Anxious Men and their Muscular Masculinity

The period of Navaratri has just ended with Ramnavami. In the hills of Uttarakhand where I stay now, the period is marked by a period of fasting, praying and singing. Our valley resounded with prayers from all directions alternately reverberating and damped by the mountainsides and forests. On Ram Navami the Bhagwat Katha and Kirtans or prayers ended with the bhandara or the communal feast. Women wearing their best clothes with their children straggling behind them or skipping ahead, went up and down the road above our house, going to or returning from the Bhagwat further up. In the evening the sound of hudka, a local handheld drum, marked the jagar or prayers to the local god by the dancing shaman that went late into the night. Our participation in the ritual festivities was limited to having the puri, chole and halwa that our neighbour brought us. It was a dignified, peaceful and happy nine-day celebration of the new year here in our village.

Elsewhere the news around the celebration of Ramnavami was very distressing. I read in the news next morning that there was widespread violence in Howrah in West Bengal, in Vadodra in Gujarat  and in Shambhajinagar in Maharashtra . In Jahangirpuri in Delhi, over 1000 people turned up for a Ramnavami procession despite police prohibition and barricades . Many political observers have noted that over the years the celebration of Lord Rama’s birthday has become an ocassion for communal violence. According to a Wikipedia entry ‘(T)his festival often involves processions of Hindu worshipers through cities, including Muslim-majority regions. These displays, often considered provocative, have repeatedly led to violence between Hindu and Muslim communities.’ As Lord Rama has morphed into a political symbol, his birthday is increasingly being celebrated in the most martial manner with flag marches and sword play as many pictures from newspapers around the country will testify.

Life imitates Art imitates Life

It is easy to pin the blame for this sign of religious aggression on political leaders and on tit-for-tat politics that has become strong justification for public and political violence in our country. But that would be a very easy way to ignore the changes that are taking place in our society around what it means to be a man. Films, especially in India, are supposed to portray the aspirations of the times. These aspirations may be unrealistic or exaggerated, but from the times of Raj Kapur and Devanand through the Amitabh Bachhan years to the current Khan years, Bollywood has represented our collective dreams. The picture below shows some of the biggest stars of yesteryears along with the images of heros from two of the biggest grossing films in the last one year. The difference is stark!

Uttar Kumar, Rajesh Khanna and Kamal Hassan were among the biggest stars of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s and even though these pictures are span probably a twenty year period there are many similarities. Their eyes, even though they are not smiling, show a hint of kindness. Contrast these images with those of NTR Jr and Shah Rukh Khan. Not only are they shirtless and displaying their six packs, their faces are angry their eyes are cold. It is true that these images are cherry picked, but they represent the images that were popularised through posters and advertisements, images that producers and the media knew the audiences would love.

I am no expert on films, but I am told that our on-screen heroes represent in some ways, the way ‘we’ men would like to see ourselves. The changes in our heroes would then mean that men today no longer see themselves as kind or hopeful, but identify more with being angry and vengeful. It is important to consider the changes that have taken place in the lives of these millions of men who turn to the cinema for respite from the humdrum of their daily lives. It is not that all these men are violent in their own lives, but they are happy to justify it. While they are seeing films for entertainment, at the same time probably, this anger and violence satisfies some amorphous but deep seated anxiety.

Changing realities of men

India has changed over the last fifty years, more so in the last 30 years. Overall poverty, poor health, lack of education, the abysmal situation of dalits (or Scheduled Castes and Tribes according to official classification), or the subordinate position of women are problems that we have left behind as a country. Now, our aspirations are global leadership and our technological prowesses are world class. If things are looking up for the country why then are these millions of men still anxious?

The lives of these millions of men have also changed. The dramatic economic changes of the last thirty years have been fueled by a technically skilled workforce. Lakhs of young men, have become part of this work force. They have moved from the rural hinterland to Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Noida and some even to Silicon valley. Many from small towns in India are among the leadership of global companies. Millions have moved from economic precarity to the middle class. Witness, India is now among the biggest markets in the world for cars and consumers durables. The Indian domestic market is so large and robust that it guards our economy from global shocks. Indian men are not only part of, but also drivers of this success story.

What has also happened in these thirty years is that the Indian population has expanded dramatically. It is tempting to think that it is because of continued fertility. Unfortunately it is not. Our fertility has declined, but the growth in the number of youth has continued to rise because of better health care, and also due to high birth rates earlier. (We have to remember todays youth were children yesterday.) So, while lakhs have benefitted, crores have been left behind. Availability of jobs hasn’t kept pace with this rise in the number of youth. We are faced with the highest unemployment rates in generations. Agricultural fragmentation and a rising market based economy has meant that rural agrarian lives are no longer sustainable. The youth are caught in a trap with no resources, no opportunities and no skills sets. Millions are moving from their homes, seeking places were informal employment opportunities exist. We saw these people walking home during the pandemic like cockroaches scurrying out of their hiding places when the kitchen corners are sprayed with insecticides. Cities are getting over-crowded, urban infrastructure is at a breaking point, slums are proliferating and the urban poor are being cursed and their shanties are being bulldozed.

But this is happening both to young women and to young men. Why then are men the only ones who anxious and insecure? The reason behind this is probably due to the different ways in which boys and girls are brought up and the different ways in which some of the other changes have affected boys and girls. Boys grow up with a sense of entitlement, girls don’t. Boys take opporunities and resources for granted because they are provided them as soon as they need these or ask for them. Girls don’t. They are trained to live with less, to make do with limited opportunities and resources. Girls are trained to be carers and nuturers despite their personal difficulties.

(Film by Video Vounteers showing these difference in boys and girls in rural India)

As they become adults, men are expected to provide and protect their families in exchange for all the amenities at home. But the situation both outside and inside the home has become very different in these intervening years. They are unable to provide and even to protect as the Covid 19 pandemic sharply brought to focus. Women are no longer waiting at home to be docile providers. Millions of women are now educated and move freely outside the home. Many have taken up the role of the cash earner/breadwinner in addition to being the carer-nuturer. The unquestioning authority that men enjoyed at home no longer exists. Men simply can’t cope with this double sided disruption to how they were socially conditioned to ‘be’ – the successful provider and protector and the master at home. This male anxiety can be be related to what experts call ‘ontological insecurity’, a situation when you feel you are no longer who you believe you are.

Regaining a sense of ‘being’ men

Contest, aggression, violence and victory are age old tools of validation for men. The successful warrior, the aggressive deal-maker, the victorious team, the disruptive enterpreneur are all heroes in their own worlds. The men that we have been discussing have little to feel like heroes even in their own eyes. They seek a new source of validation, an easily identified enemy or other that we can conquer, show our agression over.

It is not surprising therefore, that our political leaders find it easy to sell easy enemies to this electorate. While the claim our greatness at evey opportunity they lack confidence and sell stories about enemies not only abroad but also within it. Ripping muscles and angry faces become the mark of our heroes.  Flags, swords, guns and provocative slogans become symbols of religious piety. The use of force and violence becomes morally justified. It is also not surprising that misogyny and violence against women is also rising today as women too become an easily identified enemy.

But this is not the only way the story is, needs to be, or has been in the past. My Uttarakhand Ramnavami experience shows that a completely different reality is also possible in present times. Similarly there are many syncretic practices across our country which continue to be alive despite this onslaught of hate, anger and violence. My faith that a different reality was possible was further strengthened when I read this story about Manjoor Khan a 78 year old Muslim man from Jharkhand who led the Ramnavami procession in his town for the 45^th year. When I received this painting of Ram at Seeta’s swayamvar by Abdur Rahaman Chugtai, one of Pakistan’s most celebrated artists, as a Ramnavami greeting, I knew I was not alone in this faith. I however wonder why the many thousands of men, who do not face many difficulties, also buy into the present logic. What is their ontological insecurity I wonder?