This particular post is a thesis done by me during my college days which was part of my academic syllabus. It is a celebrity study of Shashi Tharoor, the renowned writer, politician and peace maker. I hope this thesis would help many to have a good idea of Shashi Tharoor as a celebrity.
Chapter One
Introduction
Author,
peace-keeper, refugee worker, human rights activist and Minister of State for
HRD – these epithets that describe the writer-cum-diplomat-turned-politician
Shashi Tharoor on the homepage of his website
<http://tharoor.in> bear testimony to the fact that Tharoor straddles
several worlds of experience. A spectacular career at the UNO, an array of
eminent books of fiction and non-fiction, justly famous columns in newspapers
and journals, and a nascent but tumultuous political career, have all catapulted
him into a significant celebrity status in India. The present study entitled “Shashi
Tharoor and India: A Global Profile” undertakes a study of celebrity culture vis-à-vis the celebrity-dom of Shashi
Tharoor, tracing the course of a high-flying career that has traversed the
domains of literature, diplomacy and, more recently, politics.
A celebrity is an individual whom the public
watches, someone who is recognized by a large number of people. High positions,
wealth, looks or power produce celebrities who are abundant and ubiquitous in
today’s world, from movie stars to television personalities, from politicians
and sportsmen to notorious scamsters. The celebrity status may be the
consequence of the recognition of certain qualities possessed or deemed to be
possessed by a person. An individual therefore becomes a celebrity only when he
or she is acknowledged in the public realm as possessing something special. Celebrities
become heroes or heroines, villains, youth icons, role models, and have a
cultural function for society to look up to, emulate, be inspired by, despise
or criticize. “Celebrities give the public pleasure, pain or suffering with
their actions and win adulation or opprobrium accordingly” (Nayar 4). It is
important to note that the circulation and consumption of celebrities occurs
from below – at the level of real people who are well below the celebrities in
terms of class, social and cultural power. There is no celebrity without an
audience. The audience is an integral part of the spectacle of celebrity. Celebrity
culture is a transaction between the mediated image and the audience. Hence celebrity culture involves not only
celebrities and media productions but also the public, the consumption
audiences who feed on celebrity data.
Celebrities are created by a public awareness of the
actions of certain individuals and, this public awareness is made possible by
the mass media. One way of understanding the production of celebrity is to
classify her or him as a spectacle that focuses on individual or collective
abstract desire, a process that Chris Rojek terms ‘celebrification’ (cited in
Nayar 68). Ours is an age that celebrates fame through media productions and
circulation. Well-known is often a tag that is synonymous with fame.
Increasingly, fame, renown and celebrity are used interchangeably, though there
is a fine distinction between them. If fame is the consequence of deeds and
achievements of a person worthy of emulation, “celebrity is the consequence of
publicity and well- knownness” (Nayar 6).
“Our celebrity system has been deeply embedded
and wedded to what we call ‘representational regime’ where culture and politics
have relied upon a media filtering system to organize and hierarchize what is
valuable, significant and important” (Marshall 45). Hence celebrity becomes an
unstable category where a person or face that loses presence in the media and,
therefore in the public domain, ceases to be a celebrity. This is the irony of
celebrity culture. In other words, the celebrity is the effect not only of the
achievements of a person but also of the media coverage of these achievements. Celebrity
culture would not be possible without media, and what the media does is to
transform particular bodies, faces, mannerisms, roles and events into viewable
spectacles. In short a celebrity is constructed.
Chris Rojek identifies three types of celebrities:
(i) Ascribed Celebrity, (ii) Achieved Celebrity, and (iii) Attributed
Celebrity. Ascribed celebrity “concerns lineage: status typically follows from
blood-line....Individuals may add to or subtract from their ascribed status by
virtue of their voluntary actions.” Royalty, aristocracy, heirs and heiresses, political
and entrepreneurial dynasties, all possess ascribed celebrity. Achieved
celebrity derives from “the perceived accomplishments of the individuals” –
scientists and intellectuals, philanthropists, entrepreneurs and executives,
artists, musicians, writers, heroes and explorers, politicians and campaigners,
sports stars, film stars, models, pop stars, actors and entertainers. There is a certain amount of respect for
achieved celebrity status, for being unusual individuals not by virtue of birth
or family but because of individual achievements. Attributed celebrity “is largely
the result of the concentrated representation of an individual as noteworthy or
exceptional by cultural intermediaries.” The media sensationalizes the actions
of the ‘attributed celebrity’, who suddenly becomes front–page news, gets
large-scale TV time and attracts commentaries and responses from the general
public. Of this, ‘celetoid’ is any form of compressed, concentrated attributed
celebrity and the ‘celeactor’ is a fictional character who is momentarily famous
(Nayar 14-18).
In addition to Rojek’s three types, Pramod K. Nayar
adds a fourth – ‘the positional celebrity’ (20). The positional celebrity
combines several features from the above mentioned categories, and is famous
and recognizable because of connections, lineage, achievements and attribution.
Political or industrial celebrities are good examples of this type. Politicians
have either crossed over from other domains, such as N.T.Rama Rao, M.G.
Ramachandran, Vyjayanthimala from films and more recently, Smrithi Irani from
television to politics.
David Marshall speaks of the different kinds of
identification evoked by celebrities in their audience (Nayar 32-33). Film
stars generate what can be termed ‘auratic
identification’. Though they are familiar, there remains a certain distance
between them and the audience. As an aura develops around them, their looks,
wealth, life style, all emphasized and circulated through the media, distance
them from the audience. It is in their very difference and distance that they
come into existence as celebrities. On the other hand, television personalities
become celebrities because they are similar to ordinary people. In such a case,
it is ‘sympathetic identification’ that is elicited. It is in their familiarity
of character and situation that their recognisability and star value
exist. There is also the ‘associative
identification’ with pop stars when people join in to wave, sing along and
participate in the course of the show. Nayar adds a fourth category of
identification – the ‘mimetic identification’ which involves achievements
worthy of imitation, which inspire people to follow the celebrities. The
relationship of the cricketer M. S. Dhoni with his fans could best be described
as mimetic identification, where his heroics on the cricket field are seen as
worthy of emulation.
Celebrities represent a fantasy that ordinary people
cannot hope to attain: of looks, money, power, visibility and success. This helps
us understand the essential paradox of celebrity culture. On the one hand, the
media focuses on the perfection, appeal, success and value of the celebrity and
on the other, the same media reveals the tragedies, imperfections, violations,
transgressions, scandals and the like aspects of the celebrity.
This study delves into the life and career of Shashi
Tharoor, the writer, diplomat and politician to unearth the factors that have
enabled him to attain a celebrity status, and thereby to reconstruct his
journey towards celebrity-dom. An attempt is made to analyse the kind of media
attention that is given to this celebrity politician in India today. Most
importantly, the study shows how the author uses the power of his position to
address larger issues like global peace, which have political dimensions and
consequences for India as a nation.
Chapter Two
Vision and Visibility
Shashi Tharoor’s achievements span the realms of
literature and diplomacy, and the fame acquired in these fields has opened the
doors of politics to this charismatic Indian, who now seeks to leave his stamp
on this new domain of activity as well. This chapter examines the life and
careers of Shashi Tharoor to highlight the multi-dimensional aspects that have placed
him a cut above the ordinary people and made a celebrity of him. It also foregrounds
the vision that Tharoor has for India as an emerging strong contender for global
peace in the twenty first century with special reference to his book Pax Indica – India and the World of the 21st
Century.
Tharoor was born in London on 9 March 1956 to
Chandran Tharoor and Lily Tharoor. He studied at Montfort School in Yercaud,
Tamil Nadu and at Campion School in Mumbai. He obtained a Bachelor’s degree in
History from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi and won a scholarship to Tufts
University, Boston to pursue graduate studies. A brilliant track record in
academics culminated in Tharoor obtaining a Ph.D. degree, no mean achievement
at the age of twenty two. He moved on to a glorious career with the UNO where
he gained great public attention. After a long stint at the UN, Tharoor who
always carried a concern for India close to his heart, chose to return to India
to devote himself to the cause of her development, avowing as he did, in ‘The
Shashi Tharoor Column: A Departure Fictionally,’ a column that appeared in The Hindu dated September 16, 2001, that
“India shaped my mind, anchored my identity, influenced my beliefs, and made me
who I am…India matters to me and I would like to matter to India” (“Shashi
Tharoor” Wikiquote).
Tharoor started a high-profile career in the diplomat
services of the United Nations in the year 1978, soon after obtaining his
doctoral degree. He was a member of the UN High Commissioner of Refugees
(UNHCR) in Geneva and was appointed as the Special Assistant to the Under
Secretary General for Special Political Affairs in 1989. Until 1996, he led the team responsible for peacekeeping operations in the
former Yugoslavia. In 1996, Tharoor was appointed Director of
Communications and Special Projects and as Executive Assistant to the
Secretary-General Kofi Annan. In
January 2001, he was appointed the Under-Secretary-General for Communications
and Public Information and the head of Department of Public Information (UNDPI). In this capacity, he was
responsible for the communication strategy, enhancing the image and
effectiveness of the UN. In 2003, the Secretary-General appointed him to the
additional responsibility of United Nations Coordinator for Multilingualism. In
2006, Tharoor was nominated by the Government of India for the post of UN
Secretary General and of the seven contenders, came a close second to Ban K-i
Moon who won the election. On 9
February 2007, Tharoor resigned from the post of UN Under-Secretary-General and
left the UN effective 1 April 2007. By then he had attained an international
stature and was a celebrity in India (“Shashi Tharoor” Wikipedia).
Having won international visibility and fame through the
nomination to the UN Secretary General-ship which he conceded to Ban Ki- Moon
by a slender margin, Tharoor came back to India in a blaze of glory to start
his feisty political career, contesting the General Elections as a Congress
Party candidate from Thiruvanathapuram in Kerala in March 2009. His candidature
itself was much talked about in the Indian politics of the day, with the media giving
tremendous attention to him in their prime time and space. In short, he arrived
on the political scene as a celebrity politician.
Despite being criticized as an
‘elite outsider’ by the local bigwigs of the Party, Tharoor went on to win defeating his nearest CPI rival P.
Ramachandran Nair by a margin of approximately 100,000 votes. Subsequently he became
Minister of State for External Affairs in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s
Council of Ministers but had to resign from the post in 2010, following the IPL
controversy, only to be re-inducted back into the Ministry in 2012. He was
sworn in for his second
stint in the Council of Ministers as the
Minister of State for Human Resource Development on 2 November 2012 in which
capacity he continues to date.
Shashi Tharoor’s celebrity status is undoubtedly
enhanced by the fact that he is the award winning author of thirteen books, as
well as hundreds of op-eds, book reviews, articles in publications like the New York Times, The Washington Past, The Times of India, News Week etc. Through his
regular newspaper columns and twitter updates (which has around 1,700,000
followers) Tharoor has gained lots of
fans. For a time he wrote fortnightly columns on foreign policy issues in the Deccan Chronicle. His famous column
‘India Reawakening’ appears in several newspapers around the world.
In an elite metropolitan environment, especially with much-hyped
book launches, newspaper writings and interviews, the literary author is also
now a celebrity, both locally and in the global literary market place (Nayar 102).
Tharoor is today most definitely a celebrity writer, going by the high-profile
book launches in India and abroad that his latest book Pax Indica commanded. He started writing creatively at a tender
age, his first published story appearing in the
“Bharat Jyoti”, the Sunday edition of “The Free Press Journal”, in Mumbai when
he was ten years old. In all, he
has written eight books of non-fiction, three novels, and a collection of short
stories. His books have been translated into many languages including French,
German, and Spanish. It must be said that each
of his books has been a bestseller in
India. A quick critical survey of his major works would not be amiss to
put in perspective the vision that Tharoor, the celebrity politician, cherishes
for his country that comes across in his writings, both fiction and
non-fiction.
Tharoor has to his credit four important books of fiction – three
novels, The Great Indian Novel, Show
Business and Riot and a
collection of short stories, Five Dollar
Smile and Other Stories. The Great Indian Novel is a satirical, subversive
novel based on the story of the Mahabharata and reset in the context of the
Indian independence movement as well as the first three decades of
post-independence India. It is the most notable of his fictional writings. In
this novel, he narrates the story of Indian democracy as a struggle between
groups and individuals. The original Mahabharata
is an epic tale describing the historical dynastic struggle over the throne of
the kingdom of Hastinapur between the Pandavas and
the Kauravas, two branches of the
heirs of King Shantanu. In The Great
Indian Novel, Tharoor recasts the story of the nascent Indian democracy as
a struggle between groups and individuals closely connected by their personal
and political histories. The Mahabharata, which is not a novel but an epic
poem, can be understood, according to Tharoor, to represent Hinduism's greatest
literary achievement and thus serves as an appropriate paradigm in which to
frame a retelling of recent Indian history. A significant characteristic of
Tharoor's version of the story is the emphasis on the older generations (e.g.,
Bhishma, Dhritarashtra, and Pandu) and the resulting de-emphasis on the actions
of the Kauravas and the Pandavas. Using the cantankerous narrator and, VedVyas
(V.V.-ji) – eighty-eight years old, forced into retirement from politics, and dictating
his memoir – as his mouthpiece, Tharoor adopts
an irreverent attitude towards figures such as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Jawaharlal
Nehru, icons in Indian political history, who are generally treated with
reverence by Indians. The phrase “great Indian novel” is an allusion to the
long-standing idea of the “The Great American Novel” and it is also a pun,
roughly translating “Mahabharata” (Maha - “Great”; Bharata - “India”). The work is also
noteworthy for the numerous puns and allusions to the works by Kipling, E.M.
Foster and other English literary giants (“The
Great Indian Novel” Wikipedia).
Tharoor’s second novel Show Business published in the year 1992 satirizes Bollywood cinema,
using it as a metaphor to raise and answer questions about contemporary India
and Indians. The novel tells the story of Ashok Banjara, a Bollywood superstar
who gets injured while shooting for a film and whose entire life flashes in
front of his eyes as he lies suspended between life and death in a hospital.
Tharoor has clarified in numerous interviews that the title refers not only to
Bollywood but also to politics and religion, both of which are also forms of ‘show
business’ selling illusions to the public. The novel received a front page
accolade in the New York Times Book Review and has since been made into a
motion picture, “Bollywood”.
Tharoor’s third book of fiction, Riot, published in 2001, is a searing
examination of Hindu–Muslim violence in contemporary India. The story surrounds
the events related to the murder of Priscilla Hart who comes to work in a small
town in India. The striking aspect of this book is its narrative form. Tharoor
uses a range of styles to tell the story through letters, poetry, interviews,
journal entries, conversations etc. It is a powerful novel about love and
hatred, religious fanaticism etc. In an interview with Juhi Parikh, Tharoor avers:
The
themes that concern me in this novel: love and of hate; cultural collision, in
particular, in this case the Hindu/Muslim collision, the American/Indian
collision, and within India the collision between the English-educated elites
of India and people in the rural heartland; and as well, issues of the
unknowability of history, the way in which identities are constructed through
an imagining of history; and finally, perhaps, the unknowability of the truth. (cited
in )
The
strength of the novel lies in the manner in which the author paints a thoroughly
balanced picture of the views and sentiments of the different communities
involved in the imbroglio of communal tensions. Tharoor’s Five Dollar Smile and Other Stories, published in 1990, is a
collection of short stories written by Tharoor in his late teens dealing with
varied themes such as youth, death, deceit, hypocrisy, family and honor. These
stories were originally published in many newspapers and magazines.
The abiding popularity of Shashi Tharoor and his
writings is evidenced in the fact that it is not only his fictional works that
have entered the bestseller list in India but also his non-fiction books. His Reasons of State published in 1982 portrays the political development of India’s
Foreign Policy under Indira Gandhi. In a clear and straightforward style, the
book critiques India’s foreign policy under Indira Gandhi during the period
1966-1977. After a long silence,
in 1998 came his next book of
non-fiction India: From Midnight to the Millennium in which Tharoor
discusses in a brilliant and very forceful manner the problems faced by India
and the challenges it confronts as it moves forward to the new millennium.
Tharoor highlights the social and political scenario in the first fifty years
of India’s independence. He analyses the
policy of reservation for the scheduled caste and tribes, the period of the emergency
rule imposed by Indira Gandhi, corruption during the days of Rajiv Gandhi’s
prime-ministerial tenure and many other related issues. He is also very
critical of the pseudo-secular brand of politics being practiced by the
Congress party. On Indira Gandhi he takes
an ambivalent stance, using strong words both in support of and against her.
Other books of non-fiction followed in quick
succession. Kerala: God’s Own Country, published
in 2002, includes a combination of textual narration and description by Shashi Tharoor
and paintings and sketches by the renowned painter M. F. Husain who has captured
all the clichéd metaphors of Kerala tourism – from Kathakali dancers to ayurveda. While
Husain’s paintings are limited to the depiction of present-day life of Kerala,
Tharoor delves into Kerala’s history. Going beyond its declared objective, the
book invites readers to engage themselves in a discourse on the state of
affairs and, more significantly, the question of the identity of Malayalees.
The next book The Invention of India, published
in 2003, provides a close-up portrait of India's first prime minister,
the influential politician who led the newly independent nation from
colonialism into the modern world, Jawaharlal Nehru, and his lasting legacy in
terms of India's history and position in the world. It is a collection of
literary essays and a biography of Jawaharlal Nehru. Tharoor has produced an important
tract for our times, both historical-national and virtual-global.
Published in 2005, Bookless in Baghdad is a collection of
essays about contemporary India. Tharoor elucidates his experiences of a visit
to Baghdad on a UN initiative soon after the Gulf War. It consists of a
collection of previously published articles, book reviews and columns on
writers, books and literary musings. There are about 40 essays dealing with
society, culture and politics. Tharoor talks about his passion for reading, a
habit that started at the age of three. Tharoor writes about growing up with
books in India and discusses the importance of the Mahabharatha in Indian life and history. In a review of the book, The New York Times praises Tharoor as a
fluid and powerful writer, one of the best in a generation of Indian authors.
Tharoor traces the movement of India from a largely
impoverished and underdeveloped country to an innovative, fast- changing
society in The Elephant, the Tiger and
the Cell Phone: Reflections on India in the 21st Century, published
in 2007. He describes the vast changes
that have transformed the country into a world leader in science and
technology. He discusses the strengths and weaknesses in politics, economics,
culture, society and sports. In the chapter titled ‘The A to Z of Being Indian’
he defines various issues related to Indian life. The book raises questions of
how the strength of the tiger and the size of the elephant come to bear upon
the world. Speaking of the book, The Hindu
writes that what stands out in Tharoor’s writings is his passionate involvement
with India. Tharoor displays his love for his native land – Kerala, pointing out
how the place has shed many of its Labour Union problems. It is a perfect guide
to an understanding of India.
Shadows across
the Playing Field co-authored with Shaharyar M. Khan and
published in the year 2009 is a survey of the turbulent cricketing relations
between India and Pakistan. The story unravels through the perspectives of Tharoor and Shaharyar, both of whom bring
to the task not only a great love of the game but also a deep knowledge of the
sub-continental politics and diplomacy. The title is from a line in Ramachandra
Guha’s ‘A Corner of a Foreign Field.’ Khan begins his essay with his years of
growing up in Bhopal. Tharoor’s analysis is historical and combines a passion
for the game with a clear-headed view of the politics of the period.
Pax Indica –
India and the World of the 21st Century
is Tharoor’s latest book which came out in 2012. The book deals with India’s
major international relationships, the country’s soft power and its global
responsibilities, the working of the Ministry of External Affairs and the role
of parliament and public opinion in the shaping of foreign policies. Tharoor
trudges a vast area of India’s past and future, starting from the day of
independence to the present-day India. It cements his place among Indians as a writer
par excellence on international affairs.
All celebrities possess a certain amount of power.
In the case of celebrity politicians the link between celebrity and power is
very clear. In Shashi Tharoor’s case, the writer, who has thus far achieved
power in the cultural realm, has now added politics to the repertoire. The
celebrity author-turned-politician uses the location of his domain to address
larger issues which have political dimensions and consequences for India. As a
celebrity politician, his voice has a greater reach and power as he muses on
issues such as foreign policy, secularism and world peace. What follows is a
discussion of Tharoor’s vision of and for India encapsulated in Pax Indica – India and the World of the 21st
Century.
According to
Tharoor, the India of the present times is the direct product of millennia of
contact, trade, immigration and interaction with the rest of the world. But India
has not yet been able to make itself heard or assert its place as a leader in
the world, in spite of the development in many fields like education and
economy, reduced child mortality and increased life expectancy etcetera. Asserting that “Indians have a growing stake in
international developments” (Pax Indica
5), Tharoor writes about India’s foreign
policy in the past and at the present times.
Soon after independence, India adopted the policy of
non-alignment to stay out of the fights of other countries, and sought to judge
each issue on its merits, rather than taking sides: “Our leaders were
determined that the independence we had fought so hard for should not be
compromised, that our sovereignty should be safeguarded and our right to take
our own decisions should be unquestioned” (9). Today, India’s Foreign policy is
“much more overtly focused on the task of facilitating India’s economic growth
in order to bring our billion-strong masses into the twenty-first century” (14).
The foreign technology and telecommunications sector has also received due
encouragement from the Indian government in the bargain. Trade has always
created a direct bearing on India’s national well being, and serves its national
objective of expanding its energies and resources to ensure a peaceful and
equitable global order.
India has tried to maintain a unique relationship of
friendship and cooperation with most of its neighbouring countries, but things
have not been wholly positive. The
biggest challenge faced by India is the border dispute with Pakistan and China.
India’s response has been defensive and not belligerent, for “India is a status
quo power that seeks nothing more than to be allowed to grow and develop in
peace, free from the destructive attentions of the Pakistani military and the
militants and terrorists it sponsors” (32). When India talks about terror
coming across the borders, it is not a matter of people seeking redressal against
political grievances, but of misguided people without any objective other than
destruction. Tharoor does not lose heart but cherishes romantic beliefs of good
relations with Pakistan and China, essential for India’s growth and development.
India’s relationship with Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar and the
Maldives are also of importance. India has played a crucial role in developing
multilateral organizations in the region, notably the Mekong-Ganga cooperation
(MGC), the IOR-ARC and BIMSTEC. These associations have two features: “they
permit progress to be made on developmental, environmental and security issues
while benefiting from the exclusion of strategic rivals like Pakistan and
China” (191). Despite all the encouraging developments in the arena, there is
still a long way to go.
Tharoor notes that “Indian public opinion is
generally more favourably disposed to the United States than influential
political leaders are and this is particularly true of the younger generation,
which has grown up without the anti-imperialist rhetoric of earlier years”
(231). He is of the view that the shared values of democracy and the use of a
common language can strengthen the ties with the USA on the issue of the
contentious NPT: “India’s approach to nuclear disarmament, nuclear
non-proliferation and by extension, to arms control is essentially based on the
belief that there exists close synergy between all three. Non-proliferation
cannot be an end in itself, and has to be linked to effective nuclear
disarmament” (25). Effective disarmament can enhance the security of all states
and not merely that of a few. Elaborating further, Tharoor writes:
The
sustainability and success of India’s international policy depends both on
leadership by the Government of India and the active involvement of the Indian
public and political opinion, particularly that of young Indians. The
government is committed to protecting and advancing India’s global citizenship,
but that cannot be done without Indians becoming global citizens. (365)
Tharoor
envisages an India who is a powerful player in international affairs. India must wield a foreign policy that enables
and facilitates the domestic transformation of India, which can be made
possible only through its engagement with the world along with the promotion of
its own national values of pluralism, democracy, social justice &
secularism within its society. National leaders must work for a global
environment that is supportive of internal priorities, an environment that
would permit India to concentrate on
domestic tasks. India’s strategic goals must enable its domestic transformation
by accelerating growth, preserving strategic autonomy, protecting the people
and responsibly helping shape the world.
Tharoor is of the view that “we must work to create
a world in which Indians can prosper in safety and security, a world in which a
transformed India can play a worthy part” (26). India must also maintain good
relations with other nations who are the suppliers of energy, investment and
trade, food, mineral resources, and development: “The objective of India’s
foreign policy must be to protect that process of domestic, social and economic
transformation, by working for a benign environment that will ensure India’s
security and bring in global support for our efforts to build and change our
country for the better” (7).
Tharoor also states that it is time for India to
look into the future, to an interrelated South Asian future where geography
becomes an instrument of opportunity in the mutual growth story, where history
binds, where trade and cross-border links flourish and bring prosperity to all the
people. This is one of his visions for India that may seem to be wistful but
which can be turned into reality if India sets its heart on it. India must keep
its doors open, says Tharoor, who wishes
to see a time when Pakistanis and Indians can cross each other’s borders, trade
freely with each other and contribute equally, just as they did before 1947. He
is strongly in favour of a liberal visa regime, which would require India to
remove its current restrictions on entry and exit of the Pakistani visa holder:
“It will be argued that Pakistan will not reciprocate such one-sided
generosity, but India should not care” (77), encourages Tharoor, adding that “We
must understand than Pakistan’s fragile sense of self worth rests on its claim
to be superior to India, stronger and more valiant than India, richer and more
capable than India” (74). As for India’s relationship with USA, the two
countries will have to develop “the habits of substantive cooperation that make
each turn naturally to the other on issues engaging both” (231). India must
move beyond non-alignment to multi-alignment. Multi-alignment constitutes an
effective response to the new transnational challenges of the twenty-first
century.
India needs to solve its internal problems first before
it can play any role of leadership in the world. “We must ensure that we do enough
to keep our people healthy, well fed and
secure not just from jihadi terrorism
but from the daily terror of poverty, hunger, and ill health” (287). India can
take satisfaction from its success in carrying out three kinds of revolution in
feeding its people – a) Green revolution in food grains; b) White revolution in
milk production; and c) Blue revolution in the development of fisheries. These
benefits have not yet reached the people living below the poverty line. It is
another duty that India must ensure they do. India must also examine the advantages of
using social media as a tool for diplomacy. The advantages are clear: “India
acquires a new, young, literate and global audience for our foreign policy
initiatives and positions. By being accessible to internet searchers, we earn
goodwill. By providing accurate and timely information, we eliminate the risks
of misrepresentation or distortion of our position” (306). The notion of soft
power is relatively new in international discourse. In this context Tharoor
quotes the words of Joseph Nye: “The soft power of a country rests primarily on
three resources: its culture (in places where it is attractive to others), its
political values (when it lives up to them at home and abroad), and its foreign
policies (when they are seen as legitimate and having moral authority)” (277).
By ‘Pax’, Tharoor means a system of peace which will
help promote and maintain a period of cooperative coexistence in the Asian region
and across the World. ‘Pax Indica’ must be built and sustained on the
principles and norms that India holds dear at home and abroad. Tharoor dreams of
an India that is free from poverty, growing and engaging in trade and
investment in and with the rest of the World, “a technologically savvy India,
setting its sights on, and lending its expertise to, the management of outer
space and cyberspace in the common interests of humanity” (428).
It remains to be seen how far the views and visions
of and for India that are expressed in Pax
Indica will impinge on the Indian psyche and help shape its future policies
in international affairs. The personal magnetism of Shashi Tharoor combined
with the power that his position as politician and writer commands, it may be
believed, shall be crucial in determining the impact. Or would the typical skepticism
of the intelligentsia in India dismiss them as being too romantic, wistful and
whimsical? Nevertheless, it may be heartening to remember that celebrities like
Tharoor, whether politicians in power or activists commanding the attention of
thousands, possess a charisma that enables them to command an audience, whom
they can persuade to accept their point of view.
Shashi Tharoor’s celebrity status
has been considerably raised by his high achievement quotient. He has won
several honours, awards and international recognitions that add to the aura
surrounding him. In January 1998, Tharoor was named a ‘Global Leader of
Tomorrow” by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He is the
recipient of several awards, including a Commonwealth Writers Prize, and was named
for India’s highest honour for Overseas Indians, the ‘Pravasi Bharatiya Samman’
in 2004. Tharoor was awarded an honorary D.Litt. by the University of Puget Sound
and a Doctorate Honoris Causa in History by the University of Bucharest.
Amongst his many awards, Tharoor has also received the Pride of India Award
from the Zakir Husain Memorial Foundation, the Hakim Khan Sur Award for
National Integration, GQ’s Inspiration of the Year Award, NDTV’s New Age Politician
of the Year Award, and IILM’S Distinguished Global Thinker Award. In 2010, he was
named Digital Person of the Year at the first-ever Indian Digital Media Awards.
In October 2012, he was awarded the ‘Ecomienda de la Real Orden Espanola de
Carlos III’ by the King of Spain (“Shashi Tharoor” Wikipedia).
Way back in 1976, Tharoor had won
the Rajika Kripalani Young Journalist Award for the Best Journalist (Indian)
under Thirty. His The Great Indian Novel
won the Federation of Indian Publishers’ Hindustan Times Literary Award for the
Best Book of the Year in 1990. In 1991, The
Great Indian Novel won the Commonwealth Writers Prize. In 1998, he was
awarded the Excelsior Award for excellence in literature by the Association of
Indians in America (AIA) and the Network of Indian Professionals (NetIP).
Awards and achievements apart, a crucial element in
an individual becoming a celebrity, as Rojek avers, is “the keen interest that
the public begins to take in her or his personal life” (cited in Nayar 5). In
other words, a celebrity is one whose private life acquires as much public
importance as his public one, and people want sights and insights into it. The
culture of celebrity thrives on the sustained interest in the private lives
behind the public faces of the celebrity. Shashi Tharoor has been married
thrice, and is the father of twin sons Ishaan and Kanishk. His third marriage,
the one to Sunanda Pushkar, a glamorous entrepreneur and philanthropist, had
been of special interest to the public as it had followed close on the heels of
the IPL controversy involving Sunanda Pushkar that cost Tharoor his first
Ministerial berth in the Council of Ministers. Since the marriage, Tharoor and
his wife have been in the limelight on television and print as a glamorous and
stylish celebrity couple.
Celebrity ecology utilizes controversy or scandal as
a prop for the celebrity’s iconic status precisely by probing the limits of
acceptability of celebrity behavior and social or cultural tolerance. The media
works hand in gloves with a public eager for controversial and exciting stories
to dramatize news involving celebrities and cast them as stories rather than as
news. Shashi Tharoor, though unintentionally, has always courted controversies,
which have been kindled, to a large extent, by the media. In September 2009,
Tharoor and S.M. Krishna, both MPs, representatives of the people of India, found
themselves caught in the eye of a controversy for staying in luxurious five-star
hotels. Then came the ‘holy cow’ twitter controversy. In reply to a question whether
he would travel in ‘cattle class,’ Tharoor, a man of words and letters, quipped that he would travel “in cattle class out of solidarity with
all our holy cows!” (Joshua 1).
The remark snowballed into a controversy when the term ‘holy cows’ was absurdly
interpreted by the media as being a reference to the Congress Party leader
Sonia Gandhi. Yet another controversy was waiting for him in the offing when he
declared that people should be working rather than staying at home on Gandhi
Jayanti, thereby paying real homage to M.K.Gandhi.
Next was the IPL controversy. The IPL chief, Lalit
Modi accused Tharoor of using his power as Minister of State to get sweat
equity worth millions sanctioned to Sunanda Pushkar from Rendezvous Sports World.
Though Tharoor denied having made any financial gains from the sale, under
severe pressure, he had to tender his resignation as Minister of State in April
2010. It was rumoured to blow the death knell of his political career. But like
a phoenix that rises from its ashes, Tharoor has been able to win the
confidence and faith of his party once again and be back as Minister of State,
this time for Human Resource Development. But controversies have become second
nature to Tharoor. During the Delhi gang-rape incident, Tharoor created a small
buzz when he stated that the name of the victim should be revealed and used for
an award to be instituted for the cause. Recently, Tharoor apologized in public
to put a rest to the controversy surrounding his directions to an Indian audience
to sing the Indian national anthem adopting the American hand-over-heart manner
instead of the customary attention posture.
Thus, while Tharoor’s achievements inspire great
respect and deep admiration, the controversies he provokes provide grist for
the mill of a news-hungry media. Unlike celebrities who achieve their fame from
being part of a royal or famous family, Tharoor has become famous by virtue of
his extraordinary achievements as a writer and diplomat and as a politician who
stays in the limelight of the media. Thus, he is a ‘positional celebrity’ who
has crossed over from foreign services and writing to politics, who evokes
‘auratic identification’ as his life gets enveloped in an aura of spectacular
successes, that distances him from the audience.
Chapter
Three
Conclusion
Celebrity is closely aligned with
public culture and public awareness of the works and achievements of an
individual, which means that celebrity culture is rooted in everyday, mass
culture where the reception of icons enables further and greater circulation.
Shashi Tharoor has attained a significant celebrity status through his fame as
a skilled writer, an accomplished diplomat and a fledgling but high-caliber politician.
Celebrity is the effect not only of
a person’s achievements, but also of the media coverage of these achievements.
Shashi Tharoor has always been in the public eye, even before he entered
politics. His first bid to fame came
through his writings which have won him a zealous fan following all over India
and abroad. As works exploring the diversity of Indian culture, his fiction and
non- fiction, his many editorials, commentaries and short stories in Indian and
Western publications won him wide readership in India. As the winner of seven
journalism and literary awards, including a Commonwealth Writer’s Prize, his
renown as a writer spread beyond the boundaries of India. Joseph Heller, the
celebrated author of Catch - 22, acknowledges
the impressive quality of Shashi Tharoor’s writing thus: “I’m enthralled by the
writing of Shashi Tharoor, have enjoyed immensely his wit and narrative
imagination, his remarkable erudition and evident insight…I find him among the
best, the most instructive, and the most entertaining of authors writing today”
(cited in Tharoor India: From Midnight to
the Millennium and Beyond, Blurb).
Further, Tharoor entered the international
hall of fame when his diplomatic career lasting almost three decades with the
UN as a Senior Advisor to the Secretary General responsible for peace keeping,
welfare and upliftment of refugees culminated in his candidature for the post
of the Secretary General in 2006. It brought wide media publicity and transformed
him into a celebrity of international stature overnight. When Tharoor quit his
job in the United Nations to enter the political arena in India, he was the
choice of the ruling Congress Party to represent the prestigious parliamentary
constituency of Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Tharoor’s home state of
Kerala. Once he was declared the candidate, the media converged on him and he
was given extensive coverage by the press, TV channels and the radio. His international
celebrity stature as a famous writer and an ex-UN Under-Secretary General made
him a favourite with the electorate, and he breezed into victory at the Lok
Sabha elections in 2009. Immediately after the elections, when he was made the
Minister of State in the Central Government, it only enlarged his celebrity
stature.
Whatever Tharoor did was news for
the media; wherever he went, the media followed; whatever he said, the media
dissected to whip up a controversy; and what the media churned out, an eager
audience lapped up with relish. All
thanks to his celebrity status. Tharoor paid a heavy price for the controversy
involving cricket, IPL, sweat equity and Sunanda Pushkar – he lost his berth in
the Manmohan Singh Ministry. His
subsequent marriage to Sunanda Pushkar was given undue news value by the media.
Since a celebrity is one whose private life acquires as much importance as his
public one, Tharoor’s personal life has received immense media scrutiny and
commentary.
This celebrity with a global
profile envisions an India whose profile soars high on a global plane. Tharoor’s
vision for India is encapsulated in several books, particularly in Pax Indica. As a person who has been
watching India from outside, he studies India, its past and its present, from
an insider-outsider perspective. He is of the view that India
needs to change the policies of the Nehruvian period so as to play a more
responsible and important role in the international arena. India may be the second
most populous country in the world, a nation with nuclear capacity and a
growing economic power, with the world’s fourth largest army, but these do not
make India powerful. Tharoor envisages an India that uses soft power to convert
itself into an influential super power in the world. He uses his position as a
very visible political leader and well-known writer to shape a goal for India that
will enable her to play a key role on the international stage.
Today, as a politician, Tharoor is
actively involved in the day-to-day happenings in his constituency and works
for its development. He delights his readers with his writings. His fame
continues unabated. If fame, which originally meant good reputation, continues
to have a sense of achievement and glory attached to it, celebrity now
increasingly means recognisability, visibility and mass media coverage. From
the foregoing discussion, it must be concluded that Shashi Tharoor is not
merely famous, but also enjoys tremendous public visibility in the media. In
fine, his glittering career in the diplomatic service, his image as a writer of
note, his lifestyle, wealth, and glamorous looks, his exciting political
innings, all have made him a celebrity in his own right.
Works Cited
Dhir, Paras. “Shashi Tharoor’s Riot: Perspectives on History, Politics and Culture.” Web.
23 Jan. 2013. <http://rupkatha.com/shashitharoorsriot.php>.
Joshua, Anita. “Tharoor’s “cattle class” tweet annoys
Congress.” The Hindu 16 Sept. 2009. Web.
9 Feb. 2013. <http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/ article21179.ece>.
Marshall, P David. “The Promotion of the Self:
Celebrity as a Marker of Presentational Media.” Celebrity Studies 1.1 (2010): 38-45. Web. 26 Jan. 2013. <http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/
1939239 0903519057>.
Nayar, Pramod K. Seeing
Stars: Spectacle, Society and Celebrity Culture. New Delhi: Sage
Publications, 2009. Print.
“Shashi Tharoor.” Wikipedia. Web. 25 Jan. 2013.
“Shashi Tharoor.” Wikiquote. Web. 9 Feb. 2013.
Tharoor, Shashi. India:
From Midnight to the Millennium and Beyond. New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2007.
Print.
---. Pax
Indica: India and the World of the 21st Century. New Delhi:
Penguin Books, 2012. Print.
“The Great
Indian Novel.” Wikipedia. Web. 27 Jan. 2013.
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