Where did you hear this from? Even Muslim strongholds like West Bengal turned to Modi in this latest election. I'd advise you to look into the facts before making really vague predictions of doom...
Modi has emboldened Hindu nationalists to wreak violence on its minoroty Muslim population.
Where did you hear this from?
Even Muslim strongholds like West Bengal turned to Modi in this latest election. I'd advise you to look into the facts before making really vague predictions of doom without any evidence.
I took a look at his political leanings, affiliations, and opinions, and honestly OP doesnt sound too far off. Would you be willing to elaborate on the distinctions between the two, ideologically...
I took a look at his political leanings, affiliations, and opinions, and honestly OP doesnt sound too far off. Would you be willing to elaborate on the distinctions between the two, ideologically speaking?
Alright. Keep in mind that I'm a non-residential Indian. Though India has a parliamentary system, there are really only two big "Alliances" - the NDA and the UPA. The NDA is led by the BJP, which...
Alright. Keep in mind that I'm a non-residential Indian.
Though India has a parliamentary system, there are really only two big "Alliances" - the NDA and the UPA. The NDA is led by the BJP, which is Modi's party, while the UPA is lead by the Indian National Congress (aka "Congress" or the INC). The INC has become the party of the Gandhis (no relation to Mahatma). The reason Congress got pounced this election is for a few reasons:
Minority appeasement. I really don't want to get into this one.
Lack of experience. Rahul Gandhi is the leader of the INC for no reason other than nepotism. He is not an effective statesman and his demeanor is clownish.
INC keeps proposing really dumb handouts. In the week right before the election, Rahul Gandhi proposed a new scheme called NYAA, which is basically universal basic income. India does not have the money for that. The electorate knows that India does not have the money for that.
Modi is strong on national defense. The number of terror attacks and casualties from such attacks from 2014 - 2019 is much lower than what it was from 2009 - 2014.
The economy under Modi has been strong. People will point to demonetization being a failure but this is, again, a really complicated topic. The stock market just hit an all time high.
I'll post more during my lunch break but you're welcome to ask any specific questions if you have them.
Sorry, I should have made it more clear: I was asking for the ideological distinctions between Trump and Modi, rather than the reasons the INC lost the election.
Sorry, I should have made it more clear: I was asking for the ideological distinctions between Trump and Modi, rather than the reasons the INC lost the election.
That's a fair point. He is however a hindu nationalist, which from an outsider's perspective isn't really any better; a religious person pushing their religious agenda is the same the world over...
Modi isn't a white supremacist, for one
That's a fair point. He is however a hindu nationalist, which from an outsider's perspective isn't really any better; a religious person pushing their religious agenda is the same the world over to a secular person.
Religious/secular distinctions make a lot less sense in a syncretic/polytheistic tradition like Hinduism than they do in Abrahamic ones. Our ideas about the roles of religion in public life are...
Religious/secular distinctions make a lot less sense in a syncretic/polytheistic tradition like Hinduism than they do in Abrahamic ones. Our ideas about the roles of religion in public life are based on the European enlightenment and the particular conflicts around the Protestant Reformation. They present very awkward fits outside of “Christendom.” And the further away you get from Catholic/Protestant religious traditions the less and less they make sense.
That said, the Hindutva guys are trying their damndest to create a form of Hinduism that takes a bunch of cues from the aggressively evangelical charismatic churches. This is in part due to ethno-nationalism and anti-Islamism, but it’s also because rural India has tons of American evangelicals running around teaching people that this is what religion is about.
Even most Hindus aren’t actively engaged in “Hinduism” as any concept beyond their own family or folk traditions. But once evangelicals show up and start turning religious identification into a locus for political organization it starts spreading fast. Religious expansionism is a meme in the evolutionary biology sense of the word, it’s like a cultural/sociological mind virus.
Once that idea that “we are this and you are that and never the twain shall meet” takes hold then people stop relating to each other as people and break down into tribes. Hindutva is a natural outgrowth of this tendency. It’s a peculiar combination of ur-fascism (see: Umberto Eco) blended with legitimate anti-colonialism.
I'm just going to wipe this whole chain out so that people stop trying to continue the argument. Most of it's fine, but the user is banned now (they started sliding into outright bigotry very...
I'm just going to wipe this whole chain out so that people stop trying to continue the argument. Most of it's fine, but the user is banned now (they started sliding into outright bigotry very quickly). There's no need to keep it going.
Better in most respects honestly. Unlike Trump he's a competent administrator who is actually concerned with addressing problems. It's actually hard to think of who to analogize him to in American...
Modi is essentially an Indian version of Trump.
Better in most respects honestly. Unlike Trump he's a competent administrator who is actually concerned with addressing problems. It's actually hard to think of who to analogize him to in American politics because most of our right-wingers, in addition to being racists, are also lunatics who are indifferent to facts, spiteful towards the poor, and contemptuous of the environment.
Modi is none of those things. Chauvanism aside, the closest analogy would be to think of him like a right wing populist version of Barack Obama. He's an ethno-nationalist for sure, but he has also been a pretty aggressive reformer and political organizer.
Edit: Submitted too soon. I meant to add that most of his political successes are largely due to the complete incompetence of the main opposition party. It's absolutely moribund and it's only proposals are to try and buy votes with patronage. That works in a post-independence India where political organization was all through community leaders and everyone accepted being heinously corrupt and inefficient as just how things work. But everyone has a TV now, parties need to be more ideological to get voters and the INC is too full of old fogies who don't understand how to organize a party in a new age. The problem is, they're just big enough to keep a more useful and effective opposition from coming into power.
Where did you hear this from?
Even Muslim strongholds like West Bengal turned to Modi in this latest election. I'd advise you to look into the facts before making really vague predictions of doom without any evidence.
I took a look at his political leanings, affiliations, and opinions, and honestly OP doesnt sound too far off. Would you be willing to elaborate on the distinctions between the two, ideologically speaking?
Alright. Keep in mind that I'm a non-residential Indian.
Though India has a parliamentary system, there are really only two big "Alliances" - the NDA and the UPA. The NDA is led by the BJP, which is Modi's party, while the UPA is lead by the Indian National Congress (aka "Congress" or the INC). The INC has become the party of the Gandhis (no relation to Mahatma). The reason Congress got pounced this election is for a few reasons:
I'll post more during my lunch break but you're welcome to ask any specific questions if you have them.
Sorry, I should have made it more clear: I was asking for the ideological distinctions between Trump and Modi, rather than the reasons the INC lost the election.
Modi isn't a white supremacist, for one.
He's also not a dotard.
That's a fair point. He is however a hindu nationalist, which from an outsider's perspective isn't really any better; a religious person pushing their religious agenda is the same the world over to a secular person.
Religious/secular distinctions make a lot less sense in a syncretic/polytheistic tradition like Hinduism than they do in Abrahamic ones. Our ideas about the roles of religion in public life are based on the European enlightenment and the particular conflicts around the Protestant Reformation. They present very awkward fits outside of “Christendom.” And the further away you get from Catholic/Protestant religious traditions the less and less they make sense.
That said, the Hindutva guys are trying their damndest to create a form of Hinduism that takes a bunch of cues from the aggressively evangelical charismatic churches. This is in part due to ethno-nationalism and anti-Islamism, but it’s also because rural India has tons of American evangelicals running around teaching people that this is what religion is about.
Even most Hindus aren’t actively engaged in “Hinduism” as any concept beyond their own family or folk traditions. But once evangelicals show up and start turning religious identification into a locus for political organization it starts spreading fast. Religious expansionism is a meme in the evolutionary biology sense of the word, it’s like a cultural/sociological mind virus.
Once that idea that “we are this and you are that and never the twain shall meet” takes hold then people stop relating to each other as people and break down into tribes. Hindutva is a natural outgrowth of this tendency. It’s a peculiar combination of ur-fascism (see: Umberto Eco) blended with legitimate anti-colonialism.
Thanks for the explanation! I learned something today!
I'm just going to wipe this whole chain out so that people stop trying to continue the argument. Most of it's fine, but the user is banned now (they started sliding into outright bigotry very quickly). There's no need to keep it going.
Stopping people from calling out bigots, Deimos? For shame.
No I'm just playing, good call. Didn't mean to trigger them; that part's on me I guess.
Better in most respects honestly. Unlike Trump he's a competent administrator who is actually concerned with addressing problems. It's actually hard to think of who to analogize him to in American politics because most of our right-wingers, in addition to being racists, are also lunatics who are indifferent to facts, spiteful towards the poor, and contemptuous of the environment.
Modi is none of those things. Chauvanism aside, the closest analogy would be to think of him like a right wing populist version of Barack Obama. He's an ethno-nationalist for sure, but he has also been a pretty aggressive reformer and political organizer.
Edit: Submitted too soon. I meant to add that most of his political successes are largely due to the complete incompetence of the main opposition party. It's absolutely moribund and it's only proposals are to try and buy votes with patronage. That works in a post-independence India where political organization was all through community leaders and everyone accepted being heinously corrupt and inefficient as just how things work. But everyone has a TV now, parties need to be more ideological to get voters and the INC is too full of old fogies who don't understand how to organize a party in a new age. The problem is, they're just big enough to keep a more useful and effective opposition from coming into power.