Many print and digital media platforms have reported and discussed the recent study by Pew Research Centre. This article is not about WHAT are the findings of the study, which had been already discussed extensively by many, rather this article attempts to analyse WHY Indians have pro authoritarian preferences (the reasons). We attempt to Understand the determinants of this collective Psyche by analysing various psychological studies and correlate them with a few empirical studies/ surveys available.
Insecurity and Paternalism:
Evolutionary Psychology explains why people tend to embrace religiosity and subject themselves to be ruled by a powerful figure. Carl Jung in his study on Collective Unconscious explains that there are certain inborn traits which are shared by all Humans through evolutionary experience. One such trait is fear, which causes insecurity among the people and pushes them to look for a parental figure, a redeemer, a demi God who protects them. This is evident in the modern Indian society where people search for strong and glorious historical figures like Chatrapati Shivaji, Raja Raja Chola, Maharana Pratap and many such. People keep looking for the likes of the above personalities among the current political leaders.
Various studies on Paternalism shows that people tend to not mind the infringement of their personal liberties and in fact sometimes it is consensual, thereby expecting an authoritarian benevolence in exchange.
Lack of Knowledge and reasoning:
A well-informed people are found to be quite resistant to rhetoric by demagogues. It is essential for the people not only to be informed but to be rightly informed. Now one should know, in the era of digital media and highly penetrated mass media, what really stops people from being informed India’s preference for authoritarianism cannot be understood without studying this phenomenon.
Jerry Burger in his famous experiment (2009) attempted to study why people tend to follow authoritarian leaders. In which he found that among many other reasons, lack of reliable source of knowledge and with only the one-sided information left the participants to conform more with the authoritarian leader. For people to make a rational decision, they should have access to diverse information which is not biased or one-sided. This can be ensured again by civil liberties.
The above infographic by Prajna Ghosh was originally published by ThePrint , dt: 22 Feb,2024
Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), in its recent Democracy Index report found India’s civil liberties has been a major laggard in India’s democracy score, making it a flawed democracy. The attributes that were studied to score civil liberties (5.88/10 in 2023 study) were freedom of speech and expression, freedom of press, Internet shutdowns, Human rights and Independent Judiciary. One may not be surprised that the above-mentioned attributes of civil liberties are the ones that ensure unbiased and diverse information being delivered to people. Pew research center’s study when read along with the Democracy Index report by EIU shows us how lack of knowledge and reasoning contributes to India’s pro authoritarian sentiments.
Economic Uncertainty:
Though GDP wise India is in the list of top 5 great economies of the world, the indices like Happiness, Hunger, Multidimensional poverty among many others tell a different story supporting the economic uncertainty claim.
Economic uncertainty (stability) is a concern of the rich and middle class too as it is for the poor. This uncertainty along with unemployment and poverty turns into an insecurity, where people look for compensatory strategies. Hemant Kakkar and Niro Sivananthan in their 2016 study titled ‘when the appeal for a dominant leader is greater than a prestige leader’ talk about choosing an authoritarian leader as a compensatory strategy when people are under economic uncertainty. When in uncertainty people tend to lack their personal control and look for others (God, leader, governments, agencies) to restore the sense of control.
Kakkar says “we provide robust evidence showing how economic uncertainty affects individuals’ psychological feelings of lack of personal control, resulting in a greater preference for dominant leaders”
Conservatism and Myth:Equal rights for women on property, Reservation for OBC, Triple Talaq, temple entry rights for women and many such changes in the history of modern India have faced challenges from both common people and also from the orthodox intelligentsia. India’s two major religious communities, Hindu and Muslim, have been highly aversive to change. This conservatism is so deeply rooted into their psyche that someone, let alone revolutionising, even doubting their age-old tenets will be considered blasphemous and soon be subjected to social ostracization. And this section of people, unfortunately the current majority, is known to be the ideological right.
The above image is taken from the recent Pew Research Center’s study, that in India, the Ideological right are ready to embrace a military rule or a rule by an authoritarian over democracy. According to the study, the majority in India (54%) consider religious politicians could do better.
Now, how does this conservatism cultivate a pro authoritarian sentiment? Humans have a tendency to identify themselves with a specific group that shares common values and beliefs. But the real problem arises when this group sentiment starts to turn into a protective instinct, thereby ‘othering’ the values and beliefs that do not conform with them. The more the Humans are conservative, the more they look for similarities and differences and the more they fall for a myth of ‘US vs THEM’. This myth, when popularised, brings the polarised communities under an illusion that only a strong leader could relieve them of the threat.
Even today when asked about the emergency era, we can hear some people saying trains were on time, services were not delayed, it was like a military rule, all was perfect. If one asks, if 75 years are still not enough for people to learn the values of democracy, the answer is yes, it is not. Remember, the flag bearer of democracy – the US had kept the blacks deprived of their civil rights until 200 years of their independence. One should remember that, in the case of India, unlike the UK and other nations democracy is not an evolved idea rather a hard earned one.
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