TOPIC OF THE DAY –
“Time, modernity and the BJP ” –
Sociologists have often commented that outsiders have a more clear-sighted view of everydayness than us. Recently, I was ranting against the communalism of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) when a European friend of mine, a philosopher, observed that the categories of left and right were grosslyoverdrawn in India. They emphasised a world of deep dualisms, or even a richness of traditional thought, that does not exist in India. India, he said, cannot claim a Gramsci or a Rosa Luxemburg. Worse, our rightist parties have no sense of the creative traditions of conservatism. An Indian Edmund Burke is unthinkable. Beyond its corrosive communalism, the BJP has no idea of the right as a systematic ideology. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s idea of capitalism is adequate. Mohandas Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore were more creative nationalists than Veer Savarkar or K.B. Hedgewar.
My friend noted that Indian parties were more vehicles for modernity, and it is as exponents of modernity that they make sense. One has to explore how these parties use time, history, linearity as modernising forces. It is as vehicles of modernity that parties come to power.
“Surrogate modernizer” –
When the Congress lost its modernising impetus, the BJP became the surrogate moderniser. It is in terms of its claims to modernity that the BJP has to be assessed. The BJP’s attitude to time has always intrigued me. So far, it has been dealt with eclectically. If the left saw economics as a classic force, history was always the collective impetus for the BJP. Its obsession with history confuses myth and the rationality of logos. At one level, it contemporarises the ancients by creating equivalences to current achievements in ancient times. The examples range from test-tube babies and plastic surgery to biotechnology. India is seen as one fluid continuity from the Vedic Age to now. While ancient history is rendered current, it rewrites the history of the last 500 years, unable to accept defeat. It desperately wants Maharana Pratap to win the Battle of Haldighati, and it insists Ram was a historical figure. It is perpetually encouraging people to rectify history at every stage, where even murder becomes an act of rectification, for instance of Mohammad Akhlaq in Dadri in 2015 or Afrazul Khan in Rajsamand in 2017.
Often the BJP’s use of time is more strategic and complex. It fetishes 2019, which it sees as the end of Congress history and the beginning of Ram Rajya. Everything focusses on 2019, and BJP president Amit Shah is the time-keeper, the impresario of 2019 as the beginning of a Congress Mukt Bharat. This is not just an electoral strategy. The BJP genuinely believes that a millennialmoment it has prophesied is coming.
WORDS AND MEANINGS –
1) Ranting
Meaning: Speak or shout at length in an angry, impassioned way.
Example: “She was still ranting on about the unfairness of it all”
Synonyms: Fulminate, Pontificate
2) Overdrawn
Meaning: Exaggerate in describing or depicting (someone or something).
Example: “Some of the characters were overdrawn”
3) Emphasised
Meaning: Give special importance or value to (something) in speaking or writing.
Example: “They emphasize the need for daily, one-to-one contact between parent and child”
Synonyms: Highlight, Spotlight
Antonyms: Understate, Play down
4) Conservatism
Meaning: Commitment to traditional values and ideas with opposition to change or innovation.
Example: “Proponents of theological conservatism”
5) Ideology
Meaning: A system of ideas and ideals, especially one which forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy.
Example: “The ideology of republicanism”
Synonyms: Doctrine, Creed
6) Exponents
Meaning: A person who supports an idea or theory and tries to persuade people of its truth or benefits.
Example: “An early exponent of the teachings of Thomas Aquinas”
Synonyms: Advocate, Supporter
Antonyms: Critic, Opponent
7) Impetus
Meaning: Something that makes a process or activity happen or happen more quickly.
Example: “The ending of the Cold War gave new impetus to idealism”
Synonyms: Motivation, Stimulus
8) Surrogate
Meaning: A substitute, especially a person deputizing for another in a specific role or office.
Example: “Wives of MPs are looked on as surrogates for their husbands while the latter are at Westminster”
Synonyms: Substitute, Proxy
9) Intrigued
Meaning: Arouse the curiosity or interest of; fascinate.
Example: “I was intrigued by your question”
Synonyms: Interest, Fascinate
Antonyms: Bore
10) Dealt
Meaning: Take measures concerning (someone or something), especially with the intention of putting something right.
Example: “The government had been unable to deal with the economic crisis”
Synonyms: Handle, Manage
11) Myth
Meaning: An exaggerated or idealized conception of a person or thing.
Example: “The book is a scholarly study of the Churchill myth”
Synonyms: Misconception, Fallacy
12) Rendered
Meaning: Provide or give (a service, help, etc.).
Example: “Money serves as a reward for services rendered”
Synonyms: Give, Provide
13) Desperately
Meaning: Used to emphasize the extreme degree of something.
Example: “He desperately needed a drink”
Synonyms: Seriously, Gravely
Antonyms: Slightly
14) Perpetually
Meaning: In a way that never ends or changes; constantly.
Example: “Perpetually hungry teenage boys”
15) Fetishes
Meaning: An activity or object that you are so interested in that you spend an unreasonable amount of time thinking about it or doing it.
Example: “She makes a fetish of organization – it’s quite obsessive”
16) Impresario
Meaning: A person who arranges different types of public entertainment, such as theatre, musical, and dance events.
Example: “London’s leading theatrical impresario”
17) Millennial
Meaning: Denoting people reaching young adulthood in the early 21st century.
Example: “Most social networking groups are dominated by the millennial generation”
18) Prophesied
Meaning: Say that (a specified thing) will happen in the future.
Example: “Jacques was prophesying a bumper harvest”
Synonyms: Predict, Foretell
