Dr A S Bhatia
Since my childhood from school days, to college and then professional life, I have observed slogans as a very important tool in influencing the mind of masses! In schools we were taught slogans of freedom struggle, Inquilab Zindabad (Shaheed Bhagat Singh), Tum Mujhe khoon Do Mai Tumhe Aazadi Dunga (Neta ji Subhash Chandra Bose), Sarfroshi Ki Tamanna, Ab hamare dil mein hai-( Ramprasad Bismil) Jai Jawan Jai Kisan (Lal Bahadur Shastri), and many more. There is rush of blood in the body while shouting these slogans and the patriotism is at its peak! In college life, the slogans were there but had replaced the taste! Now it was, Just do it (Nike), Have it your way (Burger King), Let’s go places (Toyota), Finger lickin’good (KFC), Think Different (Apple) and Eat Fresh (Subway).
As the age was advancing, similar was the change in the slogans influencing the mindset! Whereas in professional life, I have seen a different form of slogans, the provocative slogans, inflammatory slogans, hatred slogans. I wondered about the impact of all these different type of slogans on the civil society. I am of the belief that these slogans act by subconscious process of priming which influences our thoughts and actions and this priming occurs without a person’s awareness!
I am aware about the story of a lady officer who was appointed as a warden of a Boys hostel. She was surprised when was asked to act as warden of a Boys Hostel as the boys had gone to the head of the institution with the plea to get her appointed as their warden, “How Can I appoint a woman as your warden?” was the natural first reaction of the head of the institution. “Sir, don’t we have mothers at our homes?” was the innocent reply of one of the students standing among group of about twenty students. The lady officer was thrilled to hear the reply and looked towards the boy.
His eyes were speaking, and was literally missing his home and the care and comfort his mother would have provided to him throughout his childhood! In the words of that lady officer, “In the very next moment the face of that hosteler was replaced by the face of my own son! It seemed to me that my son was asking the motherly touch and was missing it badly!” The head of the college looked towards her and with unspoken words she gave her consent through her eyes. And in the next moment, she was there as the first woman warden of Boys hostel of a prestigious college!
The next day, she was standing in the hostel and shared with me about her feelings, “I felt there were three persons in me inspecting the prevailing condition of the hostel, first as a warden, second as woman keeping an eagle’s eye on housekeeping and third was the motherhood in me, and with all three in one, I inspected the various sections of the hostel with special attention paid on kitchen and the wash rooms!” The overall condition was very deplorable. There was junk in every nook and corner of the hostel, washrooms in a very pathetic condition, corridors with only one or two tube lights emitting very low light, private buses parked in the hostel ground with gates open all the night with no security men or safai karamchari traceable! The worst was the scenario of the kitchen with rodents running from here to there in the room where ration was stored! The unused, left over ‘dal’ and other food items were kept to be used the next day, “Under no condition I would have allowed any one to take that stuff !” ‘It seemed that it was free for all in the hostel and have become a den of non performing employees and the comfortable haven to enjoy the salaries without performing responsible duties!” The powerful persons have forcefully occupied five to six rooms in the hostel whereas many students were made to live in PG rooms outside the hostel! And to the astonishment of the lady warden , many among those belonged to the economically weaker sections of the society! Many other shocking things were noticed and also shared with me, which I am preferring not to pen down, but the reality was terribly true! The next strict action taken by the lady warden was to set the things on the right track.
Non performers were transferred from the hostels and those who left were taken to task. The contractors running the mess, the security, the local musclemen, who used to park their private buses and Matadors in the hostel ground were warned to mend their ways. All these commercial vehicles parked illegally in the hostel ground were forcefully evicted and gates got closed! When asked by someone, why she was taking so pain in improving the hostels, she narrated a famous saying ,”Work is the grand cure for all the maladies and miseries that ever beset mankind- honest work, which you intend getting done.” “The glory of a workman, still more of a master workman, that he does his work well, ought to be his most precious possession, like the honor of a soldier, dearer to him than life.”
These actions irked many and were becoming the eye sores of the people who used to do the things in their own way or never bothered to do the things in a right way and now this stuff was feeling suffocated! All efforts were made to get the lady warden transferred for two months, but all in vain! She continued to work her own way to improve the living conditions of the hostel inmates.
One morning ,the inmates of the hostel woke up to see religious provocative slogans written on one of the walls of the hostel, which was not covered by the CCTV Cameras, undoubtedly indicating the work of a person well versed with the hostel! Provocative slogans are always intended to make people react angrily! Soon pictures of the wall were sent to some organizations that are always in search of making their presence felt on these issues and many a time are misled by the vested interests! The musclemen, non-performers and others who were feeling the heat of the reforms undertaken , got an issue and under extreme mental stress and agony the lady warden preferred to resign!
This is the impact of provocative slogans which I saw in the professional life! Easiest way to get an honest officer of integrity, kindness and generosity, removed from the path, is to raise a social unrest by spreading false provocative slogans! One lie ruins thousand truths! Provocative slogans incites violence and intolerance.The devastating effect these have on the common masses is not new, but the scale and impact are now amplified many times with the advent of new internet technology! I remember the sayings of professor Steven Pinker from Harvard psychology university, “All new ideas are offensive and objectionable to someone. The idea that the earth goes around the sun, that Africans should not be slaved, that women should have the right to vote- all of these were objectionable in their time .”
As I was penning down these lines in the mid of night sitting on my writing table, Harleen, my wife, came to the study room, being very staunch admirer of my writings, after going through the script said, “The way I see it, if you want the Rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain!” She smiled innocently and went to the window to look towards the twinkling stars deep in the sky!
(The author is Principal Govt
Medical College Rajouri)
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