency. it is a savage allegory of political chicanery, authoritarianism, and moral collapse. However, the novel is not only about dictatorship but also about a nation that gradually loses its ability to distinguish truth from propaganda, virtue from spectacle, and citizenship from obedience.

Nowadays Indians are bombarded with BJP propaganda on their TV screens. The Modi government has made it obligatory for all channels to broadcast programmes on “themes of national importance and social relevance” for half an hour every day between 6 am and 11 pm. What we get, in effect, is sheer government propaganda.

Vijayan’s Dharmapuri rushed to my mind as I switched off my TV when the propaganda came on again during the morning news.

In Dharmapuri, power is concentrated around a few charismatic rulers. Prajapati, the ruler of Dharmapuri, is not merely a political figure; he becomes a symbol around whom the entire public reality is organised. The novel opens with the sycophants waiting for Prajapati’s morning excreta which, for them, is sacred prasad.

Yes, there is much obscenity in this novel. When politics becomes obscene, polite language becomes inadequate. Today’s India is the most apt example. Political discourse is increasingly theatrical, abusive, and sensational. TV debates often resemble carnivals of outrage than forums of reason. Social media amplifies this tendency. Spectacle has overwhelmed substance. Today’s Prajapati changes costumes every hour. His utterances have become the national prasad.

One of the recurring questions in Vijayan’s novel is: If a government must endlessly proclaim its greatness, what does that say about the relationship between appearance and reality?

Vijayan begs to be read again when we are bombarded with massive advertising campaigns, carefully tailored public images, and algorithm-driven political communication.

Dharmapuri’s politics is founded on religion. Political power has a religious aura. In contemporary India, nationalism functions more as a source of emotional belonging and moral legitimacy than as a political ideology. The line between patriotism and political loyalty has vanished.

If Indira Gandhi’s Emergency perpetrated censorship, arrests, and suspension of rights openly, Modi’s authoritarianism does it all quite subtly. Self-censorship, media dependence on power, surveillance, legal intimidation, altering education system so that one particular religious community benefits in every way, online harassment, concentration of economic and political influence… One would long for the Emergency!

Vijayan’s novel is also a critique of the people. The citizens of Dharmapuri are passive, gullible, opportunistic, and eager to surrender their freedom in exchange for comfort, entertainment, or tribal belonging. Tyranny survives not only because rulers seek power, but because citizens find freedom exhausting and are just waiting to surrender it at the feet of a ‘strong’ leader. 

How does a nation that begins with ideals of dharma and justice gradually become accustomed to absurdity, corruption, and slavish obedience? Vijayan’s answer is bleak but illuminating. It happens not all at once, but through a thousand small compromises – by rulers who crave power, institutions that lose courage, and citizens who stop questioning.