A recent study, according to a news agency report, has found that ‘anger is viral; anger is the most influential emotion on-line, inciting more responses than other sentiments such as joy or sadness … anger spreads faster and more broadly than joy …’. The study was about social media trends and not a poll of people physically. Millions of tweets and their responses were analysed and the result was an overwhelming vote for anger.
That anger is infectious is not just a social media phenomenon but a household reality too. The popularity of anger on virtual networks is only a magnified reflection of its pervasive presence on ground and perhaps also bares human nature in its true colours. That anger has not only survived but also reigns supreme despite several strictures and scriptures warning against it shows that it is infallible. Of course, many may claim to have conquered it but, ironically, anger, even if only a vain emotion, always has the last laugh. Even to the most pious there is a last straw that provokes anger to rise to the surface from the depths of the subconscious where it had lurked unobtrusively. Anger can only be suppressed, never subjugated. What to say when we have witnessed many an angry God down the ages.
Rowthiram pazhagu, (practise anger), exhorted Poet Bharathi. Aurobindo’s early writings would set afire even the most passive of men. Mahatma Gandhi too had his moments of anger, despite being an adept at keeping his cool, at least outwardly. Bharathi was actually upset that there wasn’t adequate anger around, or that it rarely manifested as a mass phenomenon. The firebrand poet’s vengeful call to ‘burn the universe even if one person were to go hungry’ stands out as the highpoint of righteous rage. He riled against social evils and also rallied people for freedom struggle in the same fiery breath. Bharathi, Aurobindo and their tribe of early freedom fighters of pre-1920 vintage were actually dubbed extremists for ‘inciting’ people against the British with their inflammable words. But it was on the firm foundation of their collective rage that the latter pacifists built the shaky edifice of India’s independence.
And that brings us to the India of today, an India that is surely rid of British yoke though not entirely off the foreign hook. Bharathi would in a way be happy that Indians have mustered the courage to get angry, though they may not have fully mastered the art of staying angry. Friedrich Max Muller says that no nation that had gone through the torments and tortures of alien rulers for over thousand years would have been as meek and mute as India had been. Perhaps the India of present may at last give the lie to this justified left-handed compliment that mocks our famed tolerance of injustice, even though the tormentors of today are primarily home-grown. There has been an avalanche of anger in the last few years on a slew of issues like corruption, terrorism, rape, economy, mis-governance etc that is unprecedented. While the current rulers will rightly bear the brunt of this anger as polls draw near and all raging issues reach critical mass, future governments may have to contend with an anger that is at core anti-political class.
Anger is always the chart- busting grist for media, be they news, entertainment or the new fangled ones. The supply is abundant as the nation overflows with furious mobs, candle-light vigilantes and a raw gen-next, all waiting to be ignited even if only to fizzle out as impotent rage later. But then a fire can always be lighted from the dying embers of an earlier one. It is indeed fun time for my tribe, self included. So, be angry, be happy!
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