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Orwellian Newspeak and Politics of Hate in India: Challenges for a Resilient Democracy
The resurgence of right-wing politics all over advocates new forms of nationalism, violence and exclusion that has important social and economic ramifications. Trump, Brexit and a wave of racism, communalism and nationalism are the landscapes of the world today. George Orwell in his masterpiece 1984 showed the power of language to control and manipulate people. The calibrated language of the media, creation of fake news on social media, discriminating voices and ideologies are breeding grounds for hate and intolerance. In India today, the thought which is independent and non-government invites an anti-national and criminal label. Suppressing dissent, spreading distrust and hate, hate speeches to polarize the electorate to win elections, trying to re-write history, changing words and symbols from public discourse are some of the tools and mechanisms to change a vibrant, multi-cultural democracy to a majoritarian rule and totalitarian regime. By giving various examples, this paper tries to analyze the slithering Fascism in India and how the resilient secular polity and civil society struggle to subvert all these authoritarian moves and climate of intolerance.