Modi comes to Sydney, brings a civilisation with him

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 21^st 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?’”

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.

The rise of India goes beyond improving the destiny of 1.2 billions Indians, and is tied to the continuing struggle against tyrannical ideologies. It is thus appropriate that Modi continues to host events such as the Sydney gala, and cultivate his international image. 

WWI Centenary as India comes of Age: Time to Renew the Commonwealth

The centenary of the First World War comes at a time of great generational change, as the millennials and the first digital natives come of age. Coinciding also with the start of the Asian century, this presents a perfect opportunity to rejuvenate the Commonwealth. 

Democratic institutions are threatened around the world. As the free world faces fundamentalist Islam, and a rising authoritarian China and Russia, there is an urgent need to focus on and assert the values of the free world. A great mass of the population of free countries belongs to the Commonwealth of Nations. With Europe in structural decline and the US turning inwards, it is vital that the Commonwealth takes up the fight for democratic and liberal values.

The rise of the British Empire changed the world forever. No other historical force has shaped the modern world to such an extent or touched as many people on such a scale. It is the reason that I, an ethnic Indian am writing this in English, the language I am most familiar with, in Australia, a country I easily assimilated into. 

In what Daniel Hannan has described as 'Anglobalisation', the British Empire and later the Commonwealth has left behind a global community sharing a common language, legal system, academic culture, and to a lesser extent a cultural milieu.  Yet the predominant emotion associated with the British Empire over the last hundred years have been acrimony, resentment and betrayal. This has translated into apathy for the Commonwealth. 

This is not terribly surprising. The last hundred years witnessed the worst excesses of British imperialism. India was rewarded for its loyalty and bravery in World War I not with self-government but with a brutality that dwarfed the worst caricatures of the Kaiser. For sacrificing hundreds of thousands of its sons, the Punjab was rewarded with martial law and the slaughter of Jalianwala Bagh, where hundreds of unarmed men, women and children were enclosed and shot dead in cold blood by an unrepentant General Dyer. To rub salt in Indian wounds, Dyer received little formal reprimand, and was hailed as a hero by sections of British society, with the Morning Post collecting the equivalent of a million pounds to present to him. Britain snubbed Indian demands for dominion status on par with the white realms, ultimately losing the goodwill of its Indian subjects.

In the rest of the Anglosphere, the last hundred years witnessed Britain abandoning its family to cosy up with its neighbours, when it joined the EU and abandoned its trade links with Australia and New Zealand, who could not compete with the generously subsidised agricultural industry of Europe. 

It is therefore not surprising that there is little love for the Commonwealth and the soul of the old British Empire that it embodies. The decolonisation process happened relatively recently, and there are still many who remember life in the shadows of a Union Jack. Singapore and Malaysia only became independent 57 years ago. It is understandable that the views of that generation and those that followed them are shaped by the struggle against a foreign imperial power, often with a racial dimension.

My grandparents lived in a world where the white man literally ruled. My parents grew up in the shadow of colonialism, where the white man no longer ruled, but towered as a superior wealthy caste that ruled in all but name. Theirs was the first generation of the great Indian diaspora, which fought racism to give their children a better future in faraway lands.

Generation Y is really the first to be born unburdened of this history. This generational change coinciding with the centenary of World War I presents a unique opportunity to rejuvenate the Commonwealth. For the first time, all the descendants of the British Empire can genuinely count themselves as beneficiaries of that historical phenomenon which has forced us into a common patrimony. Regardless of the horrors and injustices our ancestors inflicted or suffered, we are today fortunate to be born in the Anglosphere- a loose, informal community of free countries which offers us a gateway into every continent on Earth and almost every major culture.

For the first time, a generation can look back at the remarkable events of the First World War without being influenced by personal experiences of colonialism or its aftermath. We can objectively see the diverse peoples of the Anglosphere coming together to defend an empire that although imperfect, was the genesis of our modern lives.

The focus on Commonwealth contributions to the World War I in Britain this year has dusted off sepia-tinged, forgotten stories from a period of the British Raj, when the Indian Independence movement was still a struggle within, not against the system. A time when there was a degree of respect and good faith between the British rulers and their Indian subjects, who like Gandhi were proud subjects only demanding their right of self-rule. We see photos of letters sent by Queen Mary to her “Indian sisters” who had been widowed by the War, and hear BBC programs of a hospital at the Royal Pavilion in Brighton set up for wounded Indian soldiers, where the British were most careful with dietary requirements (having learnt their lessons from the 1857 mutiny).[1]

India comes of Age

As the western world succumbs to its demographic and fiscal deficit, it is India’s moral duty to carry the torch of the Anglosphere into this century. After a thousand years of subjugation, its time has come. The election of Narendra Modi could prove to be a turning point in Indian and world history. Modi, the first PM to be born in independent India, embodies the optimism and confidence of India’s burgeoning, aspirational youth.

At first sight, the election of a man who shuns English in favour of Hindi and the first PM from outside the anglicised Delhi elite would appear to be bad news for the Anglosphere. However, this would be taking a myopic view. Modi’s Hindu nationalism is necessary to allow India to shrug off its last vestiges of colonial complex and come to its own in the eyes of the world.

While India may have won freedom, it has remained culturally colonised. English trappings such as a convent education and fluency in English are still viewed as social status symbols. The higher up you climb in Indian society, the more anglicised you need to be. This was so ingrained that it showed until recently even in the Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party, where senior leaders such as LK Advani belonged to what author Tavleen Singh has described as the elite world of the ‘Delhi Durbar.’ Modi is the first politician from the grassroots of the real India to shatter the glass ceiling to high office.

India can best contribute to the Anglosphere if she rediscovers her place there as a self-confident nation true to herself and her ancient, diverse and pluralistic Hindu civilisation. India has always been its own civilisation, but it was brought into the modern age by the Raj, and will continue to have a natural affinity to the Anglosphere.

When Modi first entered Parliament as the PM, his first act was replete with accidental symbolism. As he approached the steps of the Central Hall of Parliament, Modi went down on his knees and touched his head to the sacred temple of democracy, in the manner Hindus enter a temple. It was a humble tribute to the voters who put him there and encapsulated a beautiful cross-cultural acknowledgement of universal truths. Here was the personification of Hindutva (Hindu nationalism) paying homage in the most Indian way to Westminster democracy.

That act was symbolic of the exciting potential India has in store if it takes up the torch of righteousness and liberty in the international community.  The most precious values of the Anglosphere are universal in nature. A true statesman like Modi steeped in the Hindu tradition of dharma (righteousness) should quickly find common ground with the Anglosphere and its allies in pursuit of the common values of democracy, religious freedom and liberalism. While liberal values have not been especially prevalent in modern India, they do have deep roots in Indian culture and civilisation, as discussed in Amartya Sen's The Argumentative Indian.

A resurgent, newly confident India can put its unique cultural stamp on the universal values that have been borne by all progressive societies in human history. Perhaps the best way for India to get back at Britain for the Raj would be to remind an ailing Britannia of what Anglosphere values really are, and what she has lost.

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[1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-one/11026562/How-Brighton-Pavilion-became-a-temporary-hospital-for-Indian-soldiers-in-WW1.html