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Ishmeet's Victory: Defying
Demography
Gurjit Singh
 Ishmeet Singh's win was far from guaranteed. The runner-up from
Uttar Pradesh, Harshit Saxena, had been much more popular by the
voters from the West Zone (60% of the votes), East Zone (52% of the
votes), and the South Zone (55% of the votes). However, the winner
of the competition was not to be decided on the number of winning
zones, but rather the gross total. It was here that the Punjab
factor kicked in and propelled Ishmeet Singh to victory.
While the blogosphere and chatboards are aflame about the results,
my purpose here isn't to engage on the merits of the Ishmeet's voice
or the fairness of the competition methodology. However, the results
do bring to the forefront a number of different issues.
An important result of the competition is to highlight Punjab's 'tele-density'.
Prior to the announcement of the SVOI winner, many members of the
interviewed Indian public lamented that Ishmeet would be catapulted
to victory based on the fact that while the national telephone per
capita is 1:5, in Punjab it is almost double at 1:2. Their gloomy
predictions proved correct. The sheer numbers of SMS text messages
aided Ishmeet in his victory. While Punjab's population will never
give it a seat at the Lok Sabha and the national stage, its economic
and telecommunication power gave it leverage in this competition.
Are there other uses for such technology? The Dera Sacha Sauda
incident earlier in the year also shows telecommunications powerful
ability as a political tool to rally youth support and attendance.
Grassroots movements will have to be able to employ this tool to
mobilize the Sikh youth and will have to figure out new ways to
utilize its tremendous capabilities.
Another indication of Ishmeet's victory is the tremendous impact of
an ethnic Sikh identity and solidarity. While again the Dera Sacha
Sauda events earlier in the year showed the potential of mass
mobilization of the Sikh youth, when they felt their community had
been disrespected, even Ishmeet's victory can be seen in this light.
While the show lauded Ishmeet as 'Punjab da puttar' and a regional
solidarity was at play. It seems, if the internet and anecdotal
evidence means anything, still overwhelming support came from the
Sikh community. One blogger in Punjab remarked that "appeals [were
made] from the Gurudwaras that a Sikh munda deserves a place in
history."
For this blogger as well as many viewers, the vote was not only
between Ishmeet and Harshit, but between Punjab and UP and by the
slogans "Bam Bam Bhole" versus "Jo Bole So Nihal." The religio-ethnic
thus cannot be overlooked. A Sikh religio-ethnic identity was
mobilized and in this example proved overwhelming throughout India.
The real meaning of Ishmeet's victory is that population
demographics can be defied by mobilization of the Sikh religio-ethnic
identity and telecommunications. Despite the laments of the Sikh
intelligentsia and newsmakers about a disinterested Sikh youth,
Ishmeet's victory and the Dera Sacha Sauda incidents point to that
the religio-ethnic Sikh identity can and is ready to be mobilized.
We can see the beginnings in Punjab of a new 'Sikh turn' by the
youth. It may not be in the form that most expect through Khalsa
symbolism, but the psychological tragedy of segments of the
post-1993 Sikh community seems to be waning. We may be witnessing
the stirrings of a new era.
28 November 2007
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