Rightwing Views

BEFORE THE COVID pandemic altered our lives unrecognisably, I used to be a frequent traveller to Europe, both for work and to meet old friends from the days of a misspent youth. The great advantage of these constant interactions was that I was constantly updated on the state of educated Western thinking on a range of subjects. It was, for example, very instructive to gauge the huge gulf between the edu­cated liberals and the more common folk on Brexit. I also found myself in a minuscule minority when confronted by issues such as Black Lives Matter, a movement that seemed to cater to post-colonial, white angst.

Anyway, that Covid (and a steep rise in airfares) disrupted travel overseas for the past three years has proved a blessing in disguise. Already viewed with some curiosity and some wariness for my rightwing views, I would have been excluded from the social gatherings I frequented earlier for my “unacceptable” views on the recent Israel-Palestine conflict. If my views were mildly pro-Israel before this latest bout of conflict, it has become stridently anti-Hamas since that raid across the Gaza Strip and the taking of hostages. This conflicts sharply with the “river to the sea”, pro-Palestine stridency that appears to have become a part of Europe’s left-liberal thinking.

However, the real clash would have occurred on India. My attachment to BJP was known among my circle of friends and often viewed with a mixture of distaste and curiosity—after all, most of these people had never encountered a Hindu nationalist before. However, during the Manmohan Singh years, all this was seen as a bit of an oddity. Informed Western wisdom deemed that BJP was unlikely to ever come to power since it was a party of the upper castes and urban and semi-urban traders. I recall sitting with the late Patrick French at an agreeable café in central London shortly before the 2014 election and telling him that Narendra Modi’s appeal among the backward castes was considerable.

Whatever his personal feelings on the subject, Patrick was always very open-minded and was never averse to engaging with the saffron camp. Others were less inclined, but many kept their wariness in check because they felt that the Modi government was a passing show. After the electoral reverses in Bihar and Delhi in 2016 and the award-wapsi shenanigans of the notables, there was even a belief that the Modi government could collapse before 2019. These beliefs were invariably fuelled by the tribe of desi liberals who always enjoyed a privileged position on Western campuses. They were regarded as the gatekeepers of India and their understanding of India shaped the views of the India hands. I think their growing irrelevance from decision-making and their detachment from mainstream Indian thought was not sufficiently understood in the West.

After the temple in Ayodhya and the huge explosion of Hindu pride across the globe, the pendulum has swung to the other extreme. There is now a perception among India experts in the West that the country is in the throes of a full-scale totalitarian experience. Some call it fascism, while others are more restrained, equating Modi with Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, another leader whose nationalism enjoys popular endorsement.

It is ironic that many of the academics who are most forthright in their attacks on the present regime in India have their departments bankrolled by endowments controlled by Indian business houses. The US-based Indian academic Rajiv Malhotra has been trying to pressure Indian industry to donate with their eyes open and shun financing projects that are often extremely offensive to Indian cultural and political sensitivities. In particular, he has alerted India’s policymakers to the potential dangers posed by the woke ideologues. So far, there has been no sustained pressure on Western universities to keep Indian and Hindu sensitivities in mind and at least not be seen to be encouraging the far-left and woke fringe. However, I believe that the Modi government, if it secures a third term, should flex its muscles, and not be deterred by spurious assertions of academic independence. Funding bodies, especially those who like the idea of a centre named after their promoters in an Ivy League institution, should be nudged into telling university administrations that Indians too have self-respect and national pride. I don’t mean we should emulate the Chinese funding bodies in our conduct. We should merely learn from China that academic independence in the West is eminently negotiable.

As for the foreign media that is still waging its campaign to expose and un­seat Modi, the attitude should continue to be one of benign neglect.

About The Author

Swapan Dasgupta

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