Is India deteriorating? The answer is complex and indefinite as of now. I believe India has improved in a lot of ways which I will explain and it is deteriorating in some ways as well.
Why is India improving?
The search for truth - One of the fundamental building blocks of a nation is culture. Indias culture or history goes back 5000-7000 years (oldest or second oldest civilization in the world), the backbone of this culture has always been Dharmic faiths -Hinduism and it's offshoots (Sikkhism, Jainsim etc) and Buddhism.
The attempt to redefine India as a purely nation-state beginning from 1947 was a completely botched one for many reasons the fundamental being that it declared India as a secular state bringing all religions under new laws whilst providing an exception for Islam and Islam alone. How can any state call itself secular if this is the case? Absurd
The second mistake was Indias ruling class attempted to re-write Indias history to paint the overall interaction between Hinduism and Islam as benign and one that was a net positive for the sub-continent. In order to do this, they painted Hindu-Muslim co-operation as integral to overthrowing British imperialism.
As 75 years have unfolded though it has become clear that history in the sub-continent cannot be re-written so easily and the glaring inconcistencies provided the perfect opening for the Hindutva movement to emerge from the political shadows. As people have gone in search for the truth the old explanations have proven continuously unsatisfactory and it is now clear that the interactions between Hinduism and Islam were perhaps driven by stories of violence, bloodshed and slaughter more that stories of peaceful co-existance.
However uncomfortable this history is to face, I find the search for the objective truth amongst the new 'elites' to be positive. Will truth actually triumph or will history become the handmaiden of politics? Who knows
A common cause :
For a people to work together or even for democracy to work there has to be a common purpose or a shared sense of identity (Aristotle). Hopefully, in the future a sense of humanity develops to break the divisions of religion, race etc but we are not there yet.
The early Indian political system was dominated by the Congress Party (The party of Gandhi/Nehru) and whilst they certainly did some good there is a lot of merit to the accusation that they ruthlessly exploited religious and caste divisions to stay in power. "Caste-Equation" was a commonly used term during these times.
It is the BJP that is now gathering votes across caste-lines and making political leaders reach out to Dalits (Lowest caste). It is the BJP that has amassed a vast network of foot soldiers to do their bidding - sometimes to terrible effects (VHP etc) and sometimes to positive effect (COVID outreach, social welfare programs etc). People across India divided by language and ethnicity are responding to the clarion call asking Hindus to unite and re-build the Hindu civilization
Psyche of a nation:
The mentality of people has a huge role in how a culture develops and how a nation functions. The history taught to Indians since 1947 has been of the fact that Hindus have lost every war, a lot of precedence given to the Mughal empire culminating with Gandhi as the sole reason for Indian independence. This ideology has led to a meek apologetic and dare I say subservient Indian emerging for the first 50 years of Independence.
The fall of the Soviet Union and the emergence of the USA as a unipolar nation and its export of Hollywood didn't help. In 1990 when India opened up to the world, everything Western was deemed to be aspirational. The thinking went, why not just westernize to modernize (Kemalism). However, this emergent class (the class of people I grew up with) were also arrogant to a fault, they had no humility to objectively assess the West, they looked down on some of the brightest minds that were coming through from the remotest villages in India because they spoke broken English or English with an accent that was to be mocked.
The emergence of the BJP inverted this dynamic on its head. The question asked " If Hindus have lost every war, then why is it the only pre-abrahamic civilization to survive the abrahamic onslaught". As nations and continents fell to the Crusades and Islamic expansion, as entire ethnic groups were wiped out, it is India and India alone that still stands. To paraphrase Modi, 200 years fighting the British and 800 years fighting Islam yet we're still here. It's time to stop being sheep
They didn't just talk, within weeks of Atal Vajpayee (first BJP prime minister) returning to power they conducted the nuclear tests announcing Indias arrival as a nuclear power. They took a more aggressive posture which in my opinion is a better way of dealing with the world. We are not like the CCP who look at everything from a transactional perspective but the deference of previous governments would never have got us anywhere.
A more assertive Indian has emerged amongst the 'elites', the poster child of them would probably be Jaishankar (Indias Minister of External Affairs). His call-out about Western hypocrisy on Russian oil got a lot of views from the Global South
The question now asked is "How do we modernize without westernizing?" (Dugin). Infinitely harder, infinitely more sustainable and honorable though
Economics (??)
The early socialists of India created a bloated state system that was cushy if you were inside it but dysfunctional for everyone else. Government employees were rude, obnoxious, never worked and could never lose their job. This mentality seeped through every aspect of Indian life. "We are like this only","Nothing can be done","Chalta Hai". Mediocrity was celebrated and competition considered abhorrent. The private sector was a laughing stock. It was vitally important that this kind of attitude was completely crushed.
The uncomfortable truth is that it is highly likely not all of us are going to make it. Our population is going to peak at 1.7 billion by 2050 and we are not prepared for it. There is also a sociological aspect that no one will openly talk about but multiple Indian ethnic groups have remained closed of from other Indian ethnic groups for the better part of half a millenium (highly insular ethnic groups culturally) and the idea I think is to send a shockwave through the entire country. Create as many opportunities as possible using a mix of hyper neo-liberalism and state backed behemoths (Chalebols, Korea) in new urban areas and let Indians from all over compete for them. Throw everyone into the melting pot and create a system where you hope the brightest and toughest emerge.
To cushion the massive societal change that is going to take place I suspect the BJP is banking on the massive social programs they are building to be sufficient. Will it be, Who knows?
I do agree with them, this nation needed a massive shock. Let us keep monitoring and evaluate if we need course correction. I do not think we are anywhere near that now, wealth inequality may be rising but their social programs appear to be working. In the recent elections of Indias largest and most poor state (population 200 million) the BJP triumphed on the back of women votes. No small correlation to all their welfare programs targeted at women specifically.
Of course the biggest problem is you become like USA where the people hoarding the wealth become more powerful than the government itself and capture all the insutitutions but we are far from that. In the USA, wall street may tell Congress how high to jump but in India the BJP still has complete control over the Adanis and Ambanis
It is easy to criticize all this but we are not interested in the moral grandstanding of the West. Either provide solutions or get out of our way.
Why India is getting worse
The level of discourse from the right
The victory of the Hindutva ideology is almost certain now. It is stil of relevenece as to which version of it will triumph? Will it be Atal Vajpayee version or Modi version or the man who likely comes next (Yogi)? Modi wrestled power from Atal but if Modi scares you then Yogi would terrify you or maybe other factions within the BJP will win and go back to Atals vision
The problem is the political leaders are a reflection of Indian rural society (After all, that is where they come from) which is violent. You don't get to the top of Indian politics by being noble or even the most capable. To put it bluntly, in the West it may be bling-bling, out here it's bling-bang.
In their effort to push through the revival of interest in Hindu culture they conflate every Muslim with Islam. Some of the language even if lost in translation is not becoming for leaders of the nation.
But then, on an average that is where we are not and there were clear drawbacks with implementing democracy in a largely illiterate and feudal society. Yet, here we are and there is no way we can change the political system now
The moral bankruptcy of the political left
Unfortunately, the left in my country in an attempt to stand with Muslims in many ways have become apologetic for Islam which further weakens their position in the politcal landscape.
Their stance that "Muslims are beleagured and under fire" might hold true for the average moderate Muslim but it is misleading because there are huge Muslim organizations in India that are as backward as Islam allows. The recent Nupur Sharma case summed it up, even the BBC censored what actually happened but in one sentence prominent Muslim leaders say Islam is a peaceful religion, in another they ask for her to be beheaded. For what, for quoting the book itself? Absurd
They oppose the proposed uniform civil code which would bring Muslims under the same law that governs all other religions in India because it is a "threat to their identity". What the actual fuck?
The idea that minorities are under fire is also absurd. Hinduism and Buddhism have no conflict, the BJP in general is more than comfortable with Sikkhism. As covered earlier, there are steps to empower both Dalits and Women. The only friction point which goes back to the history of the sub-continent is alsong the Hinduism-Islam divide
They need a re-think but devoid of new ideas or even critical thinking it appears they have check-mated themselves. Everything they do strengthens the hand of the BJP
Opposition
Sometimes it is good for a strong opposition to question the ruling government (when it is necessary). Unfortunately, in my country thre are many political parties that say they will oppose the ruling party for the sake of opposing it no matter how much sense the policy actually made. They actively make implementing good proposals exteremly hard for no good reason. This pissed a lot of people of and there is a strong belief that the checks and balances are actually a hinderance
The stance goes that elections are necessary and should be had without fail but whoever wins should be able to rule however they want till the next elections. A mixture of autocracy and democracy if you will.
Will it work in India? I don't know, maybe, maybe not. Time reveals all I suppose
