People develop their relationship according to the existing system and its uses obtaining at that point of time, in society. And this relationship shapes the nature and kind of behaviour people develop in various interactions
Social thinker Max Weber conceives of a possibility of emergence, always, of a ‘charismatic’ leader. It may be difficult, though, to predict with certainty, the exact time when such a leader will emerge. However, the social conditions susceptible and receptive to it, could generally be visible and known.
And, when such an inspiring leader does appear on the scene, his profound leadership brings about a sweeping, far-reaching impact on society. This kind of leader is apt and adept to foresee and cause all those changes.
We all have known and acknowledged that great changes were brought about by illustrious leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jayaprakash Narayan, Nelson Mandela, Mao Zedong, Franklin D Roosevelt, Fidel Castro and such others.
The socio-political and economic conditions of India had equalled to what Max Weber had conceived of and that our country needed. Narendra Damodardas Modi’s leadership, his resolve to walk the road of a different kind of politics, to seek the transformation of the country, ushers in a ray of hope.
As he says, “I am not from a political family, I never had the opportunity to meet world leaders before”. Yet he has delivered internationally, and this reflects his statesmanship. Modi has created his space, for himself and for his country.
He has repeatedly asked netas to keep the nation above politics. Beyond any political fix, he digs a new opening to know the country, its people, through his Mann ki Baat, every month. It makes for a two-way-awareness — reaching out to the people and understanding their issues. This understanding is a non-elitist concept. Mahatma Gandhi himself did this every day (through his evening prayers) to create a ‘low-cost mass communication system with mass participation’.
Not being an uneventful politician, he further transforms his radio address as an apt exercise to connect with the masses by seeking their feedback. As he says, “Apke mann ki baat bhi mere mann ki baat se judni chahiye”(your thoughts should also link up with those of mine).
Social Theorist George C Homans, the initiator of the Exchange Theory, says there is a desire to gain something from the other side — individual or the group, targeted. In principle, it is an activity that takes place in human-functioning, its behaviour everyday.
A person expresses his idea, views, conception or hypothesis to others and initiates and induces them for a reaction, which helps him understand the situation. This process of action and reaction (expression, and reply, suggestion in return), is an act of adaptability — seeking to know and learning from.
Homans says further that in a group (say society), the interaction obtains the shape of a pyramid. On the top of this pyramid are the leaders, who send their views and instructions to the followers at the bottom. And, the followers too send their views and suggestions from the bottom to the top. This way, the current of interaction keeps on flowing from top to bottom and in the reverse, and both get benefitted. The Prime Minister’s Mann ki Baat exercise resembles cognition and conforms to Homans’ interesting theory.
It is also apparently an act of interaction and community reciprocity that develops social relations. Interacting in everyday life by individuals is the nature of society. Phenomenologists see society as having been created by individuals interacting in everyday lives. Through interactions, people learn to reflect on their personal behaviour as well as assume, equally, a co-active bearing from the other side. The process creates a kind of reciprocal expectation, one of expectation of fulfillment of the return behaviour. People explain their behaviour by referring to something socially acceptable, viable. Society has its role here. Composed of groups, society is the sum total of the symbolic social relations that its members have with one another.
People develop their relationship according to the existing system and its uses obtaining at the point of time, in society. And this relationship shapes the nature and the kind of behaviour people develop, interacting with one another.
The interaction is an ideal paradigm of a participatory democracy. As this event happens every month, as a pre-disposed functioning of the Prime Minister, it echoes a conscious desire to drive and advance societal themes that go beyond any factional and political framework considerations. Not as a humdrum politician, he stirs young generation to take to research, innovation and innovative ideas and find solution to the besetting problems through the oncoming new technologies. He says often that it is time to think ‘beyond the sustaining agenda of nationalism’.
In the emerging era of global thinking — globalisation becoming the new behavioural science — no developing country can afford to remain in isolation. The Prime Minister has ably created a valued space for India in the group of nations. He is now one ‘who must be heard’, not just domestically but the world over.
(The writer is an academic who comments on social issues)