Revisiting Modi - II
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The question of demagoguery is more tricky but also one which is more crucial to any future prospect of cultural nationalism than political alliances. To simplify things there are two defining characteristics of any movement.
First is the mass mobilization, second is the intellectual framework. Now the problem is masses respond to passion, not cold dissection. Intellectualism, on the other hand, demands the exact opposite. Again while success of revolution is dependent on masses, its endurance is dependent on the strength of intellectual framework. It is the presence of these inherently contradictory forces that makes success of revolution difficult and historically rare.
A revolution led by passionate masses would succeed in overthrowing the status quo, but if it is not guided and informed by the intellect, it ends up devouring its own children.*
On the other hand, insistence on existence of a intellectual framework, which is grounded in nothing except pure reason with no connection to social aspirations, as a pre-condition for revolution, would eventually result in endless intellectual self pleasure, or as Bengalis fondly call Addabaazi (or as kgpians fondly call it fornicating buckets), but no action on ground.
This would imply that for any group or faction which wishes a revolution followed by a stable (and desirable) condition, there is a need to couple rhetoric with logic, to temper passion with reason, and to reinforce reason with passion.
Which brings us to cultural nationalism as represented by Sangh Parivar. Speaking as someone who has nothing but distaste for the fraud that goes under the guise of secularism **, I have no doubt that Sangh Parivar can not be compared with secular charlatans. However when it comes to carry out a sustained movement towards cultural nationalism, its record has been abysmal.This is due to absence of intellectual to support the mass mobilization, this absence of course is just a specific instance of poverty of ideas from which India suffers.
In a way the reason behind emergence of Sangh Parivar as second pole after decades of existence as marginal player is disaffection of middle class (across India) with the secular, liberal establishment which has thrived by trapping middle class in a guilt zone. Now this constituency, hardly a majority, is the core of BJP, which is augmented by local coalitions based upon caste and other factors. However to make this arrangement enduring the core must be reinforced with a sound philosophy which guides and informs the politics. This sadly has not happened. Instead it is either crass populism (vox populi vox dei) or tired rhetoric from heydays of socialism which has come to represent the platform, to some extent there was a support of economic liberalization, however defeat in 2004*** killed that. Its authenticity on Hindutva was of course lost, perhaps forever, with attempts to gain respectability with secular, liberal establishment.
At risk of being dramatic I think Sangh Parivar is at crossroads. One way is to continue doing what it has been doing so far, in my opinion this leads to end of BJP as a political force which would spell doom for cultural nationalism and along with it end of India as a nation-state****.
Other is to work towards building an intellectual movement on an urgent basis which would counter the existing stranglehold of Hinduphobic dhimmis.
Now Narendra Modi is a demagogue, his expertise is in polemics. True he has come out in flying colors as far as administration is concerned (as opposed the embarrassment called Uma Bharathi), but ceding further ground to what is in effect raging passion of the mob would just further undermine the cause.
To build an intellectual base is not going to be an easy task. The path is enveloped with fog of pretend enlightenment, but this fog must be pierced if any progress is to be made. As John F Kennedy said in a different context, this is a twilight struggle.
* French revolution, Burke was right.
** No it's not pseudo-secularism, it is secularism, which is the culprit.
*** Of course it was to be blamed on hubris, that a comfort of being in power. Ironically Jan Sangh used to be pretty pro capitalism kind of party.
**** Those who believe in nothing, will fall for anything.
7 comments:
You deserve yourself a porn movie especially after such intellectual masturbation.
I am insulted. OK seriously why this NiluType comment, unless your butt is freezing in Michigan ;-)
Hey, I was serious. Whether you are right or wrong, I wouldnt know. I am one of the masses, anyway.
Are you prophetic or what? My butt indeed froze a few minutes back. I opened the car door only to find a big chunk of ice fall on the seat... took my chance and sat on the wet patch.
Arree that's what I am asking what is your disagreement. By the way how did you manage to get ice on the seat ?? And is your butt ok now or does it need to be replaced by iron butt, because that would be totally cooool
I did not disagree. I only said you deserved to chill out after writing that piece and what better way to chill out than porn?
Ice on the seat, thats a weird story. There was 6 inch of snow all over the car and I tried to be wise and cleaned up only the windshields. Then when I opened the door, a huge blob of ice fell on the seat from the door and the roof... butt is okay now nevertheless.
Alright, Gaurav ji, blame Sangh Parivar as much as you want for intellectual bankruptcy. But then you must also blame Hindu intellectuals such as you and wannabes such as me for not doing enough work ( like, say, proactively supporting organizations which do good work, such as hindu-charity, vEda-pATha-shAlas or whatever you feel would be beneficial ). RSS does tremendous social service and has a lot of influence on villages we hardly know about. I have heard stories about such things as their ArOgya-rakShak/rakShikA program which enables people provide some primary health service in villages etc. ( lazy to write more stories ).
May be instead of criticizing we can actually join some of these organizations and start intellectual movements from within them.
That said, your point about demagoguery is certainly taken and appreciated.
P. S. : Do you think American Nationalism can count as cultural nationalism? I mean they think of themselves as beacons of liberty, equality and what not! Perhaps that is why there are many Jonah Goldbergs ( however I don't like his style ) out there. In my university there was once a couple of talks on Armenian genocide - one by an American history professor and the other by a Turkish person representing opposite views. The American professor, while concluding had said that one shouldn't hesitate to criticize what is wrong in one's society and talked about the racism during his childhood, how the textbooks he learnt didn't cover that etc. Nevertheless, after saying that people considered America a beacon of blah blah, he added "it sure is" before talking of racism as a defect that had nevertheless existed. Now how many Indian liberals or eminences would do that kind of a thing with India?
Frogji
I have no answer. Guilty as charged.
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