One of my bad habits is that I watch a whole lot of Ravish Kumar videos and that I tweet about them. There was this time fairly recently when Ravish ji went on a short break. When he returned, I noticed that he had made a few changes to his studio for prime time. He had added a framed portrait of himself to the background, alongside the portrait of Mahatma Gandhi. I tweeted about that. The next time I saw his show, it was gone. Not the portrait of Mahatma Gandhi, the portrait of Ravish Kumar was gone. Is Ravish ji reading my tweets? I do not know.
Anyways. So the other day when the youtube algorithm threw up this video of Ravish Kumar speaking at the Jaipur Literature Festival in 2020, I clicked on it instantly. What would Ravish ji say to an audience of cultivated social elites, with an obvious interest in history, culture, religion and politics? They appeared to cheer his every word, so here is an extract, loosely translated from Hindi (watch from 9:10 onwards):
“It is Jan 26 today… in 4 days he [Mahatma Gandhi] is going to be assassinated. For five years, they have been taking his name. Actually, if you look at the chronology, 1948 came first and Jan 26, 1950 came later. “
Let me interrupt here, to mention the loud cheers from the crowd when Ravish Kumar mentioned the word “chronology.” Listen carefully to what Ravish ji says next (again, loosely translated from Hindi):
“Let me tell you … Chronos is a Greek god of time, and he eats up kids. The word chronology has come from there …. That is why it is important for you to understand chronology. This is not just the order of time. This is a sign that you are about to go crazy.“
Again, loud cheers from the crowd at Jaipur Literature Festival. There was a bit of stunned silence though in the middle, as Ravish Kumar spoke about the God Chronos eating up kids.
I thought I would check this gory story of the Greek God who eats children. Indeed, the word “chronology” is derived from Chronos, the Greek God of time. So did Chronos eat children?
No! Or at the very least, there was no such thing on Wikipedia. This struck me as strange. You would think Wikipedia would mention something about this. But no. That is when a little note in the upper corner of the Wikipedia article on “Chronos” caught my eye.
It is clear now. It was obviously a mixup between “Chronos” and “Cronus.” The word “chronology” is not related to Cronus, but derived from Chronos. This may seem like a minor issue, even pedantic. But given how sinister it sounded, the dark story told about Chronos eating children and the way the crowd responded to the word “chronology,” can we let go of it so easily? So what does this episode say about Ravish Kumar, the people he was addressing, and liberalism in general?
First of all, this was no ordinary crowd that Ravish Kumar was speaking to. This was a crowd at Jaipur Literature Festival. These people are social elites. They are supposed to know things. Many of them are the kind of people that like to dismiss others as “Whatsapp University.” And yet, nobody spoke up. Nobody interrupted to correct the speaker. The interviewer had no clue, and neither did the audience. But why?
Second, even if nobody in that huge crowd of social elites knew, they at least had the means of finding out. I would safely estimate that 95 percent, possibly even 100 percent of them, were carrying smartphones. It would have taken only a few seconds to check out the story, and pinpoint the mixup between “Cronus” and “Chronos.” When I heard the story, I certainly wanted to know more. How come nobody in the audience felt the same way? It is okay not to know stuff, but how is it okay not to have a questioning attitude?
There is another reason why this story caught my attention. Because a keyword like “eating babies,” and its emotional effect on an audience, cannot be taken lightly. In the US, there is this crazy conspiracy theory known as QAnon. It falsely alleges that there is a vast ring of child-eating paedophiles in the United States, run by top politicians. The effects of this false campaign have been extraordinarily dangerous. Unhinged people, who believe in this conspiracy theory, have gathered mobs and carried out armed attacks against those they believe are engaged in satanic sacrifices of children. Since then, tech platforms have been struggling to get rid of pages that advance the QAnon conspiracy theory, and the FBI has now assessed them as a domestic terror threat.
Am I saying that Ravish Kumar was lying to his audience or doing anything wrong? Absolutely not. Let me prove to you that Ravish ji was not lying. When I quoted him above, I had left out some bits of what he said. Last time, I used “…” in those places. So here it is in full, again loosely translated from Hindi:
“Let me tell you. My English is not that good. Chronos is a Greek god of time, and he eats up kids. The word chronology has come from there. A friend who knows English told me this. That is why it is important for you to understand chronology. This is not just the order of time. This is a sign that you are about to go crazy.“
See? Ravish ji was only telling you what a friend had told him about the word “chronology” and its origins, including the story about the god who eats kids. Don’t blame Ravish Kumar. You might want to blame his friend who gave him all this fake information. Or maybe not. Maybe the friend heard this from another friend, and so on. Don’t ask me if this sounds like the definition of “Whatsapp University.” My English is also not that good.
Ravish Kumar did not lie, nor did he do anything wrong. In fact, I give him 100/100 for intellectual honesty.
Let me conclude by telling you something completely unrelated to the rest of the article. Do you know what propaganda is? Propaganda is often clubbed with lies, but the two are different. A good propagandist never lies. A good propagandist guides you gently to find the lie within your own heart so that you can truly believe it.
