The rumor about "milk drinking" by Ganesh idols in temples across the world in 1995 possibly marks a watershed in the history of communications. Within hours of the first rumours, the "news" had spread across the globe". Rumors, which have the potential to grip the minds of people, have been known to spread fast. But what we saw on this occasion far exceeded the pace at which such rumours are known to spread. It was made possible by the revolution in information technology that was just beginning to change the face of communications across the globe. The Ganesh episode showed that the new revolution was not just about spread of information -- it applied equally to the spread of "disinformation". The single factor that made it possible for the rumours to spread fast and grip the imaginations of such a large number of people was messages that flew back and forth across the globe through the Internet. A sample of the messages that peppered the Net on that fateful September day:

"In Montgomery County Maryland, at the Mangal Mandir, there are thousands of people coming to feed lord Ganesha. This is no rumor."

"I am in Penang, Malaysia. This morning I had an urgent call from my wife while I was at the office. She said that he had heard news of Ganesha Deities in several temples drinking up milk, and when she tried to offer milk to our own Ganesha Statue at our home, He drank up!"

We like to believe that modern technology facilitates the dissemination and nurturing of science and rationality. While it does contribute to such an endeavour, we must realise that there is nothing in technology per se that does not lend itself to quite the converse. Communications technology merely allows us to access information that is sought to be communicated by people across the globe at speeds that were unthinkable even a decade earlier. It brings to us the latest in human enterprise. But the latest is not necessarily forward looking or progressive. Cable TV has opened a window to the globe for millions of ordinary Indians. But a view through that window also includes glimpses of decadent bourgeois culture and revanchist feudal values. Trashy American soap operas compete with the "teachings" of Rajnish.

The role that the Internet plays has to be seen in this context. Today, it is possibly the fastest and the most accessible medium of communication. It is also more egalitarian, less hemmed in by restrictions, and thereby allows rapid exchange of information and views. What sets the Internet apart from other forms of mass communications -- TV, radio, the print media, books, journals -- is its relative anonymity. It is difficult, sometimes impossible, to reliably check the source of material that is available on the Net. This anonymous character of views expressed on the Net lends itself to two kinds of tendencies. Because it is anonymous, it allows greater freedom to people to put information and views on the Net. At the same time it also allows people to air their views and place material on the Net with a markedly lower degree of responsibility. The former tendency has made it possible for a radical counter culture to establish itself on the Internet. The character of the Net ensures that a Bill Gates is as prominently "heard" as are hundreds of voices that oppose Microsoft. The Internet, theoretically, provides equal opportunity to large Corporates and the opposition to their growing power and influence. As a medium for exchange of information the Internet is more democratic than any other medium that we have known. But this very democratic character comes with a "cost". The line between information and disinformation is much easier to cross on the Internet because of its anonymous character. The Internet allows freer exchange, but does not determine what is going to be exchanged. The medium has no control on the superstructure that determines the flow of ideas.

Thus the Net also allows free flow of decadent, obscurantist, and backward ideas. The Net is thus also a haven for pornography, fascist and communal propaganda, and crass consumerist ideologies. In other words, the dominant ideology of our times and the ideas and their reflections that grip the minds of people also dominate the Internet or the World Wide Web. It is this that makes it more likely that milk drinking by dumb idols is discussed on the Internet, rather than humans dying of starvation in Orissa. The strength of the Internet -- its anonymous character -- thus becomes also its greatest weakness. Anonymous people sitting behind their personal computers are presented with an opportunity to share their views with thousands, often millions. What they share is not shaped by the Internet, but by prevalent values and ideas in society. The Internet provides the opportunity to reveal ones identity, and yet deny it. While it is often possible to glean the source of information available on the Internet, it is much more difficult to prove the same. This relative anonymity allows views to be shared and propagated that would otherwise not be tolerated in society.

The gullibility of common people towards anything that is linked with the tag of modern technology allows the Internet to become a source of disinformation. Propaganda on the Internet, thus, is privileged over ordinary word of the mouth propaganda. Few realise that the information available on the Internet is less likely to be accurate than what is available through other methods of communication. The Internet allows the user to choose in a more focused manner the kind of views he or she wants to access. The Internet is a democratic medium only as long as we use it with open minds.

These complex, often contradictory, factors that shape the Internet also shape the manner in which ideas and information are exchanged on it. In India, nowhere is this more visible than the way the Internet is being used as vehicle for propagation of communal propaganda. The Ganesh saga on the net is but a relatively harmless reflection of this trend. The Internet is a major source today of material that is designed to push the communal agenda. Tarun Vijay, editor of the Rashtriya Sevak Sanghs's mouthpiece, Panchajanya, proudly declares on an Internet website, "One of the world's best-organized internet websites belongs to the US-based RSS body, the Hindu Student's Council. RSS is probably the first organization in the country to hold conferences of its workers world over through its own cyber unit."