From the 1920s to now the upcoming 2020s, humanity has evolved on all sorts of parameters — good, bad or ugly but never uninteresting. Sunday Pioneer’s special year-end edition brings you a slice of life as it has breathed in the 20 to 20 millennium
The 1920s. For some it was roaring, for others, Jazzy. But in the true sense, was the decade if all that jazz. The decade when hemlines went up, reservations came down, Al Capone brought in the ‘bootleg’ word, Ford gave the world the first peep into mass production through his automobiles, radio became the medium to connect and such was the capitalist urbanisation and yen for good life that even Christ had to be refashioned into a modern businessman and masculine outdoorsman who likes women just to keep religion relevant!
That’s the Westside story for you. So far so good. Back home, India was far from independent and Lord Macaulay was breaking up the much arrived Indian gurukul to propel an education system that would beset the society with clerks and babudom. Mahatma Gandhi, on the other hand, was non-co-operating with a weapon that was flashy and new to the world – that of non-violence. It was still 27 years to Independence, but the freedom struggle had started talking shop.
1920s was also the age of female emancipation, suffrage rights, flannelled pants, flappers, crossword puzzles and dance marathons, not to mention the positivity that a “mere mouse” brought to industry. Yes, Mickey Mouse was born in 1928 and his creator Walt Disney famously said that anyone could do anything if a mere mouse could propel a billion-dollar industry. The Charleston, Fox Trot and the Lindy Hop is today hip hop, freestyle and acrobatic. But the dance craze has raced through the decades. As have movements, music and ideas.
The 1920s was also the age of social and political change. The first commercial radio station in the US, Pittsburgh’s KDKA, hit the airwaves in 1920. It was also, the year of the worst terrorist attack in American history, unsurpassed in horror until the Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995 and September 9, 2011. It was definitely the year of first. It was the year when America had a de-facto woman President. While on the campaign trail pushing for the US to accept the League of Nations, President Wilson suffered a blood clot that caused paralysis, partial blindness, and brain damage. For the remainder of his term — another year-and-a-half — the First Lady, Edith Wilson, stepped in and assumed his role.
The image that we have of the 20s — people swaying to jazz, women bobbed out and smoke swirling in bars was something that may have swept the average American it was also the era of doom rather than celebration. As the war ended in 1919 to bring peace and happiness, the boom ended in doom with the great economic recession setting in in 1929 to close the 20s with unemployment, anxiety, anger, resentment, bankruptcies and suicides. The roaring 20s was now roaring in pain and an average American turned from enjoying the ready-to-wear clothes and refrigerators to worrying about the next loaf of bread.
Closer to home, The League of Nations was established, Non-cooperation movement was launched on August 31, 1920, by Mahatma Gandhi. In February, actor Pran was born. In the same month, actor IS Johar was born. Two months later, Ravi Shankar, the sitarist was born. After the introduction of the Government of India Act in 1919, a national Parliament with two houses was introduced. About 5 lakh of the wealthiest Indians were given the right to vote. The highlight was that within the provincial Governments, Ministers of education, health and public works could now be Indians.
Cut to 2019. Donald Trump made history on June 30 when he became the first sitting US President to set foot in North Korea. The UK ended 2019 with clarity about Brexit, but it took a turbulent journey to get there. And where was India?
In May, Prime Minister Narendra Modi came back with a thumping majority. In August, Article 370 was revoked from J&K. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan compared the Indian Government to Nazis warning that global inaction over Kashmir would be the same as appeasing Hitler! Then came the Ayodhya verdict — Ayodhya land to be divided into three parts. One-third goes to Ram Lalla represented by Hindu Maha Sabha, one-third to Sunni Wakf Board and one-third goes to Nirmohi Akhara. If this was not enough to stoke the fire, the year ended with The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill or CAB into an Act — Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.
The 21st century is the age of knowledge, upskilling, ideas, thoughts and, most importantly, how you monetise them is the new name of the game. As opposed to the 1920s when the globe had emerged from the 1st World War and there was a spring in the step of economy, fashion, woman emancipation and what we now know as the urban migration scourge, the 2020s open with scary prospects of strife, polarisation, recession and general disinterest in simple life.
But the young of the 1920s were as are the young of the 2000s. Slangs were burdening the dictionary for inclusion with the same pressure as they are deluging the Oxonian today too. The 1920s was the age when the parties were bigger, the pace was faster, the shows were broader, the buildings were higher, morals were looser and the liquor cheaper. In 2000s. the parties have turned rave, the shows have become murky, the buildings are shaky, morals have vanished but yes the liquor continues to be cheaper.
Indeed, the world is over the moon, rather the black side of the moon, looking for life on other planets after killing much of it on Nature Earth. Not that 1920s did not have environmental concerns. Scientists were talking about micro climates and recycling even back then. But the concern was less and the intent more. Today, the concern is more and the intent less, leading to global warming, water wars, climate change and the shadow of carbon footprint all over the atlas, giving the term ‘irreversible damage’ a whole new weightage.
Besides, the world today has taken a right turn on a wrong note, numbers like 9/11 and 26/11 have polarised futures for the worse and a globalised, urbanised and criminalised world is talking about how to scrape everything from reputation to data in such a manner that a jazzy 1920 would have exclaimed: Ah Applesauce! An expletive that would translate to ‘What the Fish!’ In today’s times.
