Digital nation

The launch of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's online shakha may be seen either as a logistical disaster or as testimony to the communic...

The launch of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh8217;s online shakha may be seen either as a logistical disaster or as testimony to the communications success story of the Hindu right. True, Sarsanghchalak Rajju Bhaiyya was not able to get into the chat session he was to chair because of the massive crowds already milling about in the chatroom, but the fact remains that that crowd was assembled by a contact programme that began only a week before the event.

Everyone turned up on schedule, logging in from four continents, from time zones where it was still either office hours or past midnight. The Hindu movement was the first mainstream political grouping in Asia to appreciate the power of the Internet to mobilise, motivate and consolidate a constituency on a global scale. The success of the strategy was seen recently in the Internet campaigns against the misuse of Hindu mythology and scripture in an episode of Xena and in Stanley Kubrick8217;s Eyes Wide Shut.

Prior to the Sangh Parivar, only terroristorganisations had used the Internet extensively. The LTTE, for instance, got its overseas cadres to run e-mail campaigns on Indian newspapers. The Khalistani, Kashmiri and ULFA separatists were less sophisticated, using the Net largely as a publishing medium.

In that perspective, the Hindutva grouping has set a benchmark, using the interactivity of the new media to the hilt. In the meantime, whole nations of the mind have found a home on the Net. The latest in the news is independent East Timor, which lives on servers in Ireland, Portugal and the US. The nation that the Hindu right has put together in cyberspace is even bigger than these.

The efforts of other Indian political organisations pale into insignificance in comparison. Where does the government hope to fit in? Some Internet entrepreneurs are already thinking of putting public documents everything from the usual yellow pages through phone books to government documents 8212; online. The National Informatics Centre runs a case-law service for thecourts. Medical data is swapped between institutions through government servers. There have been proposals to wire the villages so that rural people with basic education can get data entry jobs at home, instead of having to migrate to the already congested cities. Excellent initiatives, but there have been only fitful attempts to tie them together into a comprehensive service for the people.

The principal function of information is to empower, and this empowerment is delivered most cheaply over the Internet. However, this delivery will be indefinitely delayed unless the small towns and villages have access to the wired world. Our telephone system and copper cabling are unreliable, but that is not necessarily a weakness. It means that India has fewer legacy systems to dismantle before it can start using cellular technologies and digital wireless extensively. However, this will not happen so long as the government insists upon protecting the revenue base of its telecom carriers by legislation. It will have toappreciate that if it is not to discredit itself further as the chief defacilitator of development, it must get out of the way.