By KARTIK
LOKHANDE :
Understanding the battle
of narratives helps in
knowing if something is
authentic or not. As
various ideologies,
political, socio-cultural
identities are competing
for space, a lot is being
invested in this battle
these days. Though the
attempt of those
peddling false narratives
has not succeeded
beyond creating ripples
for a while, its
presentation in an
easy-to-consume format
creates favourable
perception in favour of
an entity. False or fake
narratives pose greater
danger in the future than
now. Hence, there is a
need to counter any false
or fake narrative right
when it is floated.
NOT all battles are
fought on borders.
Some are fought
within and also in
the realm where
human perceptions are shaped.
While the enemy at the borders
may be visible and neutralised
through effective counter-measures, those operating to shape the
human perceptions are not visible, and may even be untraceable. By the time one realises that
a particular piece of information
or interpretation is false, damage is already done besides creating a ‘content’ that may be
potentially recycled until it ends
up getting sanctity as a ‘reference’. Welcome to the era of the
‘Battle of Narratives’.
Last year only, the Government
of Odisha had to issue an order
prohibiting use and access of
social media platforms like
WhatsApp, Facebook, ‘X’ etc
through the internet as the
administration had expressed
concern regarding misuse of the
internet for spreading communal violence in Bhadrak district.
It was not the first time that such
a measure was taken.
In Jammu
and Kashmir, and also the areas
where communal conflicts are
erupting following circulation of
some unverified posts, internet
connectivity is often interrupted to stem the spread of malicious information. But, why, in
the first place, a malicious piece
of information is created and circulated? The answer is simple:
To influence the public mind so
that some perceptions could be
altered or created.
Circulation of unverified information may take for a ride even
those in the field of technology.
The latest example being Meta
CEO Mr. Mark Zuckerberg. He
irresponsibly said that incumbent parties lost the post-COVID
polls in various countries including India. Since what he said was
utter falsehood in case of India,
the latter hit back, following
which Meta apologised. When
someone known for founding a
popular social media platform
like Facebook and spoke of fact
check could go wrong, common
unaware and unsuspecting people are always at risk of ‘believing’ what reaches them especially through social media.
Sometimes, even an adversary
can peddle fake narratives about
another country. For instance,
the Communist China has been
resorting to disinformation. Not
long ago, an authoritarian China
altered the names of 11 regions
in Arunachal Pradesh, which is
an Indian state. Why? Because,
China wants to project Arunachal
Pradesh as its territory! China
amplified such a brazenly false
narrative through posts on its
social media platforms like Weibo
and Douyin.
Apart from disinformation,
two other tools are used in the
battle of narratives. These are
misinformation and malinformation. While misinformation
is false information not created
with an intention to harm, disinformation is blatantly false and
created with an intention to harm
a person or a social group or an
organisation or a country.
Malinformation is information
that is based on facts but ‘manipulated’ to inflict harm on a person or an organisation or a country. Together these three form
the ‘MDM’ (misinformation-disinformation-malinformation) triad. Certain forces inimical to
India have been making use of
all three, along with newer methods like ‘alternative history’ to
cloud the collective fact-based
understanding of history by present-day Indians.
This creates controversies and
also plants seeds of potential
social conflicts. Rows over
Bhima-Koregaon battle, Fatima
being pioneer of women’s education alongside Savitribai Phule,
Dadoji Kondadev being a mentor to Chhatrapati Shivaji
Maharaj or Swami Ramdas being
a contemporary of Chhatrapati
Shivaji Maharaj, so on and so
forth have clouded public thinking. Several narratives were tools
of political strategies during Lok
Sabha elections held last year, and
also during Legislative Assembly
elections in Maharashtra and
Jharkhand, and may be used in
future to score political brownie points over the rivals. One can
cite several examples of how narratives and any of the MDM factors are being deployed to destabilise social harmony by tweaking history -- old and recent.
Those peddling false narratives particularly in the domain
of history take advantage of the
confusion prevailing in the society, especially among youngsters,
because of collectively fading
memory of original material
through the withering habit of
reading books. Technology, no
doubt, has made available seemingly unlimited choices, but it has
also imposed restrictions. Which
search result should show what,
is still being decided by the big
tech companies. What if someone in these companies wants
to hide a crucial piece of faded
history? What if only selective
material is made available on the
internet to (mis)guide or deprive
a researcher?
People who read books gradually develop the equipment to
discern truth from falsehood.
They evolve as individuals who
do not get swayed by any false
narrative, and are able to see the
larger picture, and become
thought leaders in respective
domains.
The best way to counter MDM and protect oneself from
false and fake narratives is to
read books quoting authentic
material. Interpretation of facts,
field visits, interactions with people, emphasis on verification of
material available, tallying information about an event or a person as available today with specific mentions in the original
source material, may be some
ways through which one can
establish authenticity of a book
or a research paper or a publication. Unfortunately, since this
is a longer route requiring real
hard work, even many
researchers shy away from it. It is in this space that those creating and spreading the false or
fake narratives operate. The situation is not bleak, but definitely
alarming. Understanding the
battle of narratives helps in knowing if something is authentic or
not. As various ideologies, political, socio-cultural identities are
competing for space, a lot is being
invested in this battle these days.
Though the attempt of those peddling false narratives has not succeeded beyond creating ripples
for a while, the presentation in
an easy-to-consume format creates perception favourable to an
entity. False or fake narratives
pose greater danger in the future
than now. Hence, there is a need
to counter any false or fake narrative right when it is floated.