Dear Jeyamohan,
In many of your recent talks, you have repeatedly spoken about the gradual disappearance of politics from public life. The more I think about it, the more I feel that this is not merely an Indian phenomenon but a global one. Across the world, politics is steadily losing its central place in the imagination of ordinary people, especially among the younger generations.
If we observe today’s youth carefully, we can see that very few of them possess the kind of political passion that earlier generations did. Politics no longer occupies their conversations, their aspirations, or even their anxieties. They scarcely pay attention to the day-to-day functioning of governments. Elections come and go, governments change, policies are announced, but for a large section of young people these events have become little more than distant spectacles. They no longer believe that the course of their lives is fundamentally shaped by political institutions.
This detachment does not arise from ignorance alone. It emerges from a different understanding of where real power resides. The younger generation has grown up in a world where multinational corporations, financial markets, technology companies, and global capital appear to influence everyday life far more directly than elected governments. They instinctively recognize that the products they use, the information they consume, the jobs they pursue, and even their social relationships are increasingly shaped by economic institutions rather than political ones.
Consequently, they tend to believe that the true centres of power today are economic, not political. Governments seem to administer systems whose fundamental directions are already determined elsewhere—by corporations, financial interests, technological monopolies, and global markets. Whether this perception is entirely accurate or not is beside the point. What matters is that this has become the lived experience of an entire generation.
Because of this shift, politics has gradually lost its aura. Previous generations entered politics believing that it was the highest instrument through which society could be transformed. Political movements carried dreams of justice, equality, freedom, or national renewal. Politics was once seen as the arena where history itself was being made.
Today that belief has weakened considerably.
Perhaps those who continue to possess genuine faith in politics largely belong to generations that are now fifty or sixty years old or older. They were shaped during a time when ideological debates mattered, political parties inspired commitment, and collective movements appeared capable of altering the destiny of nations. Their emotional investment in politics comes from having lived through that historical moment.
The generations that followed have inherited a very different world. They have grown up watching governments change while the underlying economic structures remain remarkably stable. They have seen political rhetoric promise sweeping transformations while corporate influence continues to expand regardless of which party is in power. Naturally, this has produced a deep scepticism about the actual capacity of politicians to exercise meaningful authority.
Once people arrive at the conclusion that politicians themselves possess only limited power, political engagement changes in character. It becomes less a matter of conviction and more a form of performance. Many young people participate in political debates almost playfully—as though they were supporting rival sports teams or discussing popular culture. Their political identities often function as social identities rather than deeply held philosophical commitments.
This, I feel, is one of the defining psychological shifts of our age. It is not simply political apathy. It is a transformation in the very location where people imagine power to exist. The decline of politics may therefore not signify the disappearance of power, but merely the migration of power from the visible institutions of the state to the less visible yet immensely influential structures of the global economy.
I would be very interested to hear your thoughts on whether this political disengagement is merely a temporary phase or whether it represents a profound civilizational change. Has democracy itself entered a new stage, where political institutions increasingly serve as symbolic structures while economic forces exercise the decisive influence? Or is this perception itself an illusion created by our contemporary technological and media environment?
I believe this question deserves careful philosophical reflection, because understanding where power truly resides may also determine where human responsibility must ultimately lie.
With warm regards.
R.K.Raja
