Santosh Desai
Last week we were witness to yet another episode of the ongoing saga of the British royal family. The estranged royal couple spoke to the fount of American compassion, Oprah Winfrey and as expected the interview went viral. It was a story that struck a chord- of an outsider being discriminated against, not only on grounds of her alienness, but also because of her colour. Large parts of the world reacted in sympathy, and railed at an institution that was so threatened by the independent-mindedness of a young outsider.
The bigger question however is that why should so many people care about an institution that is as dated as the sola topee? Why should we care about two young people whose big grouse is that they don’t get to be looked after by taxpayer’s money or that their child does not get a title? In a world that hunts down privilege and puts it to a swift death, why should be a blatantly entitled (in the literal sense) young couple get so much of our attention and sympathy? And why should the institution as a whole matter so much?
And while the racist slur allegedly faced by Meghan Markle should not be faced by anyone, is that really the worst instance of racism that the world has seen? And the discrimination that they faced, can it really compare with the appalling conditions faced by so many marginalised people across the world? Without invalidating Meghan Markle’s experience, surely, we can ask as to whether this is what we should be outraging about?
Clearly something else is at work. We are fascinated by royalty precisely because it is an archaic institution. It is like a crumbling magnificent old structure that paints a romantic picture of a bygone era, and which enthrals us simply because it is so far removed from any reality we can call our own. But unlike the past, it is harmless, all empty show. It exists to attract attention and comment. We own it; we don’t even have to be British in order to do so. It is so incredibly weird, so incomprehensibly useless, that it compels attention. What makes it even more engaging than a monument is that it continues to be a living experiment in decrepitude, as it ever so gently appears to be falling apart, without quite doing so.
Far from damaging the institution, controversies and scandals are the only thing keeping it alive. Without Diana and now Meghan, the royal dynasty would be a bunch of pasty-faced boring people who could be safely ignored and quietly excised from our lives. Their spirit and sense of independence is what makes royalty bearable.
All kinds of reasons are put forward by royalists to defend the institution, but perhaps the most compelling reason to do so is that the world does not have a better reality show; The Crown is merely a simulation. We are riveted by imposing extraordinariness on ordinary people and then watching in morbid fascination as it gets revealed that they are after all, quite ordinary. The royal family is the best reality show in town, with impossibly lavish sets and impractical clothes, and protagonists that lounge around in splendid idleness.
It has a cast whose only purpose in life is to look the part, something that seems easy to pull off; after all, how difficult can getting into costume once in a while, while otherwise riding around on horses, going for muddy hunts and drinking copious amounts of gin be? Apparently, not every easy, given the number of royals that seem to go off the rails, much to the satisfaction of the audience.
The reality of being only a symbol, an expensive prop all one’s life can be stultifying. To be an outsider in this world can be utterly bewildering no matter how much one may have prepared for the role. As it is, even those have been participating in this costume drama since birth visibly struggle with their assigned scripts. For someone from another world to come in and adapt to the decadent cage that is their life can be extraordinarily burdensome. The constant glare of media attention can warp any sense of reality.
And media is what the royalty is about, today. Two things keep the show going-pomp and pageantry on a scale that goes beyond rational bounds and the emotionally fraught drama that erupts from within the frosty interiors of the palace.
When the show gets too white, old and boring, for the purpose of diversity a new cast member needs to be added. First Diana and now Meghan.
Of course, for every Diana there needs to be a Charles, every Elizabeth needs a Margaret, and every Meghan merits a Kate. For only then does the emotional symmetry translate into gossip-worthy conflict. The cast is now complete- we have a cold matriarch who was a reluctant ascendant to power once but has now embraced her role completely, a boring heir , who was squashed into resentful submission and whose infidelity is somehow also boring, his doomed wife who charmed the world while pursuing a path of self-destruction, her two sons, one obedient and oh-so-royal, and the other who went and got married to someone the family deems unsuitable. And plenty of other supporting members who have their own stories to tell- a paedophile, a racist old geezer, another unsuitable estranged daughter-in-law and several others.
And yet the institution itself perseveres. It is interesting that for all the complaints that the young couple aired, the desire to remain part of the royal institution on their own terms continued to burn strongly. That is the ultimate truth- it is simply too compelling a game for all concerned. For those inside it who feel trapped, media that feeds on it even while critiquing it, and the rest of the world which is spellbound by it.
Courtesy - TOI
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