These are tough times for liberal India. More so if you are cursed with a sense of aesthetics. The Narendra Modi government asked people to bang thalis in appreciation of the doctors and others fighting the coronavirus pandemic — after ensuring in February that crucial medical equipment was not reserved for medical personnel and patients.
The Indian liberal edifice is falling to pieces. Instead of a free press, we now have a free-for-all press. The former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi accepted the Modi government’s nomination to the Rajya Sabha soon after his retirement, when the memory of his judicial views in favour of the government in several critical matters was still fresh in people’s mind. The constitutional value of the ‘separation of powers’ has seldom looked shakier.
The Indian economy lies in tatters. Communal riots last in Delhi for days but no heads roll. There is no opposition and no respite from the Modi government’s overbearing manner. In this mix drops a virus, and it soon acquires a communal colour. Liberalism has hardly had it so bad in independent India.
In his column National Interest in ThePrint, journalist Shekhar Gupta lists the reasons for people rushing to bang the thalis, and concludes by saying: “Modi is winning. Why should he be complaining? Or bothering with usual suspects accusing him of infantilising his voters when they are happy being just that: Obedient infants?”
I guess Shekhar Gupta is merely expressing his angst at the spectacle of people following instructions to bang thalis. However, over the past six years, this complaint has become common and more frequent among Indian liberals. Earlier, we were told that the ordinary voter was wise and took correct decisions at crucial moments of history such as in 1977, 1984 and 1991. Why this about-turn?
Is it an escape from further analysis? Nothing more needs to be said once the voter has been declared an infant? Or is it based on the liberal/capitalist assumption that responsible adults have free will, which is used to make rational choices, and so they would not have banged the thalis or even elected Modi?
Also read: Poke fun at taali, thaali, diya and mombatti all you want. Modi couldn’t care less
Not just about ‘free will’ anymore
Liberal democracy is premised on individual free will to make a choice. Philosophers have long contested the idea of free will and rational choice. Traditional Western philosophy had the contesting idea of determinism which meant, contrary to free will, events were guided by pre-existing causes. Indian philosophy had a similar theory of Prarabhda. However, the political advance of liberalism/humanism was so powerful in the last century that these contesting ideas were eclipsed by the idea of free will.
Liberal democracies across the world have been bleeding in the past decade. The liberal order is turning upside down, institutions are being torn apart. But even before the likes of Modi, Trump and Erdogan appeared on the political stage, modern philosophers like John Gray had challenged the idea of free will. It is also being challenged by psychologists and neuroscientists. Even if there is free will, its direction can be manipulated, especially by big data, TV channels etc.
Therefore, the voter’s inability or reluctance to exercise rational choice based on the contested idea of free will is a very tenuous link to reach an even more unsustainable conclusion of the infancy of the voter.
We need other tools to understand voter’s/citizen’s behaviour. One way to examine this behaviour, especially in the era of populist leaders, is the Indian concept of Maya, or illusion, which can be magnified manifold by the information technology revolution. We can understand electoral politics as a battle of images, perception and theatre.
Also read: No soft Hindutva, no Left Revolution, Kejriwal establishing a new centre in Indian politics
New tech, no alternative story
Electoral politics always had a strong element of theatre. But new technological tools such as WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter are allowing Modi to give the voters a lot of new messages, images, sensations on a regular basis and generate favourable responses. We need to closely scrutinise the connection between WhatsApp revolution engendered by cheap Jio data and the 2019 Lok Sabha election victory or banging of thalis. Facebook, internet and compliant news channels have made electoral politics in India overwhelmingly theatrical.
And there is no viable alternative story. The Congress party, a network of patronage and power, in the absence of those, is simply withering away. Other parties modelled on the Congress system are following suit. Arvind Kejriwal has been able to stand up to Modi possibly because he can match Modi in theatrics and in the use of new technology.
Further, new technology has disturbed the traditional way of life of the voter at an unprecedented pace. The voter might be clinging to Modi simply because he presents an image – rather the illusion – that the commonly held notions about the Indian tradition will be preserved. That’s what banging of thalis and lighting of diyas do.
Also read: India’s elite Socialism, Scindia’s non-AC Range Rover & the low income country trap
Liberal elite lost control
The rapid technological disruption was preceded by six decades of reconstruction of all major identities by the liberal method: caste, religion, family and gender. This reconstruction changed power relations in a short span of time. The debate over the merits of these changes is a separate matter. But these changes have produced anxieties in the certain sections of society, which Modi could be tapping into (Hindutva) even while benefiting from those changes (OBC-Mandal).
The liberals enjoyed immense authority to produce these changes with support from the Congress system structures. They drew their power from the control over all institutions of production of knowledge such as universities, research institutions and the courts. These were controlled through the English language, which was the preserve of a tiny liberal elite to a large extent. This language was alien to the large swathes of masses whose allegiance Modi, a native Gujarati, commands in Hindi.
The English language, in the hands of English-speaking liberal elite, became a powerful source of discrimination against Indians who could not speak English and led to deprivation of opportunities for them. At its best, the English-speaking liberal elite was a benign alien force for them; at its worst, a hostile coloniser of thought and mind.
After the collapse of the Congress power network, this English-speaking liberal elite has no emotional and cultural connection with the social milieu where Modi is worshiped, even though he has hardly done anything to change those power relations. Modi has simply changed the packaging. Goods come from the same factories. Modi has just changed the labels to Hindi and has swayed the people — just like how he borrowed talis from Italy, added his thali and crowd-sourced a blockbuster.
The liberal story was a good story and is still worth pursuing. But let us not have illusions of the universality or truth of its values. It is one more story competing in the arena with many others. It is hard work ahead, especially for the liberal elite who may have to give up their privileges (or get co-opted), shed the baggage of English language. A good start can be made by making a resolve: “Thou shall never declare the ordinary mass of people infants, howsoever uncomfortable they may be for you.” Because if we look deeper, then we will find many reasons for the way they behave, opening new ways of engagement.
The author is an advocate in the Supreme Court of India. Views are personal.
liberals will be clobbered to death soon.
If info tech revolutions like Whatsapp, Face Book, Twitter of Instagram were available to Modi, so they were available to everyone else to manipulate them in their favor too! So you cant blame for using or misusing these tools. Rise of Modi is due to his performance and effective communication as well as to absence of these attributes from the opposition parties. Further, such performance was repeated with better results in 2019 and hence, 2014 was no fluke! When there is free for all in the media, why any opposition party could not stop Modi’s victory in 2019? Voters in general have perceived that Modi is their best bet at this time and that is it, whatever spin liberals and sicucklars would like to give it and whether they approve of Modi’s performance or not!. Voters have voted as per their rationale choices and not by the rational choices of liberals. But these liberal and sickulars, parasites as they are, can not be away from corridors of power for long. Many of them will soon find a way to come back to the mainstream by joining hands with Modi! Those who cannot will continue to bark or moan. But they should be ready for a long haul!!
Today, 18 May 2014, may well go down in history as the day when Britain finally left India. Narendra Modi’s victory in the elections marks the end of a long era in which the structures of power did not differ greatly from those through which Britain ruled the subcontinent. India under the Congress party was in many ways a continuation of the British Raj by other means. The last of midnight’s children are now a dwindling handful of almost 70-year-olds, but it is not the passing of the independence generation that makes the difference.
The India those men and women lived in was one that, like its predecessor, was centralised, garrisoned, culturally constricted, and ruled by a relatively small English-speaking elite whose attitude toward the masses was alternately benevolent and exploitative but never inclusive. Universal suffrage gave Indians a vote but not, at least for much of the time, a voice. When that voice was occasionally heard, as it was in 1977 in the elections that followed the disastrously unpopular Emergency declared by prime minister Indira Gandhi, there could be a sudden sense of its almost volcanic capacity to remake the political landscape, but such moments were rare.
Now that voice has been heard again. It has endorsed a new kind of leader in the shape of Mr Modi. He is from the lower castes. He is not a natural English speaker. He has no truck with the secular and socialist traditions that shaped Congress. But, more important, that voice has announced a new kind of India. In the old India the poor were there to be helped, when the elite remembered to do so or when they needed to seek or, in effect, to buy votes. The middling classes were taken for granted and sometimes snubbed. The new India, most observers agree, is not interested in handouts, and refuses to be snubbed.
GUARDIAN EDITORIAL 18th May, 2014
Modi is being attacked because he has challenged an elite that blends liberal values with large dollops of cronyism and corruption. He epitomises the real but ill-defined change a young and increasingly restless India is craving for.
If Modi has read India right, counting day may reveal both a Congress rout and a Modi wave. GUARDIAN
People of india r matured enough to reject a 50 year old infant in every elections he fights against modi.
Communal???
Do you have some shame left???
The world knows why the lockdown had to be extended and who is responsible for it. Incidents with doctors police and tik tok videos is enough to understand the intentions. A person with normal IQ will understand it but liberals and their mouth piece like yours have repeatedly displayed the abnormal IQ levels by defending these jaahils.
A tip for your next article: After banging thalis and enlighting diya it is complete boycott and no coperation…
And we don’t need Modi to tell this…
In short, when people support LIBERALS, they are wise other-wise infants! Thank god liberals are being rejected world over.
@Anil – So called Liberals are actually fascist communists!! They lost credibility when they sided with the most illiberal & terror infested ideologies of Islam which have killed 30 crore+ innocent Hindus & many non Muslims through out the world!!
As usual the ranting clearly is of a loser . In this times of need HINDU temples and organisations are organising huge food distribution and much moreUNDER ABLE GUIDANCE OF RSS THOUGHT PROCESS . Whereas the left leaning ideologues and jihadi mindsets who only protest and survive on fake narrative of victimisation for protest are nowhere involved in helping people during this desperate times. It’s clear to this divise lot that more than ever their importance is over and hence the rant. So be it we HINDUS will serve people through our religious organisations and let barking dogs be.
We did give liberals plenty of chance to prove themselves…….they proved themselves as hippocrites-the end
Seriously im frustrated with you so called self proclaimed liberals….its fun to mock hindu religion but it’s secular to praise the muslim practices? …..it’s fun to mock cow urine party even though it did nothing but it’s secular to defend a certain religious gathering because of which the cases of Infection in India is in thousands and still rising and due to which majority of population is suffering,going hungry …
…. You liberals are nothing but hypocrites
Balderdash. The so called liberals are losing their relevance because of their hatred for Hindus. Consider this. Under the regime set up by the liberals, only Hindus can’t control their temples, the government steals money from Hindu temples only, only Hindus can’t administer their religious education, only Hindus have the responsibility for social justice. On top of that, the liberals are too eager to call Hindus terrorists and let barrels of foreign money in to convert hindus to Islam and Christianity. The “liberal” education denigrates Hindus and glorifies every other religion, and it is designed to erase the civilizational identity of Hindus. Instead of addressing this simple truth, this writer goes on a typical intellectual self gratification tour. No wonder these liberals are on the verge of extinction.
Such nonsense! The NRI-class always supported RSS morally and financially. Most English-speaking elite have now switched to Modi. Who are you kidding? And why? Whose interest it serves to call Modi’s opponents as “liberals” in a negative sense? Modi is not an anti-elite fighter – he is happy to lick elite boots, as well as American ones as seen recently. he is anti-poor – that much is now clear.
@anamika – Ha!! Ha!! We remember what the traitors of this nation, the liberal/communist congress said: Garibi Hatao!! Garibi is there but congress isn’t!!
So your stupid logic against Modi makes as much sense as peaceful Islam & peaceful Nazis!!
Simple point people in India are ranked poorly on happiness index and they think Congress & liberals are responsible for it ? .. We forget one thing as a country our coming generation will pay the price of being mesmerised by mediocre government who has no new idea except theatrics … I can assure you In next 2-3 years there will be no opposition ? only 1 party rule so just go with the flow please ..
Who decides this non sense of happiness index. Some Pee or phew whatever it is. Happy people decided to give one man a chance in 2014 and since they were happy in his 5 year reign they brought him back in 2019. People are fed up with the so called liberals and elites who are totally disconnected from the masses and their problems. You are free to have your own opinion by as a democracy the people have rejected the most corrupt and communal family twice and that can’t just be a fluke. In 60 years only one family and it’s eco system prospered and that eco system is so we’ll entrenched that we can still see it in such articles. Cleaning dirt of 60 years will indeed take time. Some people may feel inconvenienced during the cleansing process but country is definitely better hands today than ever before.
@Nishant Gupta – Ha!! Ha!! We also remember the theatrics of “Garibi Hatao” of the congress/communist so called liberals!! Garibi is wild & kicking even after 70 years of “liberal Rajya” of congress!!
It’s the same congress and so called liberals who support the most illiberal & terror infested ideologies of Islam which have killed 30 crore+ of innocent Hindus!!
Brainwashed black British/communists like you can’t see the difference between mulla raj & Ram Rajya even after Mosques in Kashmir were shouting on loudspeakers to kill Hindus & non Muslims!! Poor Dalits could be doctors or engineers but were given only cleaning jobs by Islam & Muslims!!
Your skewed logic, lack of knowledge & facts of present & history make you morons & dangerous for yourselves, Hindus, their splendid civilization & Hindustan!!
Wow, so many comments and not a single one sympathetic to the author’s views ! Still Print claims to speak for the people and do investigative journalism ! Wake up and educate yourselves to the reality around you. Otherwise, Print will be as irrelevent soon as the Opposition is now !
What are we talking about liberals haha?? Opposing every decision taken by government of India or formed in parliament is called liberalism then it’s a shame. Even Karl Marx or leon trostky have this kind of liberals they would have shoot themselves. The ideals of the liberals in India are of the 1970s Soviet which only lead to destruction ideals are the basis which liberals have forgetten. Asking about freedom can anyone name 3 great countries which have leftism?? and has given freedom these people like kanahiya Kumar can only bark and think they are the leaders pity on leftism.Talking about Modi one of great leader with a great vision and I believe leftist should first change and correct there ideals then can have some competition with one of the greatest leader of this generation….
Liberalism is a western import of monotheistic western societies.
In Indian context it devolved into speaking English, more fancier the more liberal.
Indian liberalism meant bashing religious beliefs, traditions and heritage of the majority.
Societal practices like sati, ghoonghat were equated as Hindu religion which were rampant in north India but not in other parts of India.
Thus generalizing everything bad as parts and parcel of Hindu religion.
The major flaw in Indian liberalism is that it believes India came into existence in 1947. A polytheistic society, its heritage, history, contribution in the field of science, maths, medicine were forgotten and termed as myth.
In quest to get approval from white masters, this mentality has harmed thousands of years old secular, liberal traditions of India.
With flow of information things are changing and people across India are getting to know the richness of their culture, identity and heritage.
This is why this fake liberalism and secularism is failing.
@Neil – Western/Christian civilization has impoverished the planet through colonization & destroyed the planet through climate change and yet not even compensated just as the CCP Communists haven’t for the Chinese Virus or Islam for terrorism!!
The desert cults disguise their lust & greed for land, resources & power as religion!! They also want to impose their world view on others!! The world has seen how these desert cults promote separatism & HATE against Chinese & Indians, against the Hindus & the HAN just because they follow a different belief system!!
The Chinese have used globalization while strengthening it’s civilization & overall security!! Now they have enslaved Christian Europe/America & Islam!! India must do the same and be smart to make a new civilization-al Bharat!!
It’s high time that India is declared a Hindu nation where the splendid Sanatan Hindu civilization is brought back and relations with the rest of the world reworked based on mutual interest & mutual respect!!
Liberals?? A bunch of thugs and looters have apportioned this good word for themselves.
They are most illiberal people.
The author is silent how the successive Congress governments and other opposition leaders in their own states looted the country.
@pankaj – Absolutely right!! Chinese went back to their civilization while taking advantage of western capitalism!! Now they have enslaved Christian Europe/America & Islam!! India must do the same and be smart to make a new civilization-al Bharat!!
This piece expressthe concerns of left liberals, who lives in a make belief world and writer hints of belonging to this group.
Neverthless, solution are certainly applicable for all section of liberals.
(1) Indian liberalism is not dead. PM Modi has to create a liberal image in 2014 election and recently anti CAA protest manifests liberal strength.
(2) Liberalism is facing tough time, but that didnot began with PM Modi.
It began when Congress chamcha self appointed themselves as guardian of liberalism and left liberal, pushed aside sensible liberal.
They supported killing of party democracy when Gandhi family illegally captured Congress party in essentially one party democracy. They didnot speak against divisive caste politics and abhoringly inefficient delievery system, they have created electoral liberal vaccum.
(3) India needs Gandhi’s liberalism and not MN roy’s.
Liberals need to focus governance structure that propogate liberalism and not only focus on people’s action.
(4) Acting in solidarity is not illiberal and if the corana cases would have incresed, like that of western countries PM modi could not easily get away.
Left should learn few lessons from him about leadership.
@Arjun Solanki – Ha!! Ha!! Western/Christian, so called liberal civilization has impoverished the planet through colonization & destroyed the planet through climate change and yet not even compensated just as the CCP Communists haven’t for the Chinese Virus or Islam for terrorism!!
Black British Indians & communist fascists call themselves “liberal”!!
It’s the same congress and so called liberals who support the most illiberal & terror infested ideologies of Islam which have killed 30 crore+ of innocent Hindus!!
Hypocrite! China/Pakistan/CIA funded, so called liberals will hit the graves they have been creating for Hindus & Hindustan!!
Another worthless read from an ADVOCATE
Yuval Noah Harari says, “Facebook tells you what is new, Google tells you what is true, Netflix tells you what to watch, Amazon (and Alibaba) tells you what to buy… Algorithms decide whether you get a loan, are eligible for an employment” and so on…He continues to say that Artificial Intelligence and Biotech will hack you because AI will know more about you than you do.
Free will? where was it? Community leaders, Kings, Emperors, Dictators, Monolithic Political systems, Social norms, RELIGIONS shaped your thought and behavior all these millions of years…..
Now, technology will tell you how to behave..
What liberals are you talking of? Come down to Earth…shall I say?
Col KL Viswanathan
Very well said….and the writer of the article is decrying ‘infantalising’. He obviously things his readers were born yesterday.
Don’t appropriate the word “liberal” for yourselves. You are communists. Your goal has been to destroy the Hindu civilizational roots of India. You committed a cultural genocide on Hindus. You have rendered Hindus as second class citizens destined for decimation by restricting them from practicing and teaching their religion, by stealing from their temples and by placing the entire burden of social justice on them alone. Hindus will no longer tolerate this injustice. You can take your verbal diahrrea elsewhere because “you can’t handle the truth.”
True
Absolutely right!!
No time to read robbish . Focus is on China virus…
No thought can be given Free hand. Liberals had free hand for a very long time. There should always be an alternative. And then, let the people choose.
Bharath will reclaim India.
With that will come not just the wisdom of the ages but also its madness.
I cant see how this metamorphosis being reversed. Almost eerie Kafka-ish.
@VInu – What world are you living In?? Human life has both good & bad!! Some chose just the bad like Islam/Muslims do, some eliminate the bad as Hindu civilization has tried to do!!
It’s the same congress and so called liberals who support the most illiberal & terror infested ideologies of Islam which have killed 30 crore+ of innocent Hindus!!
Every country/society has an elite, an ivory tower dwelling race, who has a disproportionate stake in wealth and power of that country . Nothing wrong in that.
But nowhere in the world is the elite as disconnected from the masses as in India. They don’t speak the same language as the masses, they don’t relate with the culture of the masses, mock the religious beliefs of the majority. The elite in this country has the same colonial view towards the country as an occupying force.
Aatish Taseer’ latest piece in ‘The Atlantic’ is a great read, where he touches the same topic from the point of view of a member of the defeated liberal elite of India.
It took Modi two evenings of ‘taali’ and ‘thaali’ to puncture the months of liberal propaganda, following the CAA that Modi is facing a people’s revolt. LOL
He is still the biggest superstar in this country.
CAA is our demand. These liberals don’t understand that if anyone dares to revoke CAA, India shall burn.
@Hindu – Enough of Burning already by the evil desert cults!! From now on, every day must be Holi to burn the EVIL Of Anti Hindu & Anti Hindustan desert cults & China funded communists/liberals!!
@Ishant, Spot on, mate!! Spot on!!
What a pompous, ill argued, bunch of banalities! Media has always been part of the propaganda machine for the ruling Elite since time immemorial. Now there is more democracy in availability of counter ideas, so there elitists are suddenly feeling threatened? The voters are very rational….they just have access to more information and can probably triangulate to draw their own conclusions better.
Owners of the monolithic narratives have been dethroned! Hence the whining!
The author’s diagnosis is deeply flawed…
The rejection of secular nature politics in india were primarily due to adventure social media..
In the secular regime Hindu religion was solely blamed for all social evils while the concepts of bothering and bad aspects in abrahamu faiths were behandeld…
History was also skewed in favour of this secular narrative that hinduism and indian culture are mother of all problems in india…
Those layers of falsehoods started to peel off once truth started coming up through social media…
Liberals will gain foothold if they stop being Hippocrates and start criticising bad aspects in abrahamic faiths as they did all these years to hindu faith
The author’s whole argument is fallacious
Did you not read the writer’s piece? ‘De-constructing’ ancient culture and values is the cornerstone of liberalism. Hinduism just happen to be the major road-block to their project in India. After all they did the same with Christianity in their native place. ‘De-constructing’ existing power structure has helped Dalits, minorities and women no doubt. But a race that forgets its root is easy to brainwash into the Golbalist elite’s self-serving perverted agenda and can never mount a counter attack against these parasites. Which is why we need to unite as a nation and counter them while we can. Don’t underestimate them. Actually brace for their bosses. They have already made anti-India funds I hear.
@Lila – Anti Hindu break India forces are at work and billions of dollars have been committed for their evil “liberal” globalism project!!
Meanwhile, The Chinese have used western globalization while strengthening it’s civilization & overall security!! They have now enslaved Christian/zionist Europe/America & Islam!! India must do the same and be smart to make a new civilization-al Bharat!!
It’s high time that India is declared a Hindu nation where the splendid Sanatan Hindu civilization is brought back and relations with the rest of the world reworked based on mutual interest & mutual respect!!
Anyone who comes on our path should be shown the depths of the Indian ocean!! Period!!
How do you define liberalism? Is it expansion of access to Healthcare? Improving financial inclusion? Reducing the leaky bucket with DBT? Decriminalization of homosexuality? Transgender rights? Bringing in a framework to formalize entrepreneurship via bankruptcy laws and changes to the tax code? If indeed these are liberal ideas then the current government has advanced them even if not be the first.
Now you could argue about the hindu pride project but why not when for decades we the elite have derided the ram ram but found it cool to go with shabba khair and every other word that continues to be alien to a vast majority of the population even if it rightfully is now a part of our culture? Picking sides rather blatantly is the problem but then that’s human nature isn’t it?
The problem is a fight over power and not so much ideas. Now if you were a classical liberal (in many ways I’d like to believe Mr Gupta is) focused on individual rights and universal freedoms rather than a woke one buying into the circular logic of intersectional oppressions needing some groups to have greater rights ; you’d have the support of people like me. But then it was never about people but maintaining power… So where do you think people like me would go? How do you define liberalism? Is it expansion of access to Healthcare? Improving financial inclusion? Reducing the leaky bucket with DBT? Decriminalization of homosexuality? Transgender rights? Bringing in a framework to formalize entrepreneurship via bankruptcy laws and changes to the tax code? If indeed these are liberal ideas then the current government has advanced them even if not be the first.
Now you could argue about the hindu pride project but why not when for decades we the elite have derided the ram ram but found it cool to go with shabba khair and every other word that continues to be alien to a vast majority of the population even if it rightfully is now a part of our culture? Picking sides rather blatantly is the problem but then that’s human nature isn’t it?
The problem is a fight over power and not so much ideas. Now if you were a classical liberal (in many ways I’d like to believe Mr Gupta is) focused on individual rights and universal freedoms rather than a woke one buying into the circular logic of intersectional oppressions needing some groups to have greater rights ; you’d have the support of people like me. But then it was never about people but maintaining power… So where do you think people like me would go?
India is a Hindu nation. Anyone who has a problem with that can chose to migrate to other countries.
Wake up while you have time. Liberals hate Christians more than Hindus. They can only be our friends. The Globalist project for India is just beginning. We will need all the friends we can have.
Lol!! Good joke!!
Simply brilliant rebuttal! So well deserved and well articulated.
Liberals were not against caste or religion, in principle. None in liberal’s family ever married to a low caste family.
They exploited the caste and religion in India and made sure power, elitism stay with them. They proved to be mere a ‘dalaal’ at the end and their intellect remain driven by agenda than truth.
Liberals are bigots
This long post can be summarised in one short phrase – India-Bharat binary. Had like a post tag would have been given to a writer (obviously established one)of a post the list of the tag would run, Modern School, DPS RK Puram, St Stephens, JNU, LSE, Harvard. and Columbia School of Journalism. The hegemony of the elites stands broken now. Liberals still harbour the audacity to challenge the decision of a voter. Conveniently forgetting the fact that since 1952, in any Lok Sabha elections, no political party secured 50 per cent votes in the first past the post-election system
Liberals do not believe in democracy. They want a Marxist-Theocracy.
Liberals are losing because they were always one-sided. Thus for example, they painted Diwali as communal whereas Ramzan was considered secular. A Hindu raping a Muslim girl was first page news for one month, whereas a Muslim raping a Hindu girl figured on a small note on page 6 or 7 for a single day. There are thousands of such examples. This pushed HIndus into the right wing. At one time liberals became so one-sided that they were hyphenated with the Left as in Left-liberals. That sounded the doom of liberalism all over the world.
Liberals could have actually been neutral to all parties, giving liberalism a chance. But no, they HAD to side with Muslims and commies to corner the mainstream communities. Result – they themselves are now cornered. No one likes liberals or lefties anymore.
Liberals, you should have been fair.You weren’t and you are paying the price.
Liberals will pay the price. An Indonesian style purge is imminent in India.
As long as the liberals, including the author, keep believing (not thinking) that they know more than others, they will never be able to come out of the curse they themselves have put in. The audacity of assumption of higher ground thinking should vanish for liberals to breathe. It is a Corona they have injected into their minds on their own.
They are on the payroll of Qatar. Why will they think otherwise?
I have different take on the above thoughts :
Largely agreeing to the point on the disruption that technology had created on the balance of elitist hegemony, however it is not about Hindi or English divide .
Modi appealed to a rising young population who do not have a colonial hangover , is ambitious and proud of their heritage .
Opposition to them symbolizes ‘entitlement’ without any turnover of benefits which had made them sway the other way.
The Indian cricket team today is a perfect example of the change – bunch of young folks coming from humble background , looking to perform and are as flamboyant as you can get .
Now try selling them the elitist model of ‘entitlement’ , they will see through you and take decisions which may not be on you favour at all.
Agreed
You jokers will never praise Modi that is very much visible in all your articles. Keep licking feet of your Italian mummy morons !
feet ? wasn’t it something else ?
If this is the best argument that liberals can offer; then they are not worth our attention. My advise, come out of your bubble and work for a living.
Funnily enough, the problem with the “liberals” is embodied in the article itself – the need for white man/woman’s approval. If we clap/beat a thali to applaud the people who are working hard right now then it must be infantilism. If Britain/Italy or whoever as long as they are white, on the other hand, applauds its workers, then it is ofcourse fine.
The reason why, in your view the “virtuous”, acts of 77, 84 (seriously?!, remember ‘the earth shakes when the tree falls’), 91, have not been repeated is because the ordinary (not the let’s have a scotch at India habitat centre) crowd can see through the liberal hypocrisy.
I think it is one of the best things to have happened to humanity in the last decade – the death of liberalism – let’s all make sure to hit as many nails in its coffins so that even the ugly ghost is not able to get out.
yes indeed.
Every Thursday, the entire Great Britain claps to support NHS workers. It has been going on for the last three weeks, and will continue.
Liberal government has nothing to offer other than freebies subsidies reservation loan waivers corruption. Modi is giving the same so liberals are unwanted at present. Jai karl marxa.
Marxism (not socialism) is a virus that infects your mind
The liberals are to be found in Khan Market, which I love, or JLF, where I have never been. They are – unfortunately – not running the country. Not responsible for job creation, ensuring that Indians do not go to bed hungry, their children study in schools and colleges, there are doctors and hospitals to treat them when they fall sick. Let us not create these false binaries around the English language – which all upwardly mobile people from modest homes learn to get decent jobs – or talk of inherited privilege. Let us keep the focus of what comes inside these now better wrapped packages of governance. That is the case each incumbent has to answer periodically to the people. When one sees the caliber of people in media who are now turning cheerleaders, an edge of hysteria is palpable. We are not in the golden age of the Guptas, with apologies to our Editor.
First of all you self claimed liberals realise that Modi supporters are also well educated , brilliant and experts by many miles than you. I am a dual qualified professional with high income salary group. I am no idiot in supporting in Modi. Where as your blind hate for one man , philosophy prevents your senses. unless you come out of this syndrome ,you will always be isolated in india and become extinct
True. But these sick leftists and journos will never accept this truth. Their duty roster comes from 10JP and they have to simply abide by that.
Author’s frustration with people following a mass leader is understandable. Afterall liberals since 2014 are left with eyes to cry, mouths to abuse Modi and hands to write pieces of shit against Hindu Middle class for voting against corrupt elitist arrogant discriminative Congress party. Author should realise that smart voters didn’t suddenly become dumb since 2014. No mutations happened in their genes turning them into a bunch of fools. Yes Modi is a master at creating illusions and optics. But you should understand and acknowledge the good work done by him that appealed to 45 percent of the voters. Jan dhan accounts, Direct money transfer, LPG for women, swachh Bharat toilets, electricity to remote villages etc. All these schemes worked in rural India. Cities are now free of power cuts (Anyone who remembers electricity management during UPA can see the difference), usage of technology in railways has become wide spread, platforms and trains are cleaner, trains run on schedule, airports were constructed in smaller cities, airline network has expanded, mobile services have become cheaper (thanks to Jio), PMAY, Mudra loans, zero civilian deaths in terrorist attacks, Pulwama retribution etc appealed to the urban middle class. He had something to offer for every section of the society except the fact that Muslims are marginalised (thanks to liberals for coining words like Saffron terror, Bhagwa terror etc that often instigate Hindus rather than criticising the government). You are applying the same logic here. Your hatred for Modi is tanspiring into hatred for Indian voters. Labelling voters as infants or bunch of emotional fools is the most foolish thing any liberal analyst can do now. If you have to save your tribe acknowledge the good deeds of Modi and start constructive criticism. You’ll earn some credibility sooner or later.
They are not receiving the perks and benefits they used to enjoy.
The reasons for poor performance of the opposition are to be found in
1. Poor quality and tactics of the opposition itself
2. Preferences of the electorate – they see no alternative, do not trust the current opposition, trust the present ruling dispensation without questioning and like the messaging and messenger currently in power.
3. Properties of the current ruling elite – ability to project an attractive package, current times which suit this message and ability to control sources of information flow.
It has nothing to do with liberal/illiberal. That is the reason why even people like Kejriwal who have tried to co-opt the ruling dispensation’s plank but failed to make a dent beyond their own fiefdoms.
Your prescription of giving up English and switching to Hindi is dangerous and ignorant. No state beyond MP is going to partake of this medicine. Even Gujarat will not be safe if such a concoction is forced down their throats.
Liberalism in the Indian context means trying to take everybody’s interests into account and not trying to divide people to exacerbate their differences. Anything else is not going to last long without severe blowback.
This “Holier than thou” thinking and “we are better” attitude of the sickulars is what makes them hypocrites to so many indians. They call themselves liberal and would be the first to talk about Brahminical patriarchichy, Dalit empowerment, Backward caste empowerment and special privileges to minorities when most people see this as dividing hinduism into castes, looking down or even worse castigating the hindus for following their culture, worshiping anything coming out of the west, praising non-hindu religions essentially being anything but liberal. In the name of removing caste, they will encourage casteism and divide hindus…thats what everyone sees. Whitewashing any bigotry of the minorities while exaggerating and magnifying the same by Hindus, so anyone who looks at these pseudo liberals..because they are not liberals by any stretch of imagination..best example is Mr Kanchi Illaih Shepherd and his cohorts, Barkha Dutt and many other sickos like them. We have had enough of these jokers,
The black British or Liberals in India are supporting the most illiberal of all ideologies & terror of Islamist’s as also proselytizing fraud ridden looting ideologies of Christianity!!
Indian Liberals are actually fascist communists who have been for the last 70 years+ working 24/7 to degrade & kill the splendid Hindu civilization which gave them the decimal to do scientific analysis of the life around them!!
Yet!! these so called liberals bypass science, logic or humanity and pass their time on computers given by the the Hindu Zero writing anti Hindu rhetoric & LIES!!
The Supreme Court advocate probably doesn’t understand the difference between the liberal and the leftist who just doesn’t like Modi. He is probably not liberal either. Else, he wouldn’t spend so much time in the piece fulminating about people banging thalis. It was their choice. They chose it. Modi didn’t force them to do it.
Again; they chose it. That’s the liberal way. To respect choice. And to not judge choices like these.
Perhaps the SC advocate is spending too much time in the company of those who claim to be liberals but want to force their ideas, their wokeness, their standards on everyone else. They are NOT liberals. They are extremists in liberal disguise.
SC should set a standard as to who can practice therein