Narendra Modi's Symbolic War

Author(s): SHIV VISVANATHAN

Source: Economic and Political Weekly , MAY 31, 2014, Vol. 49, No. 22 (MAY 31, 2014),
pp. 10-13
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24479626

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COMMENTARY

For Modi, a nation state was not a secu

Narendra Modi's Symbolic War lar entity but a spiritual essence, a civili
sational statement. For the rss, distorted
histories created defective politics and
SHIV VISVANATHAN rss as a plumber and therapist had to
rectify it. Its political style sought had to
One has to ask, what was the create a new man, a new persona who
the greatest electoral victories of would reflect current anxieties and serves
logic called Narendra Modi
Narendra Modi achieved one of
and what was the nature of themodern India, symbolically end
a projection, a hoarding of possibilities.
ing the Nehruvian era. While Delhi In modernising Modi, rss was modern
campaign? Modi was a semiotic
adapts to the new regime, the socio ising itself. An ascetic image had to yield
construct who went on to logist,
fight as analyst, has to ask what went to an aesthetic style. Colour is central to
into the making of this campaign.
a symbolic war. The Nehruvian such symbolic grammar. White, for all
Moments of victory cannot only be its purity is often dull and colourless.
nation, Delhi, Development were
moments of celebration but have to be White signals widowhood, renunciation
all semiotically reconstructed
moments inof analysis and reflection. One and a dullness. White had to yield to
has to ask, what was the logic called specific colours, shades, some sense of
a brilliantly executed campaign.
Modi and what was the nature of diversity, some idea of change, and
This article is a preliminary
the campaign? change, Modi's designers realised, was a
attempt at an ethnography of a
To understand this, one has to realise costume ball, a semiotic presentation.
brilliantly executed campaign.
Modi was a semiotic construct who went Modi was semiotically reconstructed.
on to fight a symbolic war. The 2002 Colours mellow the man. Dourness,
election while it brought victory in grimness are stern grey or steel white.
Gujarat, added little to his image. A One needed a palette of diverse emo
dockside bully enacting Bajrang Dal tions to intensify diversity. One needed
cameos does not quite add up to a chief tribal red to convey power, peach and
minister with national pretensions. green to signal gentleness. It was a sub
Modi had to be remade. A past had to be tle modernisation where khaki shorts
sanitised and a future scenario for the get erased from the mind. It is imitation
man had to be constructed. The remak Nehru for a man about to play the sec
ing of Modi begins with the man and his ond Patel. As colours melt, the body be
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (rss) comes decisive, even Prussian. It adopts
background. a managerial idiom. The language is
One has to enter the mind of Modi as a clipped. It marches like a sergeant rather
semiotic space. One needs to map it in than a subaltern to history. It is larger
terms of its old categories. Modi was than life size. Modi is a pracharak ampli
soaked in a rss milieu. Modi has a pra fied. A leader; and a leader has to be
charak's sense of law and order where hoarding size, all pervasive, all casual, the
the nation state was not only a discipli immediate cause behind every change
nary space, an organic whole but a moral from loans to new facilities. He not only
apparatus. Loyalty to the nation state demands change, he triggers change.
becomes the defining principle of law Change is a gigantic wish list that
and order. tomorrow is better, that the new gene
ration will live better, that well-being
Travesty of History is more prevalent. Change rehearses
For Modi, the Nehruvian nation had through new vocabularies. Change is re
become a travesty of history, an event selling not unemployment. Change is
appropriated by outsiders. Delhi was the culture, the asmita that is a standard
extension of colonialism because Delhi refrain through every modification.
has distorted history. The official text Change is difference - felt, perceived,
book history of the nation state had analysed and celebrated. Modi has to be
ignored stalwarts who defined the the difference that made the difference.
ShivVisvanathan (svcsds@gmail.com) teaches
grammar of nationalism - men like He has to be catalytic, provide the col
at Ο Ρ Jindal University, Sonepat, Haryana. lective thesaurus for change.
Malaviya, Ambedkar and Vivekananda.

10 may 31, 2014 vol XLix no 22 QH3 Economic & Political weekly

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 ; COMMENTARY

'Development' rss and other groups had a more prag- do was erase memories of riots
The word development was handy. It matic sense of science. They loved tech- on. Many Muslims tired of b
was the stuff of policy reports, it was nology and were more open to psepho- to the ethnic ghetto were o
World Bank gobbledygook, it signalled logy and semiotics. They wanted to cap- invitation. Development be
direction, purposiveness. Development ture the symbol as science. The social itual machismo to challenge t
was more open-ended unlike planning construction of Modi was a semiotic act The idea of development ha
which was technocratic, Nehruvian and and Modi's greatest creation was deve- athletic spin to it built arou
therefore restrictive. Plan is what Nehru- lopment as a simulacra. A simulacrum is Numbers have more than
vians did. It was top-down. Develop- not a copy of reality. It begins as a copy value. Initially it suggests th
ment was lateral, an invitation to all sec- and then distorts in creative reactions, ment increases a culture of
tors of the society, an omnibus term Development began as an empirical civics of numbers and indi
which invited everyone for a ride. Deve- game but development had little to do ber is deceptive. It encour
lopment was aspirational, competitive, with empirics but became more of a as darts to be thrown at other
One entered the world of rankings. It game. Modi created development as tistics allows you to collect deve
was local and global, it was technical simulacra, a game where people approxi- badges like boy scouts. When
enough to be scientific, mundane enough mated development without achieving lenged other states in thi
for general use. It is a unifying word for it. It was like a video game, which be- ment Olympiad, he appealed
a middle class full of historical anxieties came more obsessive and real than the die class as a Messiah and a technocrat,
ready and waiting for a new history, reality. Development was Modi's great- The word development was honey fo
Development is every man's Camelot, est symbolic creation. Individuals, states new constituencies. The World Ban
An India that wants change is ready and collectivities treated it as one of the loved him, he seemed to speak their
for development. rituals and expectations of citizenship, guage authoring a book on climate
Development was a wonder word. It One sees it in ordinary conversations, change and visiting Davos as
fitted any group. It exploded like an epi- When surveys ask individuals what they Indian chief minister to do so
demie with personality development, want or expect, no one says rights, or has a chorus of legitimators in co
community development, and industrial security. The majority answers develop- tions. Ratan Tata joins with stat
development. It could be measured, ran- ment. It has created the new grammar of approval, Anil Ambani echoes
ked, and shuffled with. It became the governance. "I develop, therefore I am" opment chutzpah and the Adani
conceptual game of the decade, a new became the new logic of Modi's govern- ready to play his adjutants, iim
hierarchy where lesser development ance and being. bad invites him as ceo for the day. He
meant lesser orders of being. It became plays the development artist, creating a
the new Snakes and Ladders of the Theology of Change single window of decisio
regime that every magazine from India Development as a strategy provided a land to the Tata Na
Today to Governance Now, and every theology of change. To be a Vivekananda hours. The middle class,
agency from the World Bank to Sasa- for a theory of civilisation would be too and the diaspora now fo
kawa Foundation could engage in. It was much to attempt, but a Vivekananda for chorus. Modi has capt
method, it was prophecy, it allowed for a development creates a spiritually virile and orchestrates it to h
transfer of Utopia with Modi promising world, a moral universe for judgment, jarat is the new develo
that the Gujarat model of development As Mr Development, Modi could define and Modi its greatest ex
could be replicated all over India. It was Rahul as effete. Development created else who echoed the
a league table, a classificatory sequence, the high moral ground. It also produced economist or politician, h
a seeding. It became the new game of a sleight of hand. Development legiti- ond fiddle. Modi was inven
governance, a new literacy which every- mised an abandoning of the past, a dis- and high priest of the d
one could play. To want development lodging of ethnicity. An invitation to course. He added mana
was a normal act of citizenship. It would development was an invitation to citi- everything he did. Dev
be unpatriotic to not want development, zens to drop ethnicity, to let go of old new middle class cult
Modi was Mr Development. He gave memories. Development was the new Living or Swami Naray
development political weight and theo- level playing field. Modi felt citizens Armed with these new ch
logical force. His speeches were sermons should join the development bandwagon, begins to delegitimise D
on development. Development became He asked Muslims to abandon ethnicity
the new collective morality. and join the mainstream. Development, Delegitimising Delhi
Social scientists do not often associate he claimed, was a form of reskilling Delhi had to be emptied sy
science with Modi. Historians often think while all ethnicity could guarantee is Modi created a procrustea
of science as a Nehruvian préoccupa- dole. Modi argued that the Congress in a grid of oppositions
tion. Nehru was interested in science as provided ethnicity, the bjp offered side, a travesty of his
an intellectual style, an aesthetic but development. All that the ethnic had to remnant located end
Economic & Political weekly [8359 may 31, 2014 vol xlix no 22 11

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COMMENTARY

dynasty. It was white, colonial and Eng- Governance was an attractive word. It Critiquing Rahul
lish-speaking. It had no sense of locality, smacked of the nuances of competence, Modi's handling of Rah
An effete geography produces impotent of the vigour of youth. It conveyed a ma- ius. He realised here t
politicians. The emptying of Delhi was ture and masculine competence. Where ponent was hesitant abo
one of the most systematic assaults ever Congress failed was in governance and He sensed here was a m
conceptualised. it was a failure of three kinds exempted iconic contrast to him. Rahul was soaked
Modi sought to empty the current by three persons - Sonia, Manmohan in entitlements, while Modi struggled as
model of Delhi of any significance. Once and Rahul. a chaiwala. Rahul was ascription per
again, the contrast with Gujarat is sig- The Modi scenario reduced these three sonified, Modi was aspirational str
nificant. Gujarat is India's most urban- characters to dramas of puppetry. Sonia Rahul was legacy, Modi was hard
ised states, with 57 places claiming the was an Italian reciting Hindi. As power, One spoke the language of entitle
status of towns. Gujarat was the most she was a backstage player controlling arguing the nation was hypothecate
urbanised part of India challenging government. It was a tragicomic act of a his family. The other spoke the dial
Delhi's urban literacy. dummy controlling two puppets. But in of democracy arguing family and party
For Modi, Delhi was not a city located the split between party and government, had to be kept apart. Deep down, Modi
in history. Delhi was outside history there is a tragic flaw, a fissure that de- sensed the sociological folklore of mod
located only in an elite mindset. Delhi stroys the whole sense of responsibility, ernisation, the opposition between aspi
was empty space, silly table manners The Congress is portrayed as a party run ration and inheritance, the sense that a
representing a hollow elite. To return by an external force, which, in turn, ere- new generation of youth was seeking op
Delhi to real history had to be an act of ates government as puppetry. Modi is portunity while Rahul was soaked in it.
politics. Modi's politics sought to return brilliant with concepts. Government is a If Sonia was a distant Mary, Rahul was
Delhi to politics and history. behemoth, inert, passive. It needs the everyone's Pinocchio. It was not his nose
Simultaneously, he had to destroy adrenalin of passion, of vision to energise that grew but his reputation for immatu
Congress as a party of the nationalist it as governance. Governance is galvanic rity. A Nehruvian who appeared dim
imagination. The symbolic displacement government and Congress is govern- and diffident, and did not even sound
was fascinating to watch. He claimed ment by puppetry. Once Modi puts his Nehruvian. The Nehrus were now a
the Congress lacked an understanding hand on that flaw the cascade begins. squandering of a legacy. In fact, if one
of its own role and the history of the Manmohan, for all his adulation in looks at the range of Modi attacks on
nation. As a parochial history, it had United Progressive Alliance 1, is now a Congress, the whole script looks like a
ignored the work of stalwart nationalists limited man with a limited goodness. He set of kathas, discourses combining epic,
like Malaviya, Patel and Savarkar. A is a ventriloquist's dummy, an interim fable and morality famous throughout
Congress indifferent to Sardar Patel was player standing in till the prince grows Gujarat and India. The Modi katha cap
a travesty. Modi's statue of Patel was up. He is an academic as retainer. One of tured the epic decline of the Congress,
psychologically a response to Congress the ruthless acts of history and Modi The demon called the Congress had to
indifference. As the Congress shrunk was to destroy his dignity, his status, be killed. The cleansing in a democracy
Patel's giant contributions, Gujarat had Singh's lapses into hurt silence did not comes from the people. The battle was
to construct Patel as a monument, as a add to dignity. They conveyed a sense of set for elections. The symbolic battles
great statue, larger than life size as a gift craven submission. He appeared like a that Modi fought were brilliant. They
of gratitude, as an act of justice. The footnote to a Sonia text. Even some of were what one would call modernisation
monumentalisation of Patel was Guja- the other footnotes in the cabinet ap- dramas articulated both at the manage
rat's answer to Delhi's silence about Patel. peared bigger than him. As the scams rial and the folklore levels. In the latter,
It modernised Patel. He was not merely appeared like parts of a serial soap Modi echoed a Murari Bapu, creating a
an amplified Advani as earlier projections opera, all Singh offered was silence. His Congress katha constructed in folk terms,
claimed, but the first saint of govern- was a government where corruption op- Only his audience was now a nation,
ance. Patel's governance, Modi hinted, erated by tacit consent. As coal yielded By 2012, the jigsaw had fallen in place,
would have saved the Congress and to 2G and 3G to the Commonwealth, Modi was a new contender, the cosmetic
India. With Patel as patron saint of govern- India found a continuous Watergate
ance, Modi attacked Delhi as the travesty where a cabinet would not confess to its Economic&PoliticalwEEKLY
of governance. Delhi was indifferent to crimes. Sonia played distant and Singh
available at
federalism, to security. Governance was absorbed all the pollution. All Modi did
to Gujarat, what government was to Delhi was to thunder like an Old Testament Oxford Bookstore-Mumbai
and as Modi's later hoarding at election prophet. The Congress was an illustra Apeejay House
time promised, he would guarantee maxi- tion that governance had to be a mora 3, DinshawVacha Road
mum governance and minimum govern- lity play. Corruption, as any child knew, Mumbai400020
ment. The delegitimisation of Delhi was was the cancer of governance and the Ph: 66364477

both blatant and subtle. Congress had cancer.

may 31, 2014 vol xlix no 22 ŒE9 Economic & Political weekly

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 COMMENTARY

alterations were complete. A new voca- on the planet. It was a cosmos of its own, acclaim thrusting the family in
bulary of development and govern- precious to Hinduism. Modi was not dustbin of history,
ance was ready. The battle lines were merely touching a cosmic pulse, he was
drawn. The juggernaut was ready to creating a vibrant Hinduism as metaphor. Creating History
move to Delhi. He had shifted the battle to the cities and Narendra Modi's symbolic war led to a
was treating each city as one chapter in historic victory. But in creating history,
Amplified Symbol of Varanasi his final conquest of Delhi. He had to he destroyed history replacing t
The assault on Delhi required an ampli- show that he was not replicating Gujarat Nehruvian world and its effete epigon
fied symbol. Modi decided to stand both but opening up the Indian imagination with an alternative muscular and spi
from Varanasi and Vadodara. It was a to a new modernity. Varanasi was the ual vision created around Malaviy
symbolic masterpiece to choose Benaras. beginning of a new Modi-esque civics, Vivekananda, Patel and Ambedkar. He
Modi knew that this was not a mere party beginning with the cosmic moving from invoked a notion of historical justice
strategy to capture up electorally. He spirituality to governance. One sensed that India could enter a post-Nehruvian
needed a new space which went beyond Modi had a better sense of Glimpses of future. It was a rhetorical battle fought
Gujarat, a Vivekananda-like script which History than any Nehru. He had cap- with a new language, a glossary
let him speak of cosmos, constitution, tured the book like he captured Patel refurbished concepts, a new mnemonics
civic and community simultaneously, from the Congress. His speech on up a numbers game called developme
The choice of Varanasi was a final act of was a speech on the cities. Each city, he making creative use of symbols ble
genius. Kejriwal added to the electoral claimed, was home of a great craft tradi- ing modernity and folklore. In winnin
drama but could not control the symbolic tion. A revival of the city was a revival of this semiotic war, he had created a
discourse. He was contender but Modi craft traditions. The politics of modernity ferent anthropology of modernity as
was the master of the text. had found a new space. Even a Dante morality play. This essay is a preli
Modi was soaking himself in civilisa- could not have created a greater vision nary effort to chart the ethnography o
tion. Varanasi was the oldest living city of cosmic politics. India responded with this amazing exercise.

How Reliance's Options on

Whereas ril and the former petrole
um minister M Veerappa Moily did try

Natural Gas Price Hike Narrowed
PARANJOY GUHA THAKURTA, JYOTIRMOY CHAUDHURI
A clutch of public interest
petitions and legal entanglements
between Reliance Industries and
the Ministry of Petroleum and
Natural Gas on the pricing of
very hard to push for the implementa
tion of the June 2013 decision of the
cabinet that would have almost doubled
the price of gas from 1 April 2014 for a
period of five years - a decision that was
stayed by the Election Commission of
India on 24 March - the company's actions
Limited (ril) issue a notice of on the eve of the results being declared
Why didarbitration
Reliance Industries
to the government were clearly influenced and determined
seeking an early decision to increase the by the realisation that the new govern
administered price of natural gas? The ment (and not the outgoing one) would
company, India's largest in the private have to take a call on the contentious

natural gas and other issues are
now before the Supreme Court.
A record and discussion of the
many legal cases in a battle that is sources of Canada - was "unable to sanc
going to be a protracted one.
Paranjoy Guha Thakurta (paranjoy@gma.il.
com) and Jyotirmoy Chaudhuri are among the
co-authors of Gas Wars: Crony Capitalism and
theAmbanis.
sector, claimed on 10 May that it had "no issue of hiking the officially adminis
other option but to pursue this course of tered price of natural gas extracted from
action" since ril - together with its part the Krishna-Godavari (kg) basin.
ners, British Petroleum and Niko Re
Public Interest Litigation
tion planned investments of close to $4It is evident that the legal entanglements
billion" during this year. It can, however, involving ril and the petroleum minis
be argued that ril chose this option betry over various issues, including the
cause it did not foresee an early resoluprice of gas, may take a while to get re
tion to a set of legal disputes pendingsolved since a new bench of the Supreme
before the Supreme Court. Nor did itCourt will have to be constituted - in the
foresee an expeditious conclusion to thefirst week of July this year, at the earliest
arbitration proceedings on the imposi- to hear two public interest litigation
tion of penalties of $1.8 billion on the (pil) petitions which were heard only
company by the Ministry of Petroleumpartially. The pil petitions allege, among
and Natural Gas two years ago. other things, that the government and

Economie & Political weekly 12321 may 31, 2014 vol xlix no 22 13

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