[Interestingly, the editorial comment, at sl. no. I below, from the New York Times, an acknowledged leading mouthpiece of the liberal Western bourgeois order could have not been more scathing in its tone. It also essentially echoes the sentiment expressed earlier in the editorial comment, 'Beware the other side of India’s prime minister', by the Financial Times, an international financial newspaper. Quite in contrast, the comment, by an individual regular contributor, carried by the Live Mint, an Indian pink paper, is opently laudatory in tone, not because the annointing heralds no danger of a rising Right-wing, majoritarian autocratic state, but warmly welcoming that very prospect.]
I/II. [Since he was elected in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India has played a cagey game, appeasing his party’s hard-line Hindu base while promoting secular goals of development and economic growth. Despite worrying signs that he was willing to humor Hindu extremists, Mr. Modi refrained from overtly approving violence against the nation’s Muslim minority. On Sunday, Mr. Modi revealed his hand. Emboldened by a landslide victory in recent elections in India’s largest state, Uttar Pradesh, his party named a firebrand Hindu cleric, Yogi Adityanath, as the state’s leader. The move is a shocking rebuke to religious minorities, and a sign that cold political calculations ahead of national elections in 2019 have led Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party to believe that nothing stands in the way of realizing its long-held dream of transforming a secular republic into a Hindu state.] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/23/opinion/mr-modis-perilous-embrace-of-hindu-extremists.html?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share&_r=0 Mr. Modi’s Perilous Embrace of Hindu Extremists By THE EDITORIAL BOARDMARCH 23, 2017 Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, right, at the swearing-in of Yogi Adityanath, center. Credit Sanjay Kanojia/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images ***Since he was elected in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India has played a cagey game, appeasing his party’s hard-line Hindu base while promoting secular goals of development and economic growth. Despite worrying signs that he was willing to humor Hindu extremists, Mr. Modi refrained from overtly approving violence against the nation’s Muslim minority.*** [Emphasis added.] ***On Sunday, Mr. Modi revealed his hand. Emboldened by a landslide victory in recent elections in India’s largest state, Uttar Pradesh, his party named a firebrand Hindu cleric, Yogi Adityanath, as the state’s leader. The move is a shocking rebuke to religious minorities, and a sign that cold political calculations ahead of national elections in 2019 have led Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party to believe that nothing stands in the way of realizing its long-held dream of transforming a secular republic into a Hindu state.*** [Emphasis added.] Mr. Adityanath has made a political career of demonizing Muslims, thundering against such imaginary plots as “love jihad”: the notion that Muslim men connive to water down the overwhelming Hindu majority by seducing Hindu women. He defended a Hindu mob that murdered a Muslim man in 2015 on the suspicion that his family was eating beef, and said Muslims who balked at performing a yoga salutation to the sun should “drown themselves in the sea.” Uttar Pradesh, home to more than 200 million people, badly needs development, not ideological showmanship. The state has the highest infant mortality rate in the country. Nearly half of its children are stunted. Educational outcomes are dismal. Youth unemployment is high. Mr. Adityanath has sounded the right notes, saying, “My government will be for everyone, not specifically for any caste or community,” and promising to make Uttar Pradesh “the dreamland” of Mr. Modi’s development model. But the appointment shows that Mr. Modi sees no contradiction between economic development and a muscular Hindu nationalism that feeds on stoking anti-Muslim passions. Mr. Modi’s economic policies have delivered growth, but not jobs. India needs to generate a million new jobs every month to meet employment demand. Should Mr. Adityanath fail to deliver, there is every fear that he — and Mr. Modi’s party — will resort to deadly Muslim-baiting to stay in power, turning Mr. Modi’s dreamland into a nightmare for India’s minorities, and threatening the progress that Mr. Modi has promised to all of its citizens. II. [There are many other uses for nationalist rhetoric. Successful late developers such as Germany, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, China and even Singapore have grown rapidly under dictatorial or autocratic regimes. India is attempting the transition under democracy, which has an unfortunate tendency to slow down the process of accumulation, because of pressures of redistribution. Nationalist and cultural rhetoric can be a good way of diverting the attention of the masses from economic issues and of papering over the glaring contradictions in a society riven by deep fissures, where the fruits of development are shared so inequitably. After all, it calls for a lot of strenuous barefaced mendacity to talk of inclusive growth in a society where 58% of the wealth belongs to the richest 1% of the population. ... The world over, the masses, fed up with the hypocrisy of the liberal establishment and the lack of good jobs, are marching to a heady nationalist drumbeat orchestrated by strong leaders. India is no exception.] http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/4w9NMVlJdK67EL4nQT1VAP/The-Yogi-Adityanath-development-model.html Last Modified: Tue, Mar 21 2017. 03 10 AM IST The Yogi Adityanath development model Yogi Adityanath as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh is seen as BJP choosing Hindutva over development. But why do we assume a contradiction between them? Manas Chakravarty Liberals seem to be strangely upset that no sooner did Narendra Modi (left) win UP elections on the development card, he went ahead and discarded it for a Hindutva one by naming Yogi Adityanath as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. Photo: PTI The prime minister has set liberal dovecotes aflutter with his anointing of Yogi Adityanath as the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. They seem to be strangely upset that no sooner did the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) win a staggering victory in the Uttar Pradesh elections on the strength of the development card, it went ahead and discarded it for the Hindutva one. Were they under the impression that Modi was a liberal? Immediately after the consecration of Adityanath, the prime minister tweeted, “I have immense confidence that this new team will leave no stone unturned in making UP Uttam Pradesh. There will be record development.” He is absolutely right in one respect—why do we assume a contradiction between development and Hindutva? Various theories have been put forward to explain away the choice of the Yogi as Uttar Pradesh chief minister. One of them says the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) put its foot down. Another claims the Yogi could have made things hot for Modi if his ambitions weren’t appeased—laughable when the Uttar Pradesh electorate has just delivered a historic victory for Modi. A third explanation is that Modi’s agenda has all along been Hindutva, rather than development—this one flies in the face of well-documented facts about Modi’s economic reforms. ALSO READ | Yogi Adityanath: How Gorakhnath priest became chief minister of Uttar Pradesh But there is no contradiction between development and Hindutva, even militant Hindutva of the Yogi Adityanath variety. The ideology of the entire Sangh family is that India has been subjugated for the last 1,200 years and Modi’s ascent to power signals the end of that dark period. Modi has often referred to the “1200 years of slavery” and to our “slave mentality” in his speeches. His government’s project is to end that mentality and revive the long-lost glory of Hindu civilization. At the same time, as perceptive scholars have noted, Hindutva is not a revival of conservative Hinduism, but a thoroughly modern political project aimed at building a powerful nation. True, religious and cultural nationalism is at the heart of this project. But you cannot build a strong nation without having a strong economy. Hence the paramount need for development. Simply put, the economic development of the nation is a necessary condition for the political, social, military and cultural revival of Hindu civilization. Hindutva and capitalist development march hand in hand, till recently in khaki shorts. This is Modi’s “New India”. The demonetisation programme saw both these elements in action. On the one hand, it was hailed as a moral crusade against black money, an attempt to purify the Indian economy. ALSO READ | Yogi Adityanath: A Hindutva mascot and controversy’s favourite child On the other, it was an attempt to expand the frontiers of the formal economy and curtail that of the informal economy of petty producers. In short, the ideology calls for, on the one hand, transforming the Indian economy into a modern capitalist one; on the other, the rebirth of the nation by purging it of corrupting influences, through a thoroughgoing programme of cultural nationalism. For, as V.D. Savarkar said, “It has been well said by Christ that man does not live by bread alone. As it is spiritually true, it is also true in the racial, cultural, national and several other aspects that go to constitute the human nature. Therefore, the attempt to interpret all human history and human activities in economical terms alone is altogether onesided.” After the great victory in the UP elections, the ruling party feels strong enough to remove the fig leaf and reveal what it stands for unabashedly. The so-called fringe was always part of the mainstream. The results of the UP elections also represent another breakthrough for the BJP—it has been able to successfully consolidate the Hindu vote. Modi has shown that his appeal lies beyond caste considerations. While this breakthrough is of immense importance for elections, it is also a vindication of the ideology that wants to view Hindu society as a united whole, not riven by age-old caste divisions. For how can one build a powerful civilization and a capitalist economy if castes are continually at loggerheads? This too is part of the project of making a modern India. To be sure, this is not the path taken by the developed nations of the West, with their secular and individualistic traditions. But there are many varieties of capitalism today. We seem to have chosen capitalism with Hindutva characteristics. ***There are many other uses for nationalist rhetoric. Successful late developers such as Germany, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, China and even Singapore have grown rapidly under dictatorial or autocratic regimes.*** [Emphasis added.] ***India is attempting the transition under democracy, which has an unfortunate tendency to slow down the process of accumulation, because of pressures of redistribution. Nationalist and cultural rhetoric can be a good way of diverting the attention of the masses from economic issues and of papering over the glaring contradictions in a society riven by deep fissures, where the fruits of development are shared so inequitably. After all, it calls for a lot of strenuous barefaced mendacity to talk of inclusive growth in a society where 58% of the wealth belongs to the richest 1% of the population.*** [Emphasis added.] ALSO READ | The significance of Hindutva [at <http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/f0NtRgEVZ6EQx1Y5xFd3qJ/The-significance-of-Hindutva.html>] Far safer to rail against anti-nationals. That is one very practical reason why leaders ranging from Putin to Erdogan to Xi Jinping have all relied on fanning jingoistic sentiments. They also realize, as George Orwell said, “human beings don’t only want comfort, safety, short working-hours, hygiene, birth-control and, in general, common sense; they also, at least intermittently, want struggle and self-sacrifice, not to mention drums, flags and loyalty-parades.” ***The world over, the masses, fed up with the hypocrisy of the liberal establishment and the lack of good jobs, are marching to a heady nationalist drumbeat orchestrated by strong leaders. India is no exception.*** [Emphasis added.] Manas Chakravarty looks at trends and issues in the financial markets. Respond to this column at [email protected]. -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
