Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and India's populist Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, have become new buddies. Zuckerberg hosted Modi at the Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, C.A., for a townhall in September. Weeks later, it was followed by another event at the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi where Zuckerberg spoke to the Indian students. Zuckerberg looked exuberant in his photos taken in India and shared on Facebook. India has the world's second largest number of Facebook users while Zuckerberg's keen interest in India reassures the Modi-led government about the popularity of the Indian brand/ soft image in the United States, particularly among the movers and shakers of Silicon Valley.
It is not the age that makes Zuckerberg and Modi incompatible friends. It is in fact their divergent world vision that will ultimately clash and hamper a great friendship between the two in the long run. While Zuckerberg is actively working in some of the world's poorest regions to provide access to the Internet for the poor populations because he believes the Internet is an empowering tool, Modi, on the contrary, is a silent spectator, or some allege a tacit supporter, of a strong tide of Hindu extremism that is risking India's enviable secular image. What is happening in Modi's India is in absolute contrast with Zuckerberg's worldview according to which people from all over the world should connect with each, share different ideas and collaborate on positive causes and missions.
What is thriving under the leadership of Zuckerberg at Facebook and Modi in India is "dangerous" for different people at different places and for different reasons. Zuckerberg is increasingly empowering underrepresented communities by providing people a platform to share ideas that are oftentimes considered 'dangerous' in the users' native countries. Facebook has been credited for several modern revolutions, most notably the Arab Spring. The social network has empowered women and men alike making them more curious, inquisitive and assertive. It has helped people from different cultures and religions start such conversations that had previously never taken place on such a large scale worldwide. Young people who can't remember a world before the advent of Facebook would probably consider free speech as their inherent right. Free speech is like oxygen to social media. Unfortunately, in Modi's India free speech is one word the Hindu extremists are trying to expunge from the national lexicon of the world's largest democracy.
There is currently growing anger, frustration and a sense of humiliation among India's leading cultural icons, writers, historians and scientists over increasing intolerance toward free speech and artistic expression in India under Modi whose right-wing party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), came in power in 2014. The protesters are coming from some of the best minds India has produced in its six-decade long history. Many of them have perhaps never seen such patronage, tolerance for hatred and violence toward other communities, particularly India's Muslims, in modern India.
While Hindu-Muslim tensions have existed in India since the country's independence, the tipping point for the recent surge of protests from writers, filmmakers, historians and scientists was the killing of a 50-year old Muslim man in the Uttar Pradesh state in September by a mob of Hindu extremists because of allegedly eating beef. (Devout Hindus consider beef eating offensive although I have also met Hindus who don't give a damn who eats what).
Instead of taking the protest of the nation's best minds seriously and taking action against people who are determined to impose their views and preferences on the others, India is witnessing a malicious campaign against the same scholars who have decided to speak up against the government's silence. There are systematic efforts to discredit them by accusing them of being a part of a campaign to malign the Modi government while others have persistently questioned their motivations. It is absurd to believe that so many cultural icons would unite to defame just a government while these people's creative work had existed and inspired generations even before anyone knew Modi. If the Indian government cannot protect its intellectuals, it should at least refrain from character
It is not the age that makes Zuckerberg and Modi incompatible friends. It is in fact their divergent world vision that will ultimately clash and hamper a great friendship between the two in the long run. While Zuckerberg is actively working in some of the world's poorest regions to provide access to the Internet for the poor populations because he believes the Internet is an empowering tool, Modi, on the contrary, is a silent spectator, or some allege a tacit supporter, of a strong tide of Hindu extremism that is risking India's enviable secular image. What is happening in Modi's India is in absolute contrast with Zuckerberg's worldview according to which people from all over the world should connect with each, share different ideas and collaborate on positive causes and missions.
What is thriving under the leadership of Zuckerberg at Facebook and Modi in India is "dangerous" for different people at different places and for different reasons. Zuckerberg is increasingly empowering underrepresented communities by providing people a platform to share ideas that are oftentimes considered 'dangerous' in the users' native countries. Facebook has been credited for several modern revolutions, most notably the Arab Spring. The social network has empowered women and men alike making them more curious, inquisitive and assertive. It has helped people from different cultures and religions start such conversations that had previously never taken place on such a large scale worldwide. Young people who can't remember a world before the advent of Facebook would probably consider free speech as their inherent right. Free speech is like oxygen to social media. Unfortunately, in Modi's India free speech is one word the Hindu extremists are trying to expunge from the national lexicon of the world's largest democracy.
There is currently growing anger, frustration and a sense of humiliation among India's leading cultural icons, writers, historians and scientists over increasing intolerance toward free speech and artistic expression in India under Modi whose right-wing party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), came in power in 2014. The protesters are coming from some of the best minds India has produced in its six-decade long history. Many of them have perhaps never seen such patronage, tolerance for hatred and violence toward other communities, particularly India's Muslims, in modern India.
While Hindu-Muslim tensions have existed in India since the country's independence, the tipping point for the recent surge of protests from writers, filmmakers, historians and scientists was the killing of a 50-year old Muslim man in the Uttar Pradesh state in September by a mob of Hindu extremists because of allegedly eating beef. (Devout Hindus consider beef eating offensive although I have also met Hindus who don't give a damn who eats what).
Instead of taking the protest of the nation's best minds seriously and taking action against people who are determined to impose their views and preferences on the others, India is witnessing a malicious campaign against the same scholars who have decided to speak up against the government's silence. There are systematic efforts to discredit them by accusing them of being a part of a campaign to malign the Modi government while others have persistently questioned their motivations. It is absurd to believe that so many cultural icons would unite to defame just a government while these people's creative work had existed and inspired generations even before anyone knew Modi. If the Indian government cannot protect its intellectuals, it should at least refrain from character