Thy Hand, The Great Monarch
Thy Hand, The Great Monarch Posted on 10th June, 2025 (GMT 17:15 hrs) ABSTRACT “Thy Hand, The Great Monarch” is a scathing satirical poem that critiques an authoritarian Indian leader, portrayed as a self-aggrandizing “titan” ruling through delusion, paranoia, and hypocrisy. Drawing on Alexander Pope’s The Dunciad, Nirad C. Chaudhuri’s Thy Hand, Great Anarch!, and V.S. Naipaul’s India: A Wounded Civilization, the poem constructs a discursive narrative of India’s descent into a “Duffer Zone” of mediocrity, where populism, cronyism, and majoritarianism erode democratic values. It accuses the leader of orchestrating violence (e.g., Gujarat riots, Pehlu Khan’s lynching), enabling economic exploitation (e.g., Rafale, DHFL scandals), and undermining constitutional principles through policies like demonetization and CAA-NRC. The poem’s psychological portrait aligns with Adorno’s Authoritarian Personality, highlighting traits like conventionalism, aggression, and anti-intraception, ...
