Wikipedia monopolizes the
online encyclopedia segment for all practical purposes. To an individual, the
first link from Google Search results invariably points towards a Wikipedia
entry. Given its usual spot in the top 10 Google search results, Wikipedia
usually occupies a top of mind recall for many people. Their first source of knowledge
ingraining is Wikipedia. Wikipedia is not merely a crowd-sourced encyclopedia
but has emerged as authoritative repository of knowledge.
With passage of time,
Wikipedia is expanding into non English languages too. Even in the context of
Indic languages, Wikipedia might emerge as leading information production and
dissemination contrary to expectations. Implied is the current and the future
generation at least in the immediate future would get their information from
Wikipedia. Therefore information as existing on Wikipedia in all likelihood
will be treated as truth and even more so as it spreads in the regional
languages. Despite no apparent centralized control and entries being
susceptible to editing and misuse, Wikipedia has little competition the information
production, dissemination and knowledge repository space.
A reluctance towards
embracing Wiki is perceptible in the right wing yet without a similar embrace
of Twitter it would not perhaps been possible to capture the Hindu political
mind-space. The article “Battle
for Indic Thoughts: Are Text Books Irrelevant in the Digital Age” discusses
the same in the context of building encyclopedia and repository for Indic knowledge.
It is apparent RW enthusiasm towards
Wiki is very weak and there is visibly a marked preference towards the
traditional text tools. Yet Wikipedia goes beyond text books and becomes a
primary source material for reference for even current events too. A recent
entry on Delhi Riots seem to pinpoint Kapil Mishra as primary culprit and
almost absolve the Amanullah Khan, Tahir Hussain and others. In an interesting report, Wikipedia editors apparently
deleted references that attributed the Muslim role in the Delhi riots. The report
by Jonita Singh at Wink Report is available here.
The report is also available on Jihad
Watch here.
This seems nothing unusual. As Jihad
Watch points out here,
Wikipedia has been reluctant for perhaps many reasons to attribute terror
attacks to Islamist groups. This brings itself new challenges as the control
over the narrative shifts to Wikipedia which given its editorial slant would
present a one-sided picture more often than not.
There is a widespread
feeling, Wikipedia has an ostensible leftist predisposition on topics
especially on India. To a substantial extent, Left intelligentsia and their ecosystem
embraced Wiki very early thus developing a first mover advantage in content
building. Jimmy Wales too was ideologically left despite his forays into the
pornography space in pre-Wikipedia days. Further, to the left, a commune
ownership of Wiki with no visible vertical hierarchy resembled the most protuberant
manifestation of Marxian elixir of proleteriatarian ownership. The roles and
privileges of the editors was more seemingly aligned to that Marxian paradigm
of “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”. Shunning profits, surviving on donations all
made Wikipedia lucrative for leftist capture. This was where the right wing
conservative thought system faltered. They fail to recognize the potential of
the emergent system and thus ceded space to their so-called progressive or
liberal rivals. In India, the failure to recognize and the reluctance to
embrace was even starker. Long used to the top down ‘mai-baap’ system the ability
to shape societal and historical narratives through a new medium was lost. Yet
given the underdeveloped and often superficial content in many instances offer
abundant latitude for deeper dissection of topics related to the Indian
socio-cultural-historical milieu exists. The right wing lost that valuable
opportunity. Now the cows are coming home to roost.
Often, perception matters
irrespective of the truth. Often narratives determine the path of nationhood
and Indian right wing think-tank loses these opportunities to capture mind spaces
of people not merely in India but across the globe. An adverse Wiki entry in
all probability will create a distorted picture to the rest of the world which
becomes difficult to counter. In the late 2000s and early 2010s, as the ‘Colour’
revolutions swept North Africa and the Middle East, reporting platform like Global
Voices played a major role. Global Voices was merely a platform for reporting
facts and narratives from all corners of the globe. There apparently would be
no opinion just a mere report. The report would be filed by volunteers located
in these regions. In many cases, the local citizens filed those reports thus
facilitating the spread of information in the revolution. The Indian
counterpart in the right wing ecosystem let go of the opportunity allowing the
same to be captured by the apparent left wingers. This makes difficult for genuine
causes to be highlighted and reported across the world.
Many RW publications
depend on top-down approaches. Despite some sterling and brave reporting, there
are limits to which an individual can cover. Yet almost zero progress was achieved in
creating and sustaining a reporting platform a la Global Voices. In West Bengal
for instance, there are reports of violence against Hindus with the state
turning a blind eye. Barring few Twitter posts, there is very little emerging
from ground zero. Similarly, a platform like Global Voices could have generated
a manifold response in the riots that shook North East Delhi. In the communal
tensions engulfing Western UP, live simultaneous ground reporting across
villages would in all probability been the next stage in building the
ecosystem. Twitter levelled the playing field between the dominant narrative and
the grassroots narrative and the battles have shifted to Whatsapp. A dedicated
reporting platform would complement and supplement the mind spaces captured on
Twitter and WhatsApp. The reluctance on the RW is something disturbing and can
impede long run narrative building.
Twitter and Whatsapp are
good battlegrounds for reactive and expressive in narrative building. Yet the
raw material for the same has to emerge at the grassroots. A reporting platform
from the villages and mohallas are sine qua non. Secondly, a repository of
facts has to be built up for future searches and pursuit of knowledge. A Wikipedia
kind of platform is inevitable. The Hindu right wing thought system is seriously
lagging in these spaces. The war on Twitter, Whatsapp or YouTube etc. might hit
a ceiling and run aground if every possible channel of information storage,
process and transmission are not captured.
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