Dr. Milind Misra

US

Dear Naina,

In my letter last year I had urged you to invite Narendra Modi to speak at your university.  You were then a political science student in New Delhi and he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat.  Later, you became disillusioned with India and he mounted one of the most spectacular election campaigns in the history of democracy.  You are now a student of global politics in London and he is the Prime Minister of India.  In this letter I shall state why I – an Indian-American – am delighted at Shri Narendra Modi’s ascension.

In my view, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a Liberal.

*****

Two major events in the last two decades exposed the institutional inadequacy of respective US administrations when it came to sensing the desire of Indians to chart their own course: the nuclear tests of 1998 and Narendra Modi’s rise.  What explains these lapses?  To be sure, Indians did go to great lengths to camouflage preparations for their tests including moving their assets while in blind spots of US reconnaissance satellites.  For the US, that was a failure of intelligence.  But Narendra Modi’s public life has long been as public as it can get.  Why is it, then, that the US-led West, which claims rational inquiry as one of its core traditions and values analysis over narrative, failed to correctly analyse Narendra Modi’s calibrated path to power?  The answer immediately suggests itself.  The West has a distorted understanding of the vast India that Narendra Modi derives his power from.  For the US, this has been a failure of wisdom.

Who is responsible?  Of course, the square peggers – those who spend a lifetime trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

Let me explain.

Square peggers are distorters who knowingly or unknowingly introduce elementary errors in their conscious or unconscious analysis of geosocial circumstances.  Typically their starting frames of reference are inadequate to measure reality in a geosocial context different from their own.  A relevant example is square pegging the Left-Right classification of the political spectrum within the Indian context.  Thus, the square peggers would have us believe that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is right of centre while the Indian National Congress (INC) is centre-left and the various Communist parties are left of centre too.  This false, forced categorisation fails to encompass complex India and has led to a superficial appreciation of Indian sociopolitics and all sorts of spurious conclusions.

Under Narendra Modi’s refreshingly decisive leadership India has begun to change rapidly.  His government has set in motion processes for providing reliable energy and quality infrastructure, improving collective self-image, connecting people as never before and choking external oxygen for divisive internal hellions (Arvind Kejriwal and other mangoes included).  So deep, broad, systematic and swift is the change, that political observers and analysts who wish to avoid misjudging India must rise above square pegging and use an updated classification of the Indian political spectrum.

The true political labels in India today are Liberals (development for all, discrimination be damned), Exclusivists (my way is best, yours be damned), and Communists (common and uncommon sense be damned).  Further, these labels are most effective when applied to individuals rather than generalised to political parties.  Thus, it is clear that currently the BJP has the highest concentration of Liberals and the INC has a preponderance of head-in-the-sand Exclusivists and pet Communists.  It is no wonder that, reflecting their self-identification and aspirations, large swathes of India consciously voted Liberal in the latest parliamentary elections.  And Liberals have most recently won a historic mandate in Haryana as well as bulldozed Exclusivists in the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra into submission.  In the near future Liberals may well continue to consolidate power in other states and at the local level too.

Indeed, Narendra Modi has always been a Liberal.  The square peggers just could not have seen him as such.

*****

Historically, square pegging has had important consequences for India.  Portuguese square peggers foisted “caste” on “varna”, British and American ones confused “religion” and “dharma”, and Exclusivist and Communist ones have been attempting to carve out “dalit” from “Indian”.  Part of Narendra Modi’s appeal is his pointed use of Indian languages to convey essentially Indian ideas globally.  Not only does this allow him to create original policies more suited to the Indian ethos but it also puts the onus on Indians and non-Indians alike to make more sincere efforts to understand India.  Narendra Modi does not shy away from using untranslatables in conveying his message.

The Prime Minister represents India on its terms.

This appeals to Non Resident Indians (NRI’s) like me and perhaps also to some of those who cheered his success and potential at Madison Square Garden in New York a few weeks ago.  Why?  Simply because Narendra Modi’s constant vocalisation of Indian untranslatables on global platforms makes our continued assimilation in our adopted homes so much more easier!  Suddenly, there is less of a personal and collective need to explain who we really are.  The Prime Minister of India does some of the heavy lifting for us.

As Narendra Modi continues to awaken global minds about India, with a perspective unaffected by lazy or ill-informed or even malicious square pegging, it will have significant international ramifications.  Long-subdued strands of Indian thought are likely to get re-energised across the Indian subcontinent and in regions with significant Indian influence.  Already the US Administration too should have realised that its assiduously-constructed multifaceted leverage in India has been set on a path of significant erosion.  In the coming decades, the primary US advantage may shrink largely to its massive technological superiority over India.  This is a gap that India will find hard to bridge for a long time and one that some in the US may use intrusively and pervasively citing national interest.  Just as likely is the Indian response, drawn from its twin advantages of demographics and political mandate, that could ensure that their high-tech and connectivity channels remain sovereign, insulated and pilfer-proof with laws designed for 2050.

As a final example of square pegging, Naina, I ask you to watch the following video segment from the June 13, 2013 congressional hearing before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform:

Congressman Cynthia Lummis questions the panel about why Chief Minister Narendra Modi should continue to be denied a visa to the US.  The witnesses who respond were the chair of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and the director of the Religious Freedom Project (RFP) at Georgetown University.  These astonishingly condescending testimonies, replete with falsehoods and discredited facts, have severely dented the credibility of USCIRF and RFP.  (Note, by the way, that the director of RFP testifying here “helped develop US strategic nuclear policy” in a previous life during the Cold War.  Clearly he has acquired greater wisdom in life and now vociferously advocates against secularism within the US.)  I leave it to you, therefore, to judge whether these square pegged testimonies against Narendra Modi visiting the US were lazy or ill-informed or malicious.

*****

To be fair, both Indian and US diplomatic interlocutors since the 1998 nuclear tests have worked hard to advance the US-India relationship several steps forward from the lakshman rekhas of the Cold War.  The Strobe Talbott-Jaswant Singh dialogues are a wonderful lesson in international diplomacy.  Similarly, the overt management by both sides of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first visit to the US was mature and well received.  Indeed, constant dialogue is the best tool against the tendency to square peg and will help attain a satisfactory level of mutual respect.  Further, NRIs like you, Naina, are very well-positioned to help in this process.  You are aware of the frames of reference of square peggers and also have an innate understanding of the Indian context.  Indeed, as of now the finest educators in London are providing you with invaluable training and insight about their point of view.  The challenge before you will be to eventually reconcile that with uniquely Indian concepts and worldview without succumbing to square pegging.