Indian intellectuals are presently experiencing difficult times and different emotions: Shock, Disbelief, Frustration, and some even seething with anger. But, one emotion that runs through most of them is: Confusion. There is no doubt Narendra Modi’s unprecedented victory in the general elections has left them confused and they are unable to decide how to correctly react to this phenomenal event. Writing in Times of India, Dileep Padgaonkar said, “We goofed….. So why did we lose the plot? The plain answer is that we misread the nation’s mood.” Lost the plot? Misread the mood?? Sounds strange, coming from someone who has always reveled in accusing right-wingers of not being in sync with the national mood! Ever since Modi started on his campaign trail in Oct. 2013 and while each successive rally gathered larger & highly spirited crowd and while every successive pre-poll opinion showed BJP led by Modi showing overwhelming lead over its rivals, our intellectuals kept singing the “No Modi wave” song, unmindful of the writing on the wall. To paraphrase Noam Chompsky (whom our intellectuals and liberals love to read and quote): “How is it they had so much information, yet knew so little?”
While Padgaonkar admits, albeit grudgingly, that liberals misread the mood of the nation, several others continued to remain in denial and spew poison on Modi. Soon after election results, in a lengthy article, full of innuendo and mindless drivel, The Guardian, brings out the non-resident author Pankaj Mishra, who hurls in the face of an ill informed foreign audience all the old falsehoods and half-truths. Mishra doesn’t hide his dislike for either Modi or RSS when he writes “Modi is a lifelong member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a paramilitary Hindu nationalist organisation inspired by the fascist movements of Europe, whose founder’s belief that Nazi Germany had manifested “race pride at its highest…” Then there is the perennial moaner – Praful Bidwai. His choice of a Pakistani paper to abuse Modi clearly shows he is a habitual hater of India and extremely upset at the rout of Left in the elections. Bidwai writes in this article titled An ugly scar on democracy “Modi symbolises, personifies and radiates ‘alpha-male’, militarised Hindutva – even without hate speech. This time, his canvassing was actually lubricated by blood….”. Before the elections, only arsenal most of our Left-leaning intellectuals had against Modi, was “2002 Gujarat riots”. When their verbal canons were repudiated by the voters who gave a clear verdict in favour of Modi, post-elections, the narrative quickly changed to “…But, BJP polled only 31% of the votes which clearly shows majority of Indians do not favour Modi.”
Most, if not all, Indian intellectuals are either atheists or agnostics (or willfully pretend to be so) and often express disdain when political leaders talk of religion and faith. But, they are scornful only towards Hindus, Hindu culture and traditions. Rarely, if ever, they are critical of any other religion, least of all – Islam. Because they are conscious of the fact that criticism will not be tolerated in Islam and punishment for being critical will be even swifter. In Part – I of this series, I had dwelt on the outrage by academicians, authors and media on withdrawal of Wendy Doniger’s book on Hinduism. Last month an encore was played out when DinaNath Batra’s Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti (SBAS) decided to strike again. This time with a legal notice to publishers of a book titled “From Plassey to Partition : A History of Modern India”, to withdraw the “objectionable parts” from the book. Expectedly, Intellectuals and liberals screamed in unison yet again, with an overkill of adjectives like “Freedom of Speech under threat”, “Hindu fundamentalism” etc. But, was the same freedom of speech not under threat last year when Modi’s keynote address was cancelled at Wharton India Economic Forum under pressure from Indian Intellectuals? And, lest we forget, it is the Indian academicians who pressurized Harvard University in Dec 2011 to cancel Subramanian Swamy’s summer courses for writing an article in a newspaper which was perceived to be anti-Muslim. ”Swamy’s op-ed clearly crosses the line by demonising an entire religious community and calling for violence against their sacred places,” A Harvard Professor Diana L. Eck was quoted as saying. Double speak is a hallmark of Indian intellectuals who often claim they want to know the views of others, but reject any that disagree with their own pre-determined conclusions.( I recently read Sahitya Akademi award winning author S L Bhyrappa’s masterfully crafted “Aavaran : The Veil”. The much admired author superbly exposes the hypocrisy of left-leaning intellectuals & liberals and uncovers the conspiracy of leftist historians.)
Left-leaning intellectuals flourished during the Nehru era and subsequent regimes that patronised such elements with coveted positions in government aided/promoted institutions, Padma awards and even nominations for Rajya Sabha. Energised by the tacit support of the ruling party, these intellectuals would dazzle the audience with their display of meaningless idioms, resort to metaphors which are seldom based on real historical analogies and are often taken out of historical context and tend to be aggressive and judgmental towards their critics. There is no doubt that over the years certain amount of hubris has come to afflict most of our intellectuals. Is their chutzpah leading them to failure? Dileep Padgaonkar’s cautious introspection would appear to suggest so. BJP’s victory and more particularly Narendra Modi’s relocation to 7RCR, seems to have brought a major change in the intellectual discourse. A few notable appointments of right-wing intellectuals to senior positions are an indicator in this direction. Ajit Doval, who is a founding member of right-wing think-tank Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) as the new National Security Advisor and Nripendra Misra as Principal Secretary of PMO have brought welcome change in right wing intellectual space. Are the days of academic apartheid over? K G Suresh of VIF who is quite hopeful of ‘large scale changes’ sums it up very well when he says: “Till now we were on the fringe. Now, it is their turn”.
Related Post:- What is Wrong With our Intellectuals-I
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- What is Wrong With our Intellectuals-II - June 20, 2014
- Media Bias – Myth or Reality - June 9, 2014
A rightful analysis on so called intellectuals.
Intresting framed facts of Anti-Modi writers. Best of luck.
बिलकुल योग्य लिखा है, यहा इंटलेक्चुअल या लिबरल लोग सामने जो दिख रहा है उससे ज्यादा एक अदृश्य डर से ग्रासित थे. यह डर उनकी वैचारिक बुनियाद को ललकार ने वाली विचारधारा को ले कर था,और अब वे इसका सामना ,ज्यादा देर तक, तर्क-संगत नही दे पायेंगे.
पाडगावकर के संदर्भ मे जो “प्लॉट” की बात आपने कही वह आपने सही उदाहरणों के साथ स्पष्ट भी कर दी, मेरे विचार से वह सब इस “प्लॉट” का हिस्सा ही है ! बडा “प्लॉट” यही लगता है कि भारतीयों को दबाते, भ्रम में उलझन मे रखो और फिर “लिबरल” बनने के लिए कोसते रहो … क्या यह समाज लाखों वर्षों से सहिष्णुता का आचरण धारण करके नही बैठा है ?
आपने बहूत सभ्यता से पुछा क्या हो गया हमारे बुद्धिजीवियों को? पर हल्के कठोर शब्दों से ऐसे विचारधाराओं के उपर प्रहार करना यह समय कि माँग है .आप लिखने कि कला अच्छे तरीके से जानते है तो ऐसा रूप लेना आपकी जिम्मेदारी भी है !!
No one have nothing to loose except our own life !!
Mr. Chandra Maniar has hit the nail at right place. Some people may call it as one side story but then you can’t help those who are blind by choice
Only can say who have given the tag of intellectuals? You,me or self proclaimed.