In this class today, we were talking of the idea of American Exceptionalism and how this belief

that America is the greatest country in the world and therefore Americans are somehow at a

higher pedestal than others in the social importance hierarchy plagues the American society. This

really hit home, especially given the events in India recently. India is currently observing what is

being called by many the world’s largest protest. Farmers from across the country have blocked

major highways to the capital to protest the newly passed farm laws. The establishment has

responded with a brutal crackdown to the protest, but the interesting part here is how they’re

trying to form a public perception of the protest. They are linking the protests to Khalistanism, a

Sikh insurgency that was quite dominant during the 80s but isn’t a major thing now. There has

been little evidence of the presence of Khalistan in the Farmers’ Protest which have been largely

peaceful barring one incident on January 26. The establishment is trying to imply that anyone

who supports the protest is conspiring against India. After Greta Thunberg voiced her support for

the protests, they tried to, using weak evidence, connect a document she shared to Khalistan and

arrested multiple climate activists across the country, claiming that they are conspiring against

India. This has been a repeating pattern in the world’s largest democracy since the past 6 years

when the Modi-led BJP came to power. Any attempt to criticize the policy of the government is

being claimed as a conspiracy against the government and the individual has been dubbed as

“anti-national”. Mainstream media is largely complicit in leading to this scenario. I see

nationalism being used to basically use democracy and fight against the very essence of it. A

such recent attempt was observed in America, the second largest democracy in the world by the

then-sitting president. But what I’m observing is that this nationalism is extremely powerful and

has the potential to have thousands of people blindly follow you. A leader with fascist tendencies
who moderates his/her speech can use this tool with great efficacy, and with the rise of social

media, this is becoming way easier than it was.