Sydney and its Indian community were treated to a
masterful display of oratory yesterday by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi,
who delivered an electrifying speech in Hindi to Australian members of the
Indian diaspora.
His mesmerising Sydney performance was an
emphatic celebration of brand Modi and of a positive patriotism not seen in the
West in many decades. The stadium was reportedly at full capacity of 16,000,
with a several thousand more following the event on giant screens outside the
venue. Particularly noteworthy was a strong, visible and enthusiastic Muslim
contingent in the crowd dressed in traditional attire carrying a large Indian
flag, mocking the leftist myth of Modi being a divisive Hindu fascist.
Hot on the heels of his successful New York tour
where he delivered a similar performance, Modi seems to have innovated a novel
and somewhat mystifying brand of diaspora politics. It is not easy to see how
endearing himself to overseas Indian crowds who cannot vote serves his
political self-interest. Yet it is consistent with the unique interpretation
that Modi seems to have brought to the Indian Prime Ministership. Unlike other PMs
who are mere heads of the government of the Republic of India, Modi appears to
see himself as a leader of Indian Civilisation itself. It explains why he
spends hours courting the ‘children of Mother India’ in faraway places who will
never be able to vote for his party. These performances are closely followed by
the Indian media and help present Modi as a leader bringing Greater India back to its
rightful place in the world order. The diaspora helps to set the global context
of his vision as well as highlight India’s global soft power.
It is a mark of the oratorical skills of Modi that
he succeeds in rousing and inspiring foreign Indians’ patriotism and makes them
feel part of the story of the rise of modern India. Most of the young people in
the Allphones Arena are unlikely to ever return to live in India, yet listened
with rapt attention to Modi explaining his policies and plans to improve their
ancestral homeland. They would have left with a strong sense of connection to
India and Modi. He noted, “these days it takes an overnight flight to reach
Australia from India, yet it took an Indian Prime Minister 28 years”, before declaring
“my countrymen living here have the same right (to me) as Indians in India”.
Despite playing up the audience's ties to
India, Modi also strongly emphasised the importance of their loyalty to their adopted
country. Reflecting the integrated world of the 21st century, he emphatically
stated that according to Indian philosophy, it is their biggest duty to be
devoted to serving their adopted countries, their karmabhumi (land of their karma
or efforts). Recounting the contribution of prominent Indo-Australians in ‘brightening
Australia’s name’, he praised such achievement as the strength of the Indian
diaspora.
Never before has the Indian diaspora had an
Indian Prime Minister who understood their unique position so perfectly –
loyalty and gratitude to their new country mixed with an emotional and cultural
attachment to their native country. He won the night when he articulated that
feeling:
“I know that in the recent Indian election you did not have a vote, yet you followed every second of it, staying up the night before the results were out… I know that for the global Indian your interest was not in the politics but stemmed from an anguish, a fire burning in your heart that “when will my country become like the country I’m living in?’”
“I know that in the recent Indian election you did not have a vote, yet you followed every second of it, staying up the night before the results were out… I know that for the global Indian your interest was not in the politics but stemmed from an anguish, a fire burning in your heart that “when will my country become like the country I’m living in?’”
The secret to Modi’s almost universal appeal is in
the way he has managed to internalise the past, present and future of Indian
civilisation and is able to personify the culture, heritage, frustrations,
dreams and aspirations of an entire civilisation of 1.2 billion people.
Modi brings an unapologetic Hindu nationalism,
but in an appropriate, unifying dose. Just like the West undeniably has a
Christian heritage, India’s heritage is Hindu. Neither heritage needs to
alienate members that have left the religion, yet their cultural references uniquely
express the civilisation’s identity. Thus Modi invokes the patriot saint Swami
Vivekananda, who sought to galvanise an enslaved India to awaken to its
heritage, quoting his patriotic calls: “I have faith in Swami Vivekanada’s dream of seeing my Mother India
once again reigning as the world’s guru, leading the world in fulfilling its
aspirations.”
Modi is gifted in mixing grand civilizational
ambition with the small practical problems that still plague tens of millions
of Indians. In his speech, he deftly translated partriotism to community
service in one sentence, saying, “The meaning of ‘Hail Mother India’ is in
uplifting the millions of Indians still living in abject poverty, without clean
water, electricity and even toilets. Some people have big ambitions, but I want
to achieve small things for small people and help them become big people.” He
then talked about his efforts to improve government efficiency and getting rid
of unnecessary red tape, as well as his signature if unusual national campaign
to clean up India, which saw him sweeping a street with a broom.
From the armchair Hindu nationalist living in the
West, to the struggling urban Indian middle classes, to the utterly impoverished
and downtrodden, Modi is able to reflect the aspirations and frustrations of
every strata of his broad constituency.
For a country that knew nothing other than an
asphyxiating socialist economy until the early 90s, Modi brought a refreshing
dose of libertarian doctrine in his speech. Turning the third world
electioneering rulebook on its head he declared, “Governments cannot and should
not try to build nations. People build nations. Governments should only do so
much and step aside. Unlike other politicians who boast of making laws, I enjoy
revoking laws. Governments have created such a burden, it feels suffocating.
Open the windows, let the people live! The nation will progress due to the
people, not because of governments. This is my philosophy.”
It is also emblematic that almost all of Modi’s
speeches are delivered in Hindi. Modi makes much of the fact that he is the
first PM to be born in an independent India. In Sydney, he repeated the
poignant line from his first speech in Parliament, “We did not have the honour
of dying for our nation, but we do have the opportunity to live for our
nation!” He is the first PM who does not belong to the anglicised Delhi elite
that ruled India after the end of the Raj. He rose from the grassroots,
starting life as a humble tea seller and has a special connection to the masses
which previous PMs lacked. He symbolises the end of India’s cultural cringe,
and its emergence as a self-confident nation speaking its own language.
As the euphoria of Sydney’s Modi mania wears off,
we are left hoping that Modi can succeed in converting his inspirational
rhetoric into real development. With the West still grappling with the rise of
an authoritarian China, and struggling to contain a newly assertive Russia, the
free world needs a strong India to fly the flag of democracy. A strong
prosperous India will show the rest of the developing world that that
democracy, economic prosperity and human rights need not be mutually exclusive.
