No great leader emerges
unless there is a crisis. Mohandas
Gandhi would have remained a mediocre lawyer had not the freedom struggle
discovered the leadership qualities in him.
Abraham Lincoln would not have secured his present place in history
without the crisis that challenged his potential in the form of the Civil War.
Mr Narendra Modi has his
historical opportunity now to prove his station in history. India is faced with a crisis called
nationalism.
Nationalism, by definition,
is excessive devotion to the interests of a particular nation-state. It is valid when there is a threat to the
autonomy of the nation-state. India is
not facing any such threat now. Yet
nationalism has become a craze among a sizeable section of the population.
When there is no threat to
the nation, the only other reason for nationalist sentiments to breed and
spread is a desire to dominate. It is an
urge to impose a certain culture or religion or some such thing over the
others. What India is facing now is a
monster called cultural nationalism.
Mr Modi succeeded in
politics largely because of the communal cards he has played on various occasions. Development is the professed agenda and he
has done much to bring development to the country too. Whether the kind of development that he
espouses is actually good for a country like India which has a very large
number of underprivileged and marginalised people is a question that deserves attention. But that is not the topic of this article
which is concerned with the crisis of cultural nationalism and the historical
opportunity it offers to Mr Modi.
A lot of people within the
country have become the country’s enemies (“antinational”) according to Mr Modi’s
supporters. The Dalits are enemies
because they reject the particular version of Hinduism that is being imposed on
them by the cultural nationalists. The
Left thinkers and their supporters are antinational because they reject
Hindutva. Those who advocate secularism
are labelled as sickularists. The
liberal press has become presstitute.
Certain food items have been denied to people belonging to a particular
religion that has become the favourite enemy of the nationalists. Dissidence is projected as sedition. Lawyers who are supposed to uphold the law go
berserk in the abode of justice which they convert into a kangaroo court. Rationalists, atheists and liberal thinkers
are all antinational in that kangaroo court. Kangaroo courts decide who can marry whom, who
can fall in love with whom, who can eat what, wear what dress, think what
thoughts, write what comments in online sites...
In a recent article in The Hindu, Srinivasan Ramani defined
cultural nationalism as an urge which “basically seeks to subsume the ‘other’
within a limiting construct of the self and the nation.” Cultural nationalism is an extremely narrow
worldview which is totally intolerant of diversity. It is very detrimental to the very existence
of India as a nation simply because there is infinite diversity in this
country.
And that is the challenge
for Mr Modi. How is he going to resolve
this crisis? History will judge him as a
leader based on how he will deal with this crisis.
A century ago, Max Weber
spoke about two kinds of ambitions that a leader usually has: personal and
bureaucratic. Mr Modi has achieved the
highest post in the bureaucratic ladder.
What is left is his personal ambition (unless he wants to be the
contemporary Hitler with territorial ambitions in addition to cultural ones). It is no secret that he is an RSS man
fundamentally. Cultural nationalism is
the lifeblood of RSS. It is that
cultural nationalism that is spreading across the country like a deadly
virus. How will he deal with the virus
that spread from himself? That is Mr
Modi’s challenge.
If Mr Modi does not want
to accept the diversity in the country, if he wants to impose one particular
culture and religion on the country, he has to either get all the divergent
cultures and other entities to merge into his culture or vanquish the divergent
entities altogether. Is there any other
way? That is Mr Modi’s challenge.
there is a way if he try to understand India as a united country with all its diversity and not as a Hindu state with no place for others.
ReplyDeleteBut his very ideology is founded on divisiveness because it asserts the superiority of his religion and by implication the inferiority of the others. So how can he respect diversity?
DeleteVery valid points. Though I am not a fan of politics, but seems there is an uphill task before Mr Modi to curb the growing anti-national sentiments (or so it looks like).
ReplyDeleteMr Modi can make a huge difference if he wants. But he will need to change himself first!
DeleteIt is an interesting article. People are anxiously waiting for Modiji's stance on many issues.
ReplyDeleteMr Modi who called Dr Manmohan Singh Maunmohan has turned out to be worse than the latter. That's how life treats us. We become worse than our enemies.
DeleteVery nicely written article. Mr. Modi is certainly challanged but as usual I don't see him taking a stand. His dramatic speeches which lack depth are his only strength.
ReplyDeleteThe nationalist are turning into extremists every passing day. Its sad.
We become what we hate the most! BJP has become just like their bete noire. See the link below to read about it as well as listen to a BJP MLA's threat to eliminate Muslims in India.
Deletehttp://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/muslims-warned-of-final-battle-at-sangh-meet-mos-katheria-says-weve-to-show-our-strength/