"(they) were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination when daylight had expired. Nero offered his gardens for the spectacle” (Tacitus, The Annals, Book XV, C.E. 62-65)
Palagummi Sainath, a respected journalist and writer from India starts with an anecdote about Nero and the burning of Rome, in the 2009 documentary film, ‘Nero’s guests’ by Deepa Bhatia about the Indian agrarian crisis. He recounts the writings of the Roman historian Tacitus about the extravagant party held by Emperor Nero while Rome burned, to distract his population from his role in it. Nero offered his garden estate for the spectacle attended by all the important elite socialites and who’s who of Rome. However, there was a problem about nightly illumination for the party and Nero solved that by bringing the outcasts and prisoners, tying them atop stakes around the garden and setting them on fire. As they burnt to provide light to the party, Nero’s guests popped another fig into their mouths and went on singing and dancing. Sainath elucidates, rather than Nero who was a madman, more shocking is the contempt shown by Nero’s guests, who are indifferent to the suffering at their expense. He says, "that is the mindset that extreme inequality breeds, a total lack of empathy."
From the film shot almost 12 years ago, not a lot has changed since then in India. One can easily change the names from ‘Dhirubhai’ to ‘Mukesh’ and the story holds just as pertinent today. Mukesh Ambani, the second richest person in Asia and the owner of Reliance industries operating in everything from petrochemicals to oil and gas, telecom and retail, stays in Antillia (the first billion dollar home in the world), not too far from one of the largest slums in the world, Dharavi. How the irony is lost on some! He is only one of the many billionaire plutocrats that is leading the move towards a highly privatized public sector in India.
Capitalism in the modern day is not just about privatization but rather a "colonization of our imagination, to tame us into unrecognizable selves", as explained aptly by Arundhati Roy (A. Roy, Capitalism: A Ghost Story, 2014). The obscene levels of inequality that comes after, dehumanizes the society to such an extent that it strips away the humanity of its victims and as well as its perpetrators. Surely, with this current administration, we have not just gone past it. Rather we are now proud of the fact that we can openly marginalize the poor and the minority, flaunt our wealth and shove our religious freedoms into other’s throats and call it our civic duty. That is the new and reformed India, free from colonialists only to be sold off to capitalists.
We see it clearly with the ongoing farmer protests that is grappling India at present. Here is a video clearly explaining why the farmers are protesting. The three controversial farm bills introduced by the Modi government in May 2020 as part of its ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ (‘Self-Reliant India’) is an ode to this privatization drive. In fact, it is based on the World Bank document, titled India: Country Economic Memorandum, vol. II. of 1991, to de-regulate, liberalize and privatize the agriculture sector and open up the agricultural markets to foreign players, a drive spearheaded by the United States. This article shows a more precise and detailed economic explanation of the memorandum if you wish to understand.
“It is worthy to note the deceptive nature of World Bank’s claims regarding the benefits of globalizing Indian agriculture,….and the fact that multinational corporations, not Indian peasants, would be the real beneficiaries of such a globalization." (Rupeindia, 'Modi’s Farm Produce Act Was Authored Thirty Years Ago, in Washington D.C.', January 5, 2021)
But never mind the fact that there are several examples of why such a recommendation has failed in many parts of the world, including North America. For example, this exact model was imposed on Mexican agriculture since the 1990s, and more particularly since 1994 (the North American Free Trade Agreement) as well as Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 in the United States which led to devastating economic, ecological and environmental impacts ( R.E. Scott, 'Exported to Death: The failure of agricultural de-regulation, July 1, 1999). There are similar failed examples from the Indian context as well such as the deregulation of sugarcane industry in 1998.
The Indian agricultural economy was in fact self-reliant and fertile, before the IMF recommendation of green revolution and liberalization that led to the complete collapse of the ecosystem, polluted and dried our water bodies, and made our agricultural lands into production houses to feed the west. Below you can see the timeline of events showing how Maharashtra, one of India's largest agriculture production areas became a drought stricken region with the highest number of farmer suicides.
And yet, people who oppose this imposition of capitalistic western influence and want to protect our land, our soil, our water and our people are labelled as anti-national but those whole heartedly accept this atrocity without an inch of doubt is the true Indian. And this is where the importance of who are protesting is really at play. While this agitation is described as a “farmer” agitation, it represents principally the interests of poor and small holder peasants, and not all “farmers.” When the woke pseudo nationalists of this country argue that these bills represent reforms to uplift the farmers, we really need to question which farmers are you talking about? I cannot express my disbelief at their apathy in trying to reason the most unreasonable injustice done to the most marginalized in our country. The question from Sainath resonates, “Whose hearts are bereft of any principles of humanity?”
Yet, the farmer agitations are maligned in every way possible by the right wing media. They are called as Khalistani terrorists, a smear campaign that holds no grounds as the demands put forth does not pertain to any religious identity of the Sikh community. They are purely secular in the interests of the collective common class people of India. Yet, a Sikh flag hoisted well below the Indian flag at the red fort made the mainstream media suddenly condemn the movement as unconstitutional – what about the undemocratic way in which this law is being implemented, while selling the country to giant corporations? I guess that’s beyond the point.
The otherwise apolitical and strictly silent Indian celebrities also raised their eyebrows and quickly carried out orchestrated tweets with a hashtag #IndiaAgainstPropaganda, after Rihanna and Greta Thunberg shared solidarity with the farmer protests. The list of “proud, patriotic elite Indians” include a legendary cricketer (now a Member of Parliament - an after-retirement position), the current captain of men’s cricket team, a badminton star, Bollywood celebrities, wannabe writers, so-called journalists…the list goes on. I guess everyone wants a piece of the pie. Suddenly, India’s national matters are India’s alone, never mind the irony in opening up the markets to foreign powers. It is in our vested interests to burn the country to the ground, how dare you question that right?
This is what Roy talked about, many others talked about – the greed masqueraded as patriotism. It is unjust that farmers in India have to choose between dying from thirst and watering their crops, rationing and rotating hunger, while the rest of us sit in our comfortable spaces tweeting and being mere spectators, immune to the poverty and suffering right in front of us. They protested, went on hunger strikes, marched for kilometers, took their own lives, pleaded and begged, yet, we did not see them. We did not hear them. We chose not to hear them. There I was with the self-realization that, I too am one the growing new generation of upper middle class city bred Indians enjoying our Big Mac while posting #blacklivesmatter on our Instagram, unaware of the blatant inequality that is right before us- the inequality perpetuated by the ultra-rich, self-centered, power-thirsty individuals who now run the country.
Many today continue to remain just that; Nero’s guests.
Edit: In November 2021, Indian PM Narendra Modi announced the repeal of all three controversial farm laws after a year of protests.