Proxy for God or Father. God-father.
“Once abolish the God, and the Government becomes the God. That fact is written all across human history.” — G.K Chesterton
Any meaningful political discussion in today’s time is powered by Twitter and Media, and it’s relevance is limited for the time it trends.
Capitol storming? You mean Hunger Games?
Say if you are to join politics and lead a country of goldfishes, what is it that you have to do? Trend on twitter? Nah, that’s for people like AOC. To actually be taken seriously, you have to lead with values. Only a person who understands history but also recognizes to contextualize it in today’s time, can become a leader. This is where the true genius of Modi lies, and also the root of his failure. I will explain the second part later.
The important part is how does one in the age of social media, with ever changing “values” and lack of consistency of opinions, manage to become a leader? It is by becoming a proxy for God.
II.
Identity is a powerful thing. It is something that brings us together. But what happens when a group of people, collectively lose their sense of identity, lose a sense of homogeneity — you get America. One can very well argue, that they never had an identity to begin with, that person will be right.
But India is different. It got independent not too long ago, and only because of a collective movement, a united struggle for independence. Anyone who remembers 10th grade history would know that Mahatma Gandhi is one of the most famous contributors to the freedom struggle — he did not go and actually fight the British like Rani of Jhansi or Bhagat Singh. So would it be safe to assume that the martyrs sacrifices were higher. It is for one incomparable but the reason Gandhi finds himself on the country’s notes is because he gave the movement a direction.
He gave something which allowed the people to define themselves as something affirmative, something they stood for, instead of and this is very important — something they stood against. He gave the idea of Satya and ahimsa and implemented it. He realized that the struggle was for independence, and not against the British. This allowed people to realize that they would have struggled against anyone — Turks, Portuguese, Spanish, French or Americans. The enemy did not matter, the people mattered and they needed a stable value system and an attached identity. They needed something of their own, which Gandhi was able to provide.
Our Constitution was another document which reflected the collective value system of that time. The reason why it still continues to remain relevant is because it is not based on shifting identities but universal affirmations. The French Revolution inspired the Indian struggle — justice, liberty and equality was so integral for both the movements because they were identities people gave for themselves. It turned from — Jessica hates Marie Antoinette and wants her head chopped off because she is a fat pig — to- Jessica stands for liberty and equality and as a consequence Marie Antoinette must go. This is why these values are so powerful and why they find their way into our Preamble too.
III.
Coming to the current times — what happens if after 70+ years of independence a country full of people has collectively forgotten what they stood for. How is a leader supposed to lead 1000 million “individuals” who do not know what they want or stand for, but assert that they do? - By giving them an identity and this identity cannot be created anew because as I said the modern world does not allow its creation. So the leader reverts to the second thing that people prize the most in India, after themselves — Religion.
This works perfectly for today’s urban class Hindus who are slowly losing touch with God. Diwali and Holi are just a ‘party scene’ and Pujas are performed as an excuse for buying and wearing new clothes and socializing. Thus a government banking on a ‘religious identity’ becomes an affirmation for Gen X and Y. Gen X because they are disgusted by their Gen Y kids and their fickle relationship with God but secretly dismayed at their absence of faith too. Gen Y because they do not want to disappoint their parents, but they are too busy earning a living too care about God. So voting for a government that stands for their religious identity becomes a perfect shortcut.
Real conversation that I have heard during one of my internships — “ Agar koi Hindu hai toh BJP ke liye hi vote karega, jo nahi kiya vo desh drohi hai” (If someone’s a Hindu they will only vote for BJP, if they vote for anyone else they are anti-nationalist.)
This is an immensely powerful and dangerous sentiment as some of you would have already realized — an absence of faith in God not only allows the Government to become a new religion as Chesterton said. In India it allows the government to become a signifier for your religious as well as national loyalty. It becomes a marker for constituting oneself as an in-group, and anyone outside it is vulnerable and alone.
Also, anyone who may wish not to identify with the in-group is irrelevant. You do not choose the in-group, the in-group chooses you.
Elect your governments wisely.
Part II coming soon. (i promise)
