The modified Modi

Modi challenges Muslims to forget the riots and join the middle-class bandwa- gon… abandon ethnic identities for the republic of consumption.

Narendra Modi is not just a political fact, he is one of India’s most interesting political fables. He is a man who created his own style of politics by divorcing himself from politics. This statement might sound contradictory but it needs to be understood to understand the current success of Modi.

Modi is a political brand and the making of brand Modi is sociologically interesting. A politician to show he is a politician has to show that he is embedded in a culture. Modi, thus, had to display his roots in the RSS. He was a pracharak, a defiant organiser during the Emergency. He came to power as a BJP supremo, using communalism to create a wave of victories. But the genius of Modi lay in realising that this was not enough. Roots gave an authenticity to his image, the right kind of desi flavour, but roots have to be reworked for a new era. Modi’s roots had to be invoked to make him the man he was now. The brilliance of Modi lies in the fact that he has been redesigned as a politician. And the success of the redesign lies in the fact that the more
fabricated he is,
the more authentic he looks.
Modi and his PROs remade three things and wove them into an impressive weave. First, blood-thirsty communalism was now seen as out of date. Riots make a politician look downwardly mobile; they create a stigma which is hard to erase. What one needs is not violence but symbolic violence, a sense of threat which says that I have the power but need not use it. Paradoxically, Modi realised that to be a
successful politician he had to distance himself from his RSS and communal roots. He had to preserve the flavour but alter the contents. Modi’s politics demanded that he distance himself from BJP politics. From a swadesi pracharak arose the phoenix of Modi, the moderniser.
Modi realised that modernisation is a lot about images and one has to look user-friendly. A modernist cannot look anti-Muslim. He cannot look like an RSS ideologue that belongs to Madame Tussauds. He needs to be contemporary. Modi quietly abandoned his white khadi blandness and adopted colour. He presents himself in ethnic dresses which are colourful but evoke ceremonial power. His shawls would please a socialite diva. His choice of colour is immaculate. He modifies his language to speak World Bank dialects, realising clearly that modernity is a costume ball.
Modi is shrewd enough to realise that image can now rework the political. He now speaks the language of development and progress and claims that citizenship is an acceptance of the logic of development. He is clear that minorities, ethnics and marginal can no longer hide in old ways and identities. He challenges the Muslims to forget the riots and join the middle-class bandwagon, abandon the ghetto and join the new Gujarati middle class. He invites them to abandon ethnic identities and join the new republic of consumption. He is also shrewd enough to realise that consumption, development and progress are all modes of forgetting. He asks that people
forget his past to
accept the future he is offering.
To the new identity politics, he adds a vision of Gujarat that he has appropriated. Gujarat has always been a progressive state with a high rate of urbanisation. Modi takes the success of Gujarat and patents it. He appropriates a collective achievement and claims that he is Mr Development. Corporations happy with his concessions are happy to humour him. Ratan Tata claims him and the Ambanis, Adanis, the Aziz Premjis are quick to follow. They realise that land and other resources are for sale. Even the coastline is now getting privatised. They encourage Modi to talk about climate change and Davos. It is a cosy conspiracy that benefits both. It is a delightful reciprocity which other politicians envy.
The brilliance of the move has not been grasped fully. It is the politicians who are in panic. The Congress does not know how to attack Modi. Any attack will cost it the Hindu vote. Yet, Modi is also the moderniser. He has stolen the Congress ID kit.
The BJP also realises that it has been outplayed. Here is a man who is larger than the BJP, and is claiming that he is the BJP. For a party that has almost become regional, this man is attractive. Yet, his contempt for the BJP old guard is obvious. Old politicians relying on old-caste logic summon neither votes nor nostalgia. Modi represents a lethal vital combination of youth, middle class, diaspora, development, urban India and the global Indian.
People suddenly felt that he represents their desires and that he embodies them. Reality and image fuse skilfully in his politics. Modi realises that nothing succeeds like the image of success. Gujarat feels proud that they have a national and nationalist icon in the making. Modi has the entire system working for him. He does not have to do anything. He just has to be and he becomes front-page news. Modi understands populist gloss. He realises that an Amitabh
campaigning for Gujarat is, in a way, Amitabh campaigning for Modi’s chief ministership.
Indians have seen in him something more general. He has harnessed their anxieties, tapped into their fears, fantasies and desires and created a new image of strength. He is
Mr Security, Mr Development and now India’s answer to China. In erasing history and especially the history of violence, communalism, of everyday threats to marginality, Modi has created the fiction of a common future. It will be sad if India confuses it for the reality on the ground. Democracy has to return to complexity and diversity to destroy the simplistic fallacies of Modi. This, however, demands a return to the political and it will not be easy. Images, as Modi realises, are so convenient and soothing. It matters little if they destroy the future
polity.

The writer is a social science nomad

Comments

So r u suggesting Raul Vinci

So r u suggesting Raul Vinci s d man! or r u saying I dn knw what n who is right so I dn hv any answers but since m leftist, anti establishment, anarchy loving, pro tribal, rebel, secular n intellectual n cz of my personal hatred for modi I jus knw what n who is wrong for sure

Best article about Modi so

Best article about Modi so far.... fantastic Structuring, flow and content rich. You seriously deserves something more than just appreciation.

It is good that you have

It is good that you have accepted Narendra Modi grudgingly. It is not Modi changed, but you have changed! Modi has not forgotten his root, only recently he visited Nagpur and met RSS bigwigs!

This article is a whole lot

This article is a whole lot of crap. The author either doesn't know the ground realities or is feigning ignorance. He seems to be a Modi baiter who is just disilluioned that people have seen through the lies peddled by Gujarat congress. Gujarat under Modiji well & truy progressive. If you still need an eye opener just compare it with neighbouring Maharastra. Having an enterprising population & abundant resources is one thing but channelling it in the right direction is an altogether different ball game.

What a hate column.. Indian

What a hate column.. Indian intellectuals are full of venom for anything which even remotely appear to connected to hindu philosophy or RSS. A writer must be honest and objective but nowadays so called intellectuals writes only hateful opinions. huh.....

While at one side Narendra

While at one side Narendra Modi did not appoint LOKAYUKTA in Gujarat for 7 years, the other side they opposed the governor who used her special powers in appointing the LOKAYUKTA for the sack of 6 crore gujaraties. Bjp could not digest this legal moves by governor and run a campaign across the state against the governor. Even the national leaders of bjp stalled the house for 3 days. The most shameful and anti democracy move came by bjp when senior leader ARUN Jetaly said 'the high court of Gujarat is doubtful'after Gujarat high court supported governors decision to appoint the LOKAYUKTA.

Bjp is surly a biggest threat

Bjp is surly a biggest threat to Indian democracy and our parliamentary systems. If we take a look at actions of state bjp in recent past, it proves what I am stating.

Summary of the rant: do

Summary of the rant: do nothing and only harp about the past. Excellent, now I know why India has now progressed in spite of nearly 70 years of independence...

an intriguing understanding

an intriguing understanding of a juggernaut, Narendrabhai damodardas Modi, from a fearful old-guard of reliogiocaste-centric politico-journalistic strata of society running for cover. Enjoyed the humour. jai Hind NaMo.

One more pseudo-sec but not

One more pseudo-sec but not able to ignore Modi!!
Roji-roti ke liye kuch to likhna padega.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/206072" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: &lt;a&gt; &lt;em&gt; &lt;strong&gt; &lt;cite&gt; &lt;code&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;ol&gt; &lt;li&gt; &lt;dl&gt; &lt;dt&gt; &lt;dd&gt;</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-d476fb2367b90217c3c888e504f35898" value="form-d476fb2367b90217c3c888e504f35898" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="80064360" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

No Articles Found

I want to begin with a little story that was told to me by a leading executive at Aptech. He was exercising in a gym with a lot of younger people.

Shekhar Kapur’s Bandit Queen didn’t make the cut. Neither did Shaji Karun’s Piravi, which bagged 31 international awards.