Revolution, episode 318

The revolution set to reach its umpteenth climax is no more real than the soapy mirror it derives legitimacy from


Chris Cork November 26, 2014

In real terms there is probably more chance of revolution in the US than there is in Pakistan today, given the ferment and national agitation that is ongoing centred on the killing of a black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri. And that possibility it has to be said is vanishingly small, smaller than our own chances of dropping off the edge into a revolutionary darkness. Even allowing for another shooting by the police in the US of a 12-year-old child who was unwisely playing with a replica firearm and the outrage that has caused, revolution is far off for Uncle Sam. And for us.

This is not a juggling of false equivalents. There are many, millions probably in both countries, who would want revolution though they may find that if their wishes became real they would regret what they have wished for. Justification can probably be found both here and there for radical changes in the way that both countries are governed and their electoral systems. Both countries have a rich/poor divide and institutionalised inequalities that might under the right circumstances move from spark to fire and then conflagration — but they seem not and are nowhere near in either case.

Writing this four days before what is touted as being the defining rally of the current revolution in Pakistan, it is hard not to see a parallel with the interminable Indian soap operas that wallpaper our TV screen day and night 24/7. Feuding families bicker about marriage and the plot moves forward with glacial speed, advancing mere minutes or hours per episode as the glutinous story-lines flow at a snail’s pace. Whatever ‘drama’ there is, is created by in-your-face zoom shots and shaky camera-work accompanied by music straight out of 50s Cold War sci-fi films.

The point about the Indian soaps is that nothing ever actually happens. There is no resolution, merely a marking of time with the same characters jogging on the spot and recycling a script that could have been — and quite possibly was — written by a consortium of robots.

These intellectual black holes absorb the time and attention of countless men and women across the land. If my own household is anything to go by the plot-wrinkles and the personal lives of the characters are endlessly discussed at the dining table and the kitchen sink — and in the car on long journeys where escape is impossible. These fictions are talked about as if they are real and such is their ubiquity that they are discussed in real-time, with life on the TV screen running in harness with life as lived by nominally sentient beings.

Thus it is that the revolution that is to reach its umpteenth climax on the 30th is no more real than the soapy mirror it derives its thin legitimacy from. To be sure the issues at the forefront are real enough — electoral rigging though perhaps, not at the fantastical levels alleged, corruption, dynastic rule and ineptitude on all sides — yes indeed, as real as rocks and just as immutable perhaps. And yet, and yet… a complete absence of end-point, of a last leaf to the book, only a droning in the background, the sound made by endless goalposts getting shifted to accommodate the shrinking space afforded by impossible demands. There is going to be no mid-term election, no resignations by any member of the sitting government and quite probably no credible investigation of the allegations of voter manipulation that is a reasonable demand of the revolutionaries.

Those standing at the back of the room as the dharna-drama soaped its nightly way across the screens never caught the whiff of cordite that those up close to the screen thought they could smell. Have you noticed that sometimes there is a build-up of static on the TV screen that can produce a tiny crackle if you put your finger close? And that oh-so elusive odour that is in the air after an electrical discharge that is gone in an instant?

Such has been our revolution… played out in increments by actors hewn of mahogany delivering a script that rarely varied with all the gravitas of yesterday’s paratha. Turn on, tune in and drop out. Episode 319 tomorrow. Tootle-pip!

Published in The Express Tribune, November 27th, 2014.

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COMMENTS (3)

Kaghan wala | 9 years ago | Reply

'...Turn on tune in and drop out.' That is a Hippie expression from the 60's and 70's. When Led Zeppelin ruled And Roger Daltrey And Mick Jagger were commonly recognized names. Gracie Slick of the Jefferson Airplane was belting out White Rabbit.

Parvez | 9 years ago | Reply

You have effectively used the word ' revolution ' to ridicule a process that in fact ' is a cry for change ' ....and lets be honest that change has taken place, if you refuse to see it that is your shortcoming. Imran Khan may go......but the awakening in the people will endure.

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