There is no question that Narendra Modi is now seen as a world statesman. Not just because of the spectacular success of the G-20 summit just held in Delhi but because of a process that started earlier when he advised Vladimir Putin that this was not an era for war. India has chosen not to take a stand on Putin’s monstrous invasion of Ukraine, but these words were echoed by other leaders as sound advice.
At the G-20, Modi enhanced his image by making speeches in which he talked about India’s “human-centric approach” and about the need to build trust in international affairs and the need for “healing”. He repeated his favourite formula for doing this: “sab ka saath, sab ka vishvas, sab ka prayas”. And once more reminded the dazzling array of the world’s most important leaders that India believes that the world is one family.
Has the Prime Minister noticed that it could be time for him to make these words and ideas more meaningful inside India? Has he noticed that our own ‘family’ is divided and angry? Has he noticed that his chief ministers and ministers do not seem to follow his advice and that it is because they are seen as anti-Muslim that Muslim members of our family feel alienated and estranged? Has he noticed that our Dalit communities also feel that they are being treated with less respect and justice than they deserve and that it is mostly their women and girls who end up being raped and murdered in rural India?
It is almost certainly in this context that Udaynidhi Stalin said that the Sanatan Dharma needed to be eradicated like a dangerous disease. He clearly confused casteism with the Hindu faith but he was unapologetic about what he said because in Tamil Nadu casteism was once truly a disease as it continues to be in many other Indian states.
The solution is not more reservations for castes that once faced untouchability, as the RSS leader recently suggested, the solution is to revert to the more enlightened ideas that define the Sanatan Dharma in its real form. But the response cannot be to deny that casteism has defiled the Hindu faith. Nor can it be to widen the chasm between our northern and southern states.
The Economist last week had an excellent piece of analysis on the widening divisions between southern and northern India. People living in our southern states have a standard of living that is so much higher than people living in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar that they could be living in another country. In Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the percentage of people living in extreme poverty is between 30 and 40 per cent. In Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra less than 10 per cent of people remain mired in extreme poverty. In Kerala extreme poverty has virtually been eradicated. The Economist has graphs for industrialisation and infant mortality that show similar disparities and makes the point that the BJP’s idea of Hindutva and the Modi magic has less appeal in southern India.
Can it be said then that we are ‘one nation, one family’ as the Prime Minister believes that we are? It cannot. What we need is to bridge the divide by a greater emphasis on fundamental economic change and less emphasis on such things as language, religion, and culture. At the G-20 the Prime Minister went to great lengths to convince the leaders of the world that India was not just the ‘mother of democracy’ but proof of this was evident in our diversities of language and religion. He did well to showcase these diversities, but it could be time for him to accept that his dream of India becoming a developed country in 20 years will remain just a dream unless he makes a serious effort to make Indians of all faiths and cultures believe that he is taking everyone along.
In the decade that he has been Prime Minister a very bad kind of Hindu has surfaced, or it would be more correct to say that two kinds of bad Hindus have surfaced. One is comprised of a chippy, angry, venomous new intellectual elite. This lot spend their time labelling anyone who disagrees with them as ‘anti-national’. This lot also gives ideological muscle to the violent, young men who wander about making hate speeches against Islam and finding Muslims to kill on the pretext of saving cows. It is these violent young men who are truly ‘anti-national’ because not only do they diminish India in the eyes of the world they also cause serious damage personally to the image of the Prime Minister.
While he talks of healing and building trust and while he makes it a point these days to address his countrymen as my “beloved family members” they wander about spreading hatred and violence. The new intellectuals who have replaced that louche lot of leftists and liberals that once ruled Lutyens’ Delhi give them ideological support by describing them as Modi’s “base”. They may well constitute the bulk of the BJP vote bank but if they are not controlled there is no question whatsoever that India will remain a very, very long way from becoming a fully developed country. It is true that we have much in our civilisation to be very proud of, but it is also true that some very bad practices need eradication.
