Why it’s so easy for Modi to appropriate icons he’s opposed to ...

[mskmoorthy]

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The main tenet of this article is:

"Indians tend to reduce historical figures to mere photographs, stripped of the messages they stood for."

The last half of the last sentence is an interesting conclusion.

"in India we have the ability to reduce every great historical figure to a photograph or statue."

I do not want to believe both of them (as they themselved are reductionist statements!) - but I am so far removed "Real India" my views may not mean anything.

 

[sangom]

Scroll.in - News. Politics. Culture.

The main tenet of this article is:

"Indians tend to reduce historical figures to mere photographs, stripped of the messages they stood for."

The last half of the last sentence is an interesting conclusion.

"in India we have the ability to reduce every great historical figure to a photograph or statue."

I do not want to believe both of them (as they themselved are reductionist statements!) - but I am so far removed "Real India" my views may not mean anything.

Shri moorthy sir,

I agree that historical figures do not much inspire the people of India; the only exception seems to me to be those connected with hindu religion. Even in the case of these religious icons, I feel people do not follow their advice but they show their "inspiration" by showing a lot of "intolerance" to any criticism of their icons. This fanaticism they probably think, will make up for their not following the sage advice of those religious icons.

Because of this 'fanaticism', which, I feel, even the hindutva people are exhibiting to a large extent, it may not be easy for Modi (or for that matter, any one else) to "appropriate" any of those icons.

At present, there is a Modi wave which is more of an anti-UPA wave. If Modi has to keep this Modi wave intact, I feel he should reign in rhetoric used by him in election campaigns and reduce the tall promises he often makes.

 

[mskmoorthy]

Shri Sangom Sir,

Thanks for your comments. Religious factions, fanaticisms and strifes may never end - be in Politics or in democracy. I certainly do not hope such fanaticim will end any time soon. I am currently reading (very slowly) a book "Infinitesimal: How a Dangerous Mathematical Theory Shaped the Modern World" by Amir Alexander.

One of the reviewers write (and I tend to agree with him - Bryce Christiensen)
... Alexander credits the champions of indivisibles with helping to usher in an era of progressive tolerance and democracy, and he indicts their foes as hidebound authoritarians. But as readers explore the personalities and life trajectories of the combatants, they will recognize complexities that do not fit into Alexander’s overall script: Bonaventura Cavalieri (one of the discoverers of indivisibles) was a cautious monk, while RenéDescartes (the father of modern philosophy) rejected the new mathematics. A bracing reminder of the human drama behind mathematical formulas...

(Cavalieri was a student of Gallileo)
When religion(s) play such a big role in an innocuous Matematical discovery, I can imagine what is in store when the stakes are high.

At least on a personal level, each one of us can try to be tolerent to the extent possible and respect unity in diversty and maintain our indivduality (This sounds like a cliche!)

With kind regards,

Moorthy

 

[sangom]

Shri Sangom Sir,

Thanks for your comments. Religious factions, fanaticisms and strifes may never end - be in Politics or in democracy. I certainly do not hope such fanaticim will end any time soon. I am currently reading (very slowly) a book "Infinitesimal: How a Dangerous Mathematical Theory Shaped the Modern World" by Amir Alexander.

One of the reviewers write (and I tend to agree with him - Bryce Christiensen)
... Alexander credits the champions of indivisibles with helping to usher in an era of progressive tolerance and democracy, and he indicts their foes as hidebound authoritarians. But as readers explore the personalities and life trajectories of the combatants, they will recognize complexities that do not fit into Alexander’s overall script: Bonaventura Cavalieri (one of the discoverers of indivisibles) was a cautious monk, while RenéDescartes (the father of modern philosophy) rejected the new mathematics. A bracing reminder of the human drama behind mathematical formulas...

(Cavalieri was a student of Gallileo)
When religion(s) play such a big role in an innocuous Matematical discovery, I can imagine what is in store when the stakes are high.

At least on a personal level, each one of us can try to be tolerent to the extent possible and respect unity in diversty and maintain our indivduality (This sounds like a cliche!)

With kind regards,

Moorthy

Shri Moorthy Sir,

I don't get the direction of this thread. From the OP, I got the impression that Modi is able to "appropriate the icons he is opposed to...because Indians tend to reduce historical figures to mere photographs, stripped of the messages they stood for."

I agreed with this position, with the exception of religious figures.

Mow you say, "At least on a personal level, each one of us can try to be tolerent to the extent possible and respect unity in diversty and maintain our indivduality (This sounds like a cliche!)". To me this looks like a message for the Forum members, because, by no stretch of imagination can either of us instil this in the minds of the people of India.

So, if you are trying to discuss Modi and India, let us not suddenly shrink back to this Forum alone.

 

[mskmoorthy]

Shri Sangom Sir,

It is my mistake - It was not my intention to talk about this forum - I was more alluding to the religious strifes taking place all over the world. I wanted to write about the book I mentioned in my previous post (about religious intolerance earlier). That definitely did not belong to this thread.

There was an op-ed piece (about India and Modi) that appeared in New York Times on Sunday by Shri Pankaj Mishra. We (old graduate school friends) were discussing that op-ed. I was reading a rebuttal to that op-ed - Then my mind wandered off something else. Here was the original article http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/25/o...andra-modis-idea-of-india.html?mabReward=RI:5 and the rebuttal Behind Pankaj Mishra's rants: A pathology of self-hate and Hindu-phobia - Firstpost (this rebuttal also contains links to New York Times op ed and an op-ed in Bloomberg Times).

Warm Regards

Moorthy

 

[sangom]

Shri Sangom Sir,

It is my mistake - It was not my intention to talk about this forum - I was more alluding to the religious strifes taking place all over the world. I wanted to write about the book I mentioned in my previous post (about religious intolerance earlier). That definitely did not belong to this thread.

There was an op-ed piece (about India and Modi) that appeared in New York Times on Sunday by Shri Pankaj Mishra. We (old graduate school friends) were discussing that op-ed. I was reading a rebuttal to that op-ed - Then my mind wandered off something else. Here was the original article http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/25/o...andra-modis-idea-of-india.html?mabReward=RI:5 and the rebuttal Behind Pankaj Mishra's rants: A pathology of self-hate and Hindu-phobia - Firstpost (this rebuttal also contains links to New York Times op ed and an op-ed in Bloomberg Times).

Warm Regards

Moorthy

Dear Shri Moorthy Sir,

I confess, first of all, that I have very little idea about Pankaj Misra, the newspapers referred to, the mindsets of different categories of people in the west (or the US), etc. But I can be a bit surer about India and Indians. My views on some of the points brought out in the rebuttal in Firstpost are as follows.

1. It will be a hasty conclusion to say that "Indians in large numbers are breaking out of their old mindsets of caste and class and trying to evolve a new development paradigm that seeks to talk to a better future."
Caste is a more than 3000 year old social convention in India and is strong even now. 67 years of democratic self-rule and implementation of 'secularism' have, if at all, succeeded only in blunting the most outward and atrocious facets of the caste phenomenon. It is a virus, like that of Herpes Simplex (known as "akki" in our Kerala Iyer Tamil) which can lie dormant in the body for decades and yet can manifest outwardly and trigger cancerous growth of cells anywhere possible, in the body and kill.

2. The present Modi wave can create lasting changes to the contours of India and Indian government only if Shri Modi stops selling impractical and dream-like slogans, belittling his opponents without any limits, etc., and starts concentrating upon changing the governing system. One of his slogans is "less government, more governance", but in my view, the intrinsic governing system cannot and will not change unless and until Modi can get rid of the IAS governing machinery. This juggernaut was invented and foisted on India to subserve the vested interests of the foreign colonial rulers. This system continues to be exploitative, unsympathetic to the real needs of the country and it has been helping the successive governments in India only to continue the exploitative aspects. While the British benefited by this "steel frame" when they ruled India, the richest echelons benefited ever since Independence. The current Black Money/Swiss Bank Accounts news will be proof of the above statement.

3. I agree with the observations in that article in Firstpost regarding the rabid hindutva face of the coin. Very similar to the statement in the OP that "Indians tend to reduce historical figures to mere photographs, stripped of the messages they stood for.", these extreme hindutva supporters are hell-bent upon painting an invincible, ultra-super power that was the ancient Bharatvarsha and, riding on that goodwill, they probably feel they will succeed in cowing down the real super powers and emerging super powers of today! (In Kerala, such tendencies are called the tactics of a "kavala chattambi" meaning, literally, the 'junction goonda' who imagines he can intimidate anyone with his rough exterior, forbidding moustache, red eyes, a knife in his hand etc.)

I personally feel that Time will once again completely desert Bharat that is India, in the vast heap of poor nations, unless we get a realistic government which can change the ways of thinking of the people.

4. I am not an expert on China and so I am not sure whether China "is culturally unified by a 5,000-year civilizational history", but it seems to me that China has had a long history of mercantilist policies. It is a moot point whether there was a culturally unifying history in Bharat that is India, but it did not have any mercantilist policy although it had trade relations with the west even from the Roman times. Our trade was mostly in products of nature and we had expertise only in select areas of manufacture so as to make our products compete in the world market. The Indus valley civilization was probably better in this regard, but unfortunately, Bharat lost that civilization and its technologies almost entirely.

To conclude, India can make progress - real progress - only if a truly nationalist government comes to power here. Hindutva does not make one nationalist; hindutva is just a caricature of national pride or patriotism. Secondly, selling dreams and impractical promises in order to gain votes and win elections will only be short term gains for some people/party; a really good and efficient government has to motivate people by its governmental actions (not Photo-op actions) and not by slogans.