Another year passes into history and a year that might make the history books starts

It is one of the vagaries of the ancients when, at least in the Greco-Roman world, we did not know that the earth rotated around the sun and our calendars were, thus, imperfect. Even after Julius Caesar repaired the Roman calendar, which forms the basis for the Gregorian calendar that we use today, the year which was supposed to end with the winter solstice found itself shifted. So, yes, January 1 is an arbitrary date with no seasonal connotations. Yet, many of us make resolutions and dedications of change on this very day. Importantly, we bid the past year goodbye and wish for better in the new year. 2018 will be remembered for all the usual reasons that years are re-assessed — big celebrations, sporting events as well as tragedies and death. It will be a year from which we will all draw inspiration and take some hard lessons for the future. But 2019 is an epochal year, at least for India. Because it is a General Election year, it will be the most competitive for two generations, thanks to a number of factors. Not least an Opposition Congress with its tails up after its recent electoral victories and a Narendra Modi, a serial winner and great orator, who might find himself not as the man who ruled India for over a decade but cast among the several ‘one and done’ Prime Ministers this country has had. One thing is for certain, this will be a vicious and extremely negative election campaign, possibly with calls to violence on religious and ethnic lines, much of it fired up by irresponsible people masquerading as public leaders and maybe even some journalists. It is up for all of us to maintain civility and decorum in the public discourse, possibly by switching off news television and taking with a large dose of salt the lies and misinformation spread on social media and the internet. This will be an election that will be to India what the 2016 elections were to the United States and it will divide friends and families about the political choices they make. While India has been blessed with two decades of political stability, both historical issues of marginalisation and modern issues of economic needs will come to the fore and could tear the nation’s social fabric.

It will also be a year with other major ramifications for India and its citizens. Not least it is a Cricket World Cup year with this edition in England. India, like always, is one of the perpetual favourites for the trophy. There are also opportunities for India’s newer stars in emerging sports who made their mark in 2018 to buttress their status among the world’s best. The media industry will have to cope with the continued rise of data consumption and challenges of new business models. The world will also need to stand up to the challenge of fake news and censorship fed by large technology companies who, whether they like it or not, have become intermediaries and not just service providers. On all fronts, 2019 will be a challenging year. Finally, on behalf of The Pioneer, we wish you a very happy 2019, and arbitrary as the day is, make at least one resolution, that is to continue reading and spreading this newspaper’s articles and columns as India’s only uncorrupted bastion of information in these troubled times.