Christopher Caldwell in Claremont Review of Books on Modi and the BJP.
“Modi wins big because Indians see him as the embodiment of a different idea of India, a majoritarian one that, necessarily or not, was suppressed in the 20th century.”
“Modi wins big because Indians see him as the embodiment of a different idea of India, a majoritarian one that, necessarily or not, was suppressed in the 20th century.”
Yes. On the stupidity of bracketing Modi with Trump/Western populism.txt:
“Western populist leaders are all, in one way or another, trying to stem the decadence of their once-great countries. Modi’s India has plenty of problems, but decadence isn’t one of them.”
“Western populist leaders are all, in one way or another, trying to stem the decadence of their once-great countries. Modi’s India has plenty of problems, but decadence isn’t one of them.”
India’s 1949 Constitution, the first great modern affirmative action constitution before America’s 1960s ‘Second Constitution,’ to coin a phrase...
“Hindus who were neither tribal nor religious minorities and belonged to one of the middling [i.e. unprotected] castes felt like white heterosexual males in the 21st century United States—the constitution was a bag filled with goodies for everyone but them.”
The Indian Sailer Strategy—the ‘non-diverse’ majority finally wakes up to its majority status:
“And there was a potential danger: should the Hindu majority ever begin behaving like a patronage-seeking vote bank, as it had incentives to do, then the whole system might erupt.”
“And there was a potential danger: should the Hindu majority ever begin behaving like a patronage-seeking vote bank, as it had incentives to do, then the whole system might erupt.”
Stupidity of our travel ban on Modi after 2002 riots; also, the press bigged up Modi after 2002 as the hammer of Islam...which just made a lot of Hindu Joe Sixpacks say ‘Well, that’s the guy for me, then.’
Something many surface-level Western takes on Modi miss (as with Erdogan, before he tanked the lira)—it’s not all culture war bluster: he puts chickens in pots and fills the potholes (and builds the toilets.)
India’s digital and administrative reforms have fixed their once-slothful elections, so that votes are counted in “hours” not “days.”
“In this sense, India is a Third World country no more.”
Imagine that...
“In this sense, India is a Third World country no more.”
Imagine that...
“In the United States, bachelorhood is a reason to worry that a politician is a weirdo...[in a country like India] Modi’s bachelorhood argues for his incorruptibility.”
Great on BJP as chair through the window of a very self-satisfied Congress and broader Anglophone cultural elite who’d come to regard Indian democracy as their personal fief, and indeed their guarantor of life-long employment.
“When progressive change is about protecting minorities from majorities, it can become not just undemocratic but anti-democratic.”
The author of ‘The Age of Entitlement’ is, ofc, not just talking about India here lol
The author of ‘The Age of Entitlement’ is, ofc, not just talking about India here lol
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