Shortly after Donald Trump became President of the United States, Timothy J. Snyder, professor of History at Yale University and Holocaust researcher and author, sat down to write a handbook of sorts. Exactly two weeks later, the book was complete. In Snyder’s words, “It wrote itself.”
A slim volume of not much more than a hundred pages, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century details 20 ways in which citizens in a democracy can resist the tyranny of an authoritarian state.
Snyder draws deeply on his detailed knowledge of the history of Nazi Germany and the horrors of the Holocaust and while he, of course, primarily relates the lessons of history to the Trump election, the book offers sound advice for other struggling democracies as well. Similarities to contemporary India are particularly striking.
Here is a sampling of some of these lessons…
“Lesson 1: Do not obey in advance. Much of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead of what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.”
One would be hard pressed to find a more accurate description of the current state of mainstream print and electronic media in India. L.K. Advani’s famous taunt to the Indian media after the Emergency, “You were asked to bend. Instead, you chose to crawl,” is more relevant today than it ever was. Fear and ‘obedience in advance’ have reduced several channels and newspapers to government mouthpieces instead of the sentinels of democracy they are supposed to be.
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
Timothy Snyder
Tim Duggan Books, 2018
Excessive obedience can be dangerous to a democracy that is not functioning well. Snyder recalls Stanley Milgram’s infamous 1963 experiment where a group of volunteers at Yale University were actually asked to administer electric shocks of increasing intensity to another group of volunteers. Unbeknownst to the first group, the second group of volunteers were actors who were only pretending to be affected by non-existent electric shocks. What Milgram found astounding was the obedience of the first group of volunteers to those they were ordered inflict increasing levels of ‘pain’ on the second group.
In Snyder’s words, “Milgram grasped that people are remarkably receptive to new rules in a new setting. They are surprisingly willing to harm and kill others in the service of some new purpose if they are so instructed by a new authority.”
An alarming rise in the number of attacks on members of religious minorities and lower castes over the last few years underscores Stanley Milgram’s conclusions with grim accuracy.
It is now almost considered practically anti-national to not obey government diktats unquestioningly, but what many have forgotten in 21st century India is that barely 100 years ago, non-cooperation with unjust authority was a means of protest initiated by none other than Gandhi.
“Lesson 2: Defend Institutions: It is institutions that help us to preserve decency… Do not speak of “our institutions” unless you make them yours by acting on their behalf. Institutions do not protect themselves. They fall one after the other unless each is defended… So choose an institution you care about – a court, a newspaper, a law, a labour union — and take its side.”
A very apt description of the concerted attempts by the executive arm of the government to take over educational, financial, banking, judicial and watchdog bodies in India over the last few years. While attempts to exert tacit (and overt) control over institutions like the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Banaras Hindu University (BHU), indeed the Supreme Court, have been nothing short of appalling, the resultant outcry and resistance to these takeovers has been spirited and the way in which so many have come forward to defend institutions is heartening.
“Lesson 3: Beware the One-Party State: The parties that remade states and suppressed rivals were not omnipotent from the start. Thy exploited a historical moment to make political life impossible for their opponents. So support the multi-party system and defend the rules of democratic elections. Vote in local and state elections while you can. Consider running for office.”
This is precisely why the “If not Modi, then who?” question is so completely antithetical to the heart of democracy. Besides making the rather insulting assumption that in a nation of 1.25 billion people, no one besides the incumbent prime minister is fit to lead India, this question also assumes that Narendra Modi is indispensable to the well-being of India. Looking at this government’s track record over the past four years in the areas vis-à-vis the issues that it rode to power on, (development, employment, manufacturing and corruption), that assumption has turned out to be erroneous.
The ruling party’s narrative of making India “Congress-mukt”, indeed “opposition-mukt”, strikes at the very core of democratic thinking. BJP party president Amit Shah’s recent comparison of various Opposition parties coming together to animals (“kutta, billi, kutia, mewle…”) climbing a tree to get away from the (Modi) flood, besides being obnoxious in its choice of words, was also a clear testimony to the party’s intent to establish the one-party state that Snyder warns of.
“Lesson 4: Take responsibility for the face of the world: The symbols of today enable the reality of tomorrow. Notice…the signs of hate. Do not look away and do not get used to them…”
Snyder elaborates, “Life is political…The minor choices we make are themselves a kind of vote, making it more or less likely that free and fair elections will be held in the future. In the politics of the everyday, our words and gestures, or their absence, count very much.”
Courtesy: timothysnyder.org
‘The signs of hate’ are everywhere and it is important for us as citizens of a secular democracy to call them out. It’s not easy to rebut those “forwarded as received” WhatsApp messages that tells us that Indian Muslims are the biggest danger to India or to voice an unpopular view at a family dinner, no matter how much we try to disagree without being disagreeable. But it is imperative.
“Lesson 8: Stand Out. Someone has to. It is easy to follow along. It can feel strange to do or say something different. But without that unease, there is no freedom. Remember Rosa Parks. The moment you set an example, the spell of the status quo is broken, and others will follow.”
In many ways, this is probably the most important lesson that we as ordinary citizens need to learn. If more of us had had the courage to stand out and say something different, perhaps Junaid Khan would not have been brutally lynched in a train on the eve of Eid in 2016 and Mohammad Akhlaq would still be alive. Those who are standing up and standing out are paying a price to do so. But just as cowardice is infectious, so is courage.
***
Snyder has several other suggestions in this timely book of insights, and while one or two chapters probably can’t be applied to the Indian context en toto, the overwhelming majority of the 20 lessons can. As Snyder says early on in the book, “History may not repeat itself but it certainly does instruct.”
As citizens of a country currently being run by a political dispensation whose founders were openly appreciative of the very ideology that brought about terror and destruction to Europe in the last century, we would be wise to heed history’s instructions.
Rohit Kumar is an educator with a background in Positive Psychology and Psychometrics. He works with high school students on emotional intelligence and adolescence issues and helps to make schools bullying-free zones.
