The Gujarat election results were announced
on a very appropriate day: the day after Winter Solstice, the beginning of the
movement of the Sun towards the north. Uttarayanam is auspicious, a time of
new beginnings; this is the time for which the aged Bhishma waited, in excruciating
pain on the sara-sayya, bed of arrows. If we are lucky, we will be seeing a
new beginning in the Indian political scenario as well.
John Kennedy said famously in the-Cold-War-era
besieged Berlin after the Wall was built: Ich bin ein Berliner. He meant to
say, "I am, metaphorically, one of you Berliners, and I stand by you".
Today, the Gujarati feels besieged by an unrelenting barrage of negative propaganda
that portrays them all, collectively and individually, as monsters. All decent
people must stand by Gujaratis, because unprincipled rogues are attacking them
willy-nilly.
This demonisation is a major reason why Gujaratis
turned out in droves to elect Modi; the second reason is the UPA's obvious antipathy
towards Hindus, which is coming back to haunt them.
The demonisation has reached epidemic proportions.
For instance, when there were bomb blasts in trains in Mumbai in July 2006,
a prominent media maven wrote in Newsweek magazine something that in effect
said, 'the target of the bombs was rich Gujaratis, and so it's revenge for the
Gujarat riots.' The matter-of-fact tone suggested that the author believed this
was acceptable, poetic justice. Killing innocent Gujaratis is just fine and
dandy, the man implied.
In fact, he was very wrong. Gujaratis are not
bloodthirsty maniacs single-mindedly going out there to kill innocent Mohammedans
for sport -- as in the fantasy version (created by the media) of the Godhra
torching of the Sabarmati Express and the subsequent riots. The fact is that
the Gujaratis, mild-mannered and apolitical, have been pushed to the wall by
extreme violence against them. They were an enraged, blind mob in the aftermath
of the Godhra carnage.
Let us remember what happened: A group of 59
Hindu pilgrims returning from Ayodhya, mostly women and children, were burned
alive in a railway coach when the train was stopped in a Mohammedan area. Commonsense
suggests, given that a large crowd of Mohammedans had gathered at 7 am in an
area that had seen widespread infiltration by extremists, that there was some
malice aforethought and it is likely that the Mohammedans in fact set the train
on fire. Nobody else had the motive or the means.
Torching 59 women and children, most sane people
would concede, is extreme provocation. Consider what the Americans did when
there was similar grave provocation against them, and 3,000 of them were killed
on 9/11. I said then that they didn't riot because they knew the State would
take revenge for them (unlike in India). The American military invaded Iraq,
and have killed some 500,000 Mohammedans so far, in addition to destroying large
parts of Iraq. This, in addition to the estimated 500,000 Iraqi children --
an entire generation -- killed because of punishing American embargos. The kill
ratio: 500,000 to 3,000 -- seventeen to one.
And these Iraqis had practically nothing to
do with 9/11, the perpetrators being mostly Saudi Arabian nationals (who, of
course, are 'untouchable', given the Saudi understanding with the oilmen running
America). The toll on lives and property has been horrific, see Iraq: The Hidden
Human Cost from The New York Review of Books. The little girl with her skull
neatly severed and her eyes open; the little girl in the blue dress with her
lower torso blown off: who is paying the price for their murders?
Unlike violence-prone Americans, Gujaratis cannot
generally be accused of random bloodshed. The image, largely true, that most
of us have of Gujaratis is that they are a peaceful, quiet, vegetarian people
with a strong sense of morals and ethics. They are traders par excellence, and
as such keep a low profile.
Historically, Gujaratis have been more victimised
than victimisers. The sad tale of the Somnath temple -- looted and sacked innumerable
times by Mohammedan invaders, yet rebuilt painstakingly each time -- shows both
the persistence and the pain. The Gujaratis, despite their prowess as traders,
apparently did not have the weapons to secure their riches.
It may be noted in passing, however, that Gujarati
Mohammedan traders took their religion to the rajahs of Indonesia, and thus
caused the end of the Hindu-Buddhist civilisation that had thrived there for
a millennium. Similarly, a Gujarati pilot showed the Portuguese pirate Vasco
da Gama the path across the Arabian Sea following the monsoon winds: This led
to the spree of European Christian imperialism.
The experience of Gujaratis in East Africa has
also been instructive: They flourished as traders in much of the region, so
much so that black dictators saw it fit to unceremoniously eject them and confiscate
their property: Idi Amin Dada of Uganda was only the most vicious of the lot.
Yet the Gujaratis picked themselves up, went to the UK or the US, and thrived
through sheer hard work. Today Gujaratis dominate the hospitality industry,
controlling some 60 per cent of all hotel rooms in the US.
According to Joel Kotkin, California sociologist
and author of Tribes, Gujaratis form a cohesive group, one with a strong sense
of community. He recounts the diamond-merchants now ensconced on 47th Street
in New York, competing with and displacing Hassidic Jews in the business. He
marvels that Gujaratis will entrust a million dollars worth of uncut diamonds
to a fellow Gujarati on nothing more than a handshake. And invariably he will
deliver it as expected. Their sense of honour and devotion to their tribe --
and surely the fear of excommunication -- ensures good behaviour.
It is this amour-propre of the Gujarati -- what
they call Gujarati Asmita -- that the Communist-dominated and Christian-influenced
English Language Media of India attacked relentlessly by positing that each
and every Gujarati was a fascist, Nazi, communal, murderer. (Which is quite
interesting considering that the ELM is the apologist for the true fascists,
the killers of Nandigram [Images]. See my column, Communism as Fascism). Willing
collaborators in the foreign media picked this up and broadcast it -- all the
better to prepare the ground for a withering assault by conversion-happy, soul-harvesting
Christian evangelists on Gujarat.
Anyone with a subaltern perspective, anyone
who has supported the underdog, will have to empathise with the Gujarati: The
might of the world media and the church as well as all of the power of the State
apparatus has been ranged against them. They are strictly underdogs.
This last is a purely local phenomenon, one
might argue: The vote was about injured Gujarati pride. Yes, that is true, and
therefore it may not be replicable elsewhere. But lack of development is something
anyone can appreciate: As was seen in the UPA's debacle in Himachal Pradesh.
Besides, the fear of terrorism is also widespread: Witness Benazir Bhutto's
[Images] assassination and the continued descent of Pakistan into chaos. Therefore,
the other elements of the Modi campaign can easily be re-used. The UPA will
be hard put to counter these; and the 'Big Mo' is with the BJP.
Thus the Gujarat elections have ensured 100
per cent that there will be no early national elections in 2008. The Communists
will continue to run rampant, and thus the India-US nuclear deal will be sacrificed
by the UPA in a desperate attempt to hang on to office. This is the right outcome
for the wrong reason, but it's acceptable. All in all, not a bad situation even
though the nation has to endure UPA misrule for another year.
Comments welcome at my blog at http://rajeev2007.wordpress.com