From above post # 261
T.R. Jawahar's analysis
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>What explains the meteoric rise of the</b> BJP, the quintessential Indian Right wing party, in a wholly Left-oriented milieu? ... The BJP rose by riding the crest of a cultural backlash; while India had attained political independence, Bharat remained a suppressed civilisation. Every nation that broke free from a colonial yoke sought to rediscover its roots, but Nehruâs India acted as if it never had a history of worth and was born only in 1947, a position that suited the pseudo secular axis of Marxists, media, missionaries and mullahs. This disconnect came home to roost after fifty years of Cong rule emaciated the nationâs resources and spirit. The Ram Mandir movement symbolised this resurgence. To attribute the credit wholly to the BJP for what was essentially a peopleâs groundswell is to overestimate the partyâs capability and commitment. At best, its leaders sensed the mood and capitalised....
Besides Ayodhya there was a bunch of issues agitating the average Hindu mind that the BJP identified with much to its benefit. <b>Equitable economic growth, healthcare and education are matters of concern for all nations at all times. And politics over these is as rife in India now as it has always been. And sure, good, clean governance is an imperative for political success, but that is so for all parties, across Left, Right and Centre.</b> But what about the issues that defined the politics of the BJP, made it different and brought it the electoral moolah?<b> Jihadi terror and Evangelical conversions find the âtolerantâ Indians ripe for the picking. </b>For the Marxists and Maoists, the poor and oppressed are cannon fodder. <b>For the Media, the elite mindset minted by Macaulay is a matter of honour than talking about the âworn outâ past. And then we have the strange spectacle of sons of the soil calling themselves minorities just by switching Gods; or the scenario of group after group wanting to be called backward just to move forward! Indeed, these are the forces and farces, outside traditional political battlefields, that the BJP was supposed to take on.</b> <b>But what was its record?</b> It traded Jihadis. It did nothing to arrest the flow of dubious foreign funds that were at the root of fraudulent conversions. Ayodhya went off the radar at the sight of Delhi. A Uniform civil code, despite the SC recommending it, was quickly and quietly forgotten. The much tom tommed abrogation of Art 370 turned to ashes on the ubiquitous backburner. The much touted Hindu unity was sacrificed at the altar of caste politics that the BJP too played with aplomb. And these Swadeshi champions were powerless to stop a foreigner from making a bid, albeit aborted, for the PMO. And then comes the discovery that Jinnah is secular! And coalition dharma became an alibi for skipping all such obligations. Indeed, the <b>BJPâ</b>s very purpose of existence was frustrated in every way. And worse, by its abdication, it <b>became a Cong clone</b>.
<b>So, has the Right turn reached a dead end, as the secular brigade claims?</b> <b>The media,</b> particularly, now <b>wants the BJP to take a decisive ideological U turn,</b> if it has to survive. <b>Wolves cant have the well-being of goats in mind and would only want the prey to walk into their paths. So heeding them would only lead to losing even the residual gains. </b>The future? World over, with globalisation and immigrations threatening national identities, positive rightwing politics to defend national cultures is only on the rise with nary a contradiction with modernism or development. For instance, it was Vajpayeeâs so called âcommunalâ regime that laid the foundation for Indiaâs economic and technological advances. <b>Again, denial and deriding of a nationâs core religion may seem secular but is suicidal. Stronger the roots, stronger the tree that in turn shades all the âpluralâ aspects that we often talk of. Former US prez, Jimmy Carter, who is now a West Asia peacenik, has said a couple of days back:â ... all the children of Abraham, Christians, Muslims and Jews, should unite for the sake of their holy land ...â. Now, is this communal? Rather, thatâs how a human mind falls back on its basics in times of crisis, and thatâs how nations are defined.</b> India that is Bharat should not forfeit its safety net in the name of secularism. In short, only <b>the men and methods must change, not the message.</b>
But for now, the space on the right is a vacuum. If the Sangh Parivar does not fill it, someone else should if only to give political articulation to those orphaned issues. Also, there has to be a check on Singh Parivar. Er, I actually meant, Signora Parivar!
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and Seshadhri Chari's article in post #262
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The disconnect between the BJP's core ideology and its voters could be at the root of its predicament today. <b>Indian classicism has shaped and sustained Indian thought, polity, and society, similar to what Greek classicism has done to the West. This unique journey through the vicissitudes of time would of course, merit a separate analysis, but pointedly, with the advent of the British, Indian classicism underwent a renaissance of sorts, centred on nationalism.
A vibrant debate that spanned Vivekanand to Tilak, Tagore Gandhi, Savarkar and Ambedkar, all of whom perceived it in different shades, was abruptly stalled after 1947 and unfortunately became moribund, with our search for imaginary roots in contrived ideologies like socialism and secularism.</b>
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Thse two posts posit the nationalist cause as no other article. I would say of the Indian classicism the Hindu component was the major contributor.
T.R. Jawahar's analysis
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>What explains the meteoric rise of the</b> BJP, the quintessential Indian Right wing party, in a wholly Left-oriented milieu? ... The BJP rose by riding the crest of a cultural backlash; while India had attained political independence, Bharat remained a suppressed civilisation. Every nation that broke free from a colonial yoke sought to rediscover its roots, but Nehruâs India acted as if it never had a history of worth and was born only in 1947, a position that suited the pseudo secular axis of Marxists, media, missionaries and mullahs. This disconnect came home to roost after fifty years of Cong rule emaciated the nationâs resources and spirit. The Ram Mandir movement symbolised this resurgence. To attribute the credit wholly to the BJP for what was essentially a peopleâs groundswell is to overestimate the partyâs capability and commitment. At best, its leaders sensed the mood and capitalised....
Besides Ayodhya there was a bunch of issues agitating the average Hindu mind that the BJP identified with much to its benefit. <b>Equitable economic growth, healthcare and education are matters of concern for all nations at all times. And politics over these is as rife in India now as it has always been. And sure, good, clean governance is an imperative for political success, but that is so for all parties, across Left, Right and Centre.</b> But what about the issues that defined the politics of the BJP, made it different and brought it the electoral moolah?<b> Jihadi terror and Evangelical conversions find the âtolerantâ Indians ripe for the picking. </b>For the Marxists and Maoists, the poor and oppressed are cannon fodder. <b>For the Media, the elite mindset minted by Macaulay is a matter of honour than talking about the âworn outâ past. And then we have the strange spectacle of sons of the soil calling themselves minorities just by switching Gods; or the scenario of group after group wanting to be called backward just to move forward! Indeed, these are the forces and farces, outside traditional political battlefields, that the BJP was supposed to take on.</b> <b>But what was its record?</b> It traded Jihadis. It did nothing to arrest the flow of dubious foreign funds that were at the root of fraudulent conversions. Ayodhya went off the radar at the sight of Delhi. A Uniform civil code, despite the SC recommending it, was quickly and quietly forgotten. The much tom tommed abrogation of Art 370 turned to ashes on the ubiquitous backburner. The much touted Hindu unity was sacrificed at the altar of caste politics that the BJP too played with aplomb. And these Swadeshi champions were powerless to stop a foreigner from making a bid, albeit aborted, for the PMO. And then comes the discovery that Jinnah is secular! And coalition dharma became an alibi for skipping all such obligations. Indeed, the <b>BJPâ</b>s very purpose of existence was frustrated in every way. And worse, by its abdication, it <b>became a Cong clone</b>.
<b>So, has the Right turn reached a dead end, as the secular brigade claims?</b> <b>The media,</b> particularly, now <b>wants the BJP to take a decisive ideological U turn,</b> if it has to survive. <b>Wolves cant have the well-being of goats in mind and would only want the prey to walk into their paths. So heeding them would only lead to losing even the residual gains. </b>The future? World over, with globalisation and immigrations threatening national identities, positive rightwing politics to defend national cultures is only on the rise with nary a contradiction with modernism or development. For instance, it was Vajpayeeâs so called âcommunalâ regime that laid the foundation for Indiaâs economic and technological advances. <b>Again, denial and deriding of a nationâs core religion may seem secular but is suicidal. Stronger the roots, stronger the tree that in turn shades all the âpluralâ aspects that we often talk of. Former US prez, Jimmy Carter, who is now a West Asia peacenik, has said a couple of days back:â ... all the children of Abraham, Christians, Muslims and Jews, should unite for the sake of their holy land ...â. Now, is this communal? Rather, thatâs how a human mind falls back on its basics in times of crisis, and thatâs how nations are defined.</b> India that is Bharat should not forfeit its safety net in the name of secularism. In short, only <b>the men and methods must change, not the message.</b>
But for now, the space on the right is a vacuum. If the Sangh Parivar does not fill it, someone else should if only to give political articulation to those orphaned issues. Also, there has to be a check on Singh Parivar. Er, I actually meant, Signora Parivar!
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
and Seshadhri Chari's article in post #262
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The disconnect between the BJP's core ideology and its voters could be at the root of its predicament today. <b>Indian classicism has shaped and sustained Indian thought, polity, and society, similar to what Greek classicism has done to the West. This unique journey through the vicissitudes of time would of course, merit a separate analysis, but pointedly, with the advent of the British, Indian classicism underwent a renaissance of sorts, centred on nationalism.
A vibrant debate that spanned Vivekanand to Tilak, Tagore Gandhi, Savarkar and Ambedkar, all of whom perceived it in different shades, was abruptly stalled after 1947 and unfortunately became moribund, with our search for imaginary roots in contrived ideologies like socialism and secularism.</b>
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Thse two posts posit the nationalist cause as no other article. I would say of the Indian classicism the Hindu component was the major contributor.