Why Amartya Sen Fails To See An Idea Whose Time Has Come
Victor
Hugo once famously said, “No army can stop an idea whose time has come.”
Amartya
Sen doesn’t seem to have read this quote. Otherwise he would not have made the
comment that Modi has won the battle of power only and not that of ideas.
Many
years ago, a woman exasperated and impatient with not understanding the speech
of a minister in British parliament had said, “Sir, I neither understand your
politics nor your mustache.” The minister always ready with wit had answered, “Madam,
you will never reach either of them.” Today one feels like saying the same to him,
“Mr. Sen, sir, you will never understand either his power or his ideas.”
We
read in our school that the idea of ‘Satyagraha’ for Gandhi that gave Indians
freedom originated in South Africa, at that time ruled by the Whites. The idea
of Congress was also started by Whites who passed it on to their brown
counterparts. Nehru went to study in England and developed his ideas of Fabian
socialism in its universities, applied its parliamentary system and
institutions that established democracy in India. Gandhi’s idea of freedom
struggle itself was taken from Thoreau’s philosophy of civil disobedience and therefore,
our father of the nation was not a home grown tree. His ideas too were imported,
lock, stock and barrel. Whatever the great men of India did, they first learnt
it outside, borrowed and perfected it to Indian soil.
The
ideas of India that we inherited at the time of independence had everything in
it originating outside our shores. We borrowed ideas from outside and owed our
identity to those sources. Any original idea had to be traced back to a source outside
India, and if not found to be so, imagined and ascribed to a White discovery.
Narendra
Modi has become an aberration to this theme. A crack has developed. It was a
foregone conclusion that India would be ruled by a certain family and no one
else. There lies the difficulty of Amartya Sen and other intellectuals. They
have solved it by bracketing Narendra Modi as where he symbolizes power and is
without any intellectual ideas. The message is clear. All worthwhile ideas are
on the plate of Amartya Sen.
Many
years ago, Nelson Mandela created an identity crisis for many intellectuals
when he declared that he developed his ideas of democracy and equality from
watching his elders in the village council and how they practiced ‘Ubuntu’. That
he did not derive the idea of democracy from the West.
With
Narendra Modi’s ascendance to power, India is saying the same. The identity
crisis for the intellectuals has reached epidemic proportions and is leading to
schizophrenia like state. What does the White race say then about their greatness
is all about?
So,
intellectuals of the world unite. Amartya Sen has called. Listen The New York Times,
The Washington Post, The Guardian, The BBC, The CNN, Time and everyone else. Just
chill and understand this. You will never have such a challenge again in the
history of free thought. The Authors, the poets, the intellectuals bring out
your awards given by Rahul baba’s family. Keep them handy and ready to be
returned. You will be compensated a hundred times when Rahul baba takes over. No
pun intended. But for now, it is your time to show your yearning for free
speech and secularism. Cry in one voice for the idea of India being mutilated. Proudly
proclaim in one voice that Narendra Damodardas Modi represents power and symbolizes
no idea. It will be worth the effort.
So,
here we have a teetotaler, a vegetarian, who even spends time like a monk in
caves and fasts like a regressive Hindu, who even touches his mother’s feet [shame
on him, which world leader ever does that] has been selected a leader of a
nation with a majority. A home grown Indian product with not an iota of western
residue in sight.
But
can one blame the nation for this idea of selecting him? Of course not. They
after all have been selecting the family for decades and given me a Bharat Ratna.
So, let us call it a mistake, a battle between ideas and power and we seculars
will forgive. For the intellectuals it should not be a ‘hara-kiri’ as they
defend their citadel.
If
Narendra Modi represented no idea and was a dullard, would a genius like Amartya
Sen would have written an article about him that too touching every area he
claims to have an expertise upon? Is it because he knows that Narendra Modi represents
a single idea, the idea being, “Be in the majority of one and walk alone even
if no one comes on hearing your voice.”
During
the French revolution, the French Queen Marie Antoinette had an idea. When told
the people were hungry, she had demanded why the people were not eating more cakes
and wondered why enough cakes didn’t reach them. There would be no revolution
she had said. The people had another idea and beheaded her.
Some
ideas come from empty stomach, Amartya Sen, from the frustration of bread, sorry
roti being snatched and your meal being taken away. The Indian people are at
that point. Narendra Modi represents that aspiration. This is not an idea that
comes in gatherings where wine flows like water, nor in universities that have
billions in endowment funds. They originate in the minds of those who run after
trains, knowing very well that the next train may be late and one may not earn
enough for the day to go on. There is a term for it too. It is called ‘the
school of life’ and its unique feature is that it awards no degrees.
My
father belonged to the generation. After the independence he stopped dreaming
soon enough and never taught me to dream either. He didn’t want me to be
disillusioned. He taught me and my sister to survive first, learn to pay the
corrupt and remain silent on seeing injustice lest we be killed.
Today,
I see the present generation beginning to dream again. It makes me so happy. I
don’t want that dream to end this time, be destroyed by forces we could do
nothing about. The millions of this generation believe that Narendra Modi is
that idea which can stop those forces so that our youth breathe free and dream.
I don’t think you will understand that, now or ever. Your economics, justice
and theories of famine are abstract concepts, historical forces which can be discuss
over expensive wines or in elite universities. But it is also understood and felt
in a different way by millions of Indians who go hungry and dream that tomorrow
will be better. Narendra Modi represents that India. He has sacrificed his life,
his family to put India first, not you.
“Indians
are learning to dream, Amartya Sen. Go to any small town or village and know
why the young on the verge of starting their lives believe that Narendra Modi is
the answer to their hopes. They don’t get shamed anymore by intellectual
discourses, by someone telling them what they think is wrong and that they
should not dream. You have to understand the language of aspirations for that.
I doubt if it exists in your vocabulary.”
Sometime
back you wrote a book called ‘The Idea of Justice’. I suggest you re-read it
and write one more with the title ‘The Idea to Understand Indian People’. I
promise you it will be a worthwhile project for you.
Rajat
Mitra
Psychologist
and Author of ‘The Infidel Next Door’
Link
for my book ‘The Infidel Next Door’ on Amazon.in
Contact
Book Club of India via following email bookclubofindia@gmail.com for delivery of
overseas orders of the book.
The
book ‘The Infidel Next Door’ is also available through the following link https://www.garudabooks.com/the-infidel-next-door/
The
book is also available at select book stores.
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