Who doesn’t love a good conspiracy theory? On a dull day, it can crack us up, cause delirious laughter. On other days, it gives the rest of us a chance to coat the theorist with a glaze of crackpottery. The Internet is strewn with bits and pieces of such theories. Mostly, they are harmless, even fun. But sometimes, they have the capacity to do great harm even if the theorists are “fringe” and seem ill-equipped to influence the mainstream discourse on anything at this point. In this age of social media, never underestimate the ability of a tiny fringe group of losers to ruin everything. As American comedian Bill Maher put it, “In America, there is no idea so patently absurd that it can’t catch on…”
Which brings me to India and the latest conspiracy theory. They call it “festival shaming”. Liberals (who else?) are in the dock for trying to “festival-shame” the Hindu community and guilt-trip people into not bursting crackers on Diwali with the air-pollution argument. No one I know doubts that the air in Delhi and a growing number of Indian cities is becoming dangerously toxic and that this is affecting the health of huge numbers of people. The reasons for this sorry mess are many and have been pointed out, including by this writer, umpteen times. They include vehicular emissions, construction dust, road dust, residential fuel burning and so on. It gets worse with the burning of crops in neighbouring states and onset of winter.
But anyone who tried pointing out that Diwali fireworks would worsen the already poisonous air last weekend came in for a hail of abuse by a fringe group of conspiracy theorists who called it “festival-shaming” and a concerted attack on Hinduism’s longstanding traditions. Entire articles were written on the topic and shared among fellow conspiracy theorists. The “theorists” sense a giant liberal conspiracy to systematically attack Hindu traditions and festivals in the air pollution talk, specially during Diwali. Needless to say, this is not the first conspiracy theory floating around in India. Nor will it be the last. As a writer on public health issues, I vividly remember the conspiracy theories which held up India’s battle against polio for years.
Just as in the case with air pollution, most rational people would find it tough to imagine that anyone can object to a campaign to eliminate polio — a disease that maims, paralyses and sometimes even kills its victims. But for years, a small number of Muslim clerics in just four districts in Uttar Pradesh refused to accept that the campaign against polio was in the public interest. They believed and led some of their followers to believe that polio drops were part of a giant conspiracy to sneakily sterilise Muslim children and lower the Muslim birth rate. End-result — many Muslim families refused to let their children be vaccinated. In 2006, Time magazine quoted Dr Hamid Jafari, the then regional adviser for the World Health Organisation on polio eradication, saying that the majority of Uttar Pradesh’s Muslims had got their children vaccinated, but, “in certain places, fatwas have been issued against the vaccine.”
In those places, Muslims had prevented government health workers from entering their houses and administering the polio vaccine to their children. I remember reporting about polio drops arousing suspicion in Uttar Pradesh for The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal and seeing firsthand how grievances accumulated over years can be exploited by rumour-mongers and conspiracy-theorists and prove to be formidable hurdles in the global battle against polio. In a narrow bylane surrounded by open sewers in Karula block, in the outskirts of Moradabad city, I met Muslim families who were absolutely convinced that there was a “geopolitical conspiracy” behind the persistent attempts to give polio drops to their children.
A young mother of four told me she was intensely suspicious of volunteers who knocked on doors trying to track children who have been “missed” during the regular polio vaccination drives. She said her four-year-old son had been “forcibly given polio drops when he was out playing” but the family would not let the other children be vaccinated. She said she was suspicious about the government’s claims about protecting children against polio when it pays no attention to other diseases that struck families like hers. There was irrational fear, complete distrust of “outsiders”, specially health workers and field operatives of international agencies, and conspiracy theories flourished. And yet India did manage to beat polio. The last wild polio case was reported from India on January 13, 2011 and the WHO has certified the country polio-free.
How did that happen?
India won the battle against polio not just because it had the vaccines but also because it worked hard in defeating the conspiracy theorists, those fringe elements that stood in the way. It did so using a variety of ways, but one critical strategy was reaching out to Muslim leaders and clerics, winning their trust, motivating them to dispel anxieties among certain Muslims about the polio vaccine and making them allies in the battle against polio. It took time, but it worked.
Conspiracy theories come in all shapes, sizes and faiths. Many hard line Christian conservatives have accused writer J.K. Rowling of trying to lure children into Satanism with her Harry Potter books. The hysteria hit a peak in 2001, with fundamentalists holding Rowling’s books guilty of trying to “desensitise readers and introduce them to the occult” and “trafficking in evil spirits”.
Life would be duller if there were no conspiracy theorists. But when conspiracy theories go beyond providing entertainment and impinge on public health and public interest, it is time to stop laughing. Air pollution in urban India is no laughing matter. The battle against polio showed that conspiracy theories and fringe elements can be defeated. All it takes is will power at all levels of the polity and an honest attempt to win back trust where grievances have accumulated. It is time to remind the firecracker enthusiasts that they have to breathe as well.
The writer focuses on development issues in India and emerging economies. She can be reached at patralekha.chatterjee@gmail.com
