It's difficult to motivate people. More so for a cause where one may lose his life and not be able to reap the fruits of his efforts. To garner support for such a cause requires absolute conviction on your part, incessant effort and a charisma which attracts people and makes them believe what you are telling them.
Let me give an example. During the Indian national struggle, artists like Raja Rami Varma and Dadasaheb Phalke started depicting India as Goddesses to convey the idea that the country is our motherland. The idea is so simple and brilliant. The Indian psyche identifies strongly with religion and any disrespect towards it or the Gods is never tolerated. By portraying India as Lakshmi, Durga, Saraswati they glorified the land to the status of the divine and created strong passion among the people to join the independence movement. After all how can a child relax when his mother is bound by chains? How can an Indian relax when India is not free?
The last sentence seems obvious but it was not then. Although there was dissent against the British the struggles of daily life and the internal conflicts among people created such a chaos that it required strong leaders like Gandhi and immense sacrifices by the likes of Bhagat Singh to instill among people the idea of independence. And around the 30's all that was demanded was dominion status or more participation in the government. We had still not embraced the idea of a sovereign country of Indians, by Indians and for Indians. The mass media, the paintings, and the cinema which had just taken root in the country played one of the most influential roles in mobilizing the people and shaping their opinions so that they finally started thinking of themselves as 'We, the people'.
There is no doubt that mass media is one of the most powerful forces in any society and should be used effectively and wisely. It has been 60 years of independence but can we really say that we have solved our problems? On the contrary we rank 128 on the UN Human Development Index 2007/2008. This may surprise many of us, especially those living in the cities and experiencing economic growth. But one needs to to just read the articles of Palagummi Sainath to understand the extent of poverty in India.
I feel mass media be it television, radio or newspapers and now even the internet has to move beyond mere reporting of news or sensationalization of irrelevant news and has to increasingly become a people's platform and enable people participation. A democracy cannot really function without people participation but we see very less of it outside elections. Even if we have always believed it in spirit and in principle, it's implementation is still not a reality.
Our media has the best chance of making it a reality.
