tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32214346.post6676514720511362341..comments2023-09-04T04:48:43.806-07:00Comments on Right Angle: How the BJP lost the central plot (October 25, 2009)Swapan Dasguptahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01862272792815377402noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32214346.post-3713329628260204682009-10-27T03:09:26.130-07:002009-10-27T03:09:26.130-07:00In “How the BJP lost the central plot”, I agree w...In “How the BJP lost the central plot”, I agree with you fully, Maharashtra and indeed many parts of India are areas of what you describe as “Hindu complacency”. And I also concur with Ashis Nandy that what the BJP offers are relatively more sensible-clear cut solutions prevalent in European traditions, whereas Indians are used to living, in his words on “ill-defined, half-baked ideas”. Also as Sudhir Kakar says, the Indian understanding of reality is “relatively tenuous’’, and Indians “do not explore reality rather they are defined by it”. All these would point to the fact, that many parts of India are not interested in the sort of transformational , centre-right leadership & governance Modi champions in the economic sphere. Further evidence of BJP’s prudent centre-right (economic) vision being somewhat at odds with majority India, was demonstrated in poll 2004,2009 and Maharashtra. <br /><br /> <br /><br />Another small but revealing example is music. Whilst most of classical Indian music is single melody based, the idea of triumph is never expressed in the Indian classical tradition. Whereas in the western classical form, apart from having the added dimension of polyphony, harmony and sometimes counterpoint, all of which make music richer & varied, often has the idea of triumph. This to me suggests the west believed that the world is redeemable and they could fashion it to better their lives. In degenerate or distorted Hindu philosophy, the world appears a zero sum game or irredeemable. In other words, in the distorted Hindu view, the external world could not be fashioned better to improve one’s quality of life, rather one had to be defined by the co-ordinates of the existing world, which is in keeping with Congress status quoist and statist postions.<br /><br /> <br /><br />Further if you look at preferences in newspapers, whilst the New York Times and Post in the US, are gravitas and are considered good papers with substantial readership, in India, a gravitas paper will not generally have wide-spread readership. TOI is not much of a gravitas paper, but it outsells most of its competition, I would argue that it is so, precisely because its non-gravitas. So the point is, what judgment based on rigor and good sense would lead to excellence in the west, is somewhat contrary here, keeping with the distorted Hindu idea of haziness, ill-defined ideas etc. The Indian private sector whcih deals with the business world excels becasue they have global benchmarks , are connected with the global world and the business world demands excellence. This is not necessarily the case with the Indian end consumer.RSnoreply@blogger.com