What drives a historian, one as thoughtful as Guha, to keep crying wolf about an imaginary Pakistan, even as Modi's dollar store Nazis rip apart his own country?
Some thoughts.
Some thoughts.
To save everyone time, Professor @Le_Sabre54 summed it up best here (besides being the genesis of 'dollar store Nazis').
@Le_Sabre54 But on we must go, with this thought experiment.
In fairness to him, Mr. Guha wasn't always this way – he called out whataboutery when he saw it. Here he hints that India's neurosis might not be Pakistan's.
(Of course, Modi hadn't become PM yet.)
In fairness to him, Mr. Guha wasn't always this way – he called out whataboutery when he saw it. Here he hints that India's neurosis might not be Pakistan's.
(Of course, Modi hadn't become PM yet.)
@Le_Sabre54 Around the same time, our left went into a denial of their own. How could the secular land they had been amputated from (gently skipping over Nellie, Delhi, Gujarat) become the nightmare now predicted? Wasn't Jinnah wrong?
This piece was widely critiqued.
asadrahim.com/2014/05/20/mod…
This piece was widely critiqued.
asadrahim.com/2014/05/20/mod…
@Le_Sabre54 And rightly so, if for different reasons: Nehru's appraisal is much too generous, and doesn't withstand deeper inspection.
But even a historian like Guha fell in the same trap, thinking Nehru's lip service (while he sent Kashmiris to the dungeons) would keep the monsters at bay.
But even a historian like Guha fell in the same trap, thinking Nehru's lip service (while he sent Kashmiris to the dungeons) would keep the monsters at bay.
@Le_Sabre54 No such India ever existed, and its vestiges were buried not by Modi and Advani, but by Indira and Sanjay.
Only parallel for Pakistan: it's best for the left not to throw their lot in with vicious, decaying dynasties, and their idiot boy-kings. The results are unpredictable.
Only parallel for Pakistan: it's best for the left not to throw their lot in with vicious, decaying dynasties, and their idiot boy-kings. The results are unpredictable.
@Le_Sabre54 Following up: five years and two electoral landslides later, we arrive at the present: a full-fledged Nazi project, from gangland killings in Gujarat to Muslim extermination in the centre. A piece like this would have been unthinkable not too long ago. newyorker.com/magazine/2019/…
@Le_Sabre54 So now that the Fourth Reich is in full swing, defying the predictions of India's centre (and Pakistan's left), would there be resistance from the women and men meant to speak 'truth to power'?
Short answer: no.
Short answer: no.
@Le_Sabre54 Then again, resistance is hard when fascism is genuinely popular. How can everyone be crazy?
This is something unique to the electorate after Indira. Mass murder guarantees a thumping re-election victory; Rajiv's party in '84 and Modi in '02.
washingtonpost.com/archive/politi…
This is something unique to the electorate after Indira. Mass murder guarantees a thumping re-election victory; Rajiv's party in '84 and Modi in '02.
washingtonpost.com/archive/politi…
@Le_Sabre54 All this makes this argument (now being repeated ad nauseam by India's terrified historians, politicians, and journalists) so ignorant.
Jinnah's departure didn't make India go crazy – it was the horror of Hindu-majority India that made Jinnah leave.
Jinnah's departure didn't make India go crazy – it was the horror of Hindu-majority India that made Jinnah leave.
@Le_Sabre54 And on it goes.
Congress reduced the problem in '47 to a single lawyer that it called cold and communal.
Congress externalises the same problem today to a neighbouring country that has as much to do with Assam as Shashi has to do with cogent arguments.
Congress reduced the problem in '47 to a single lawyer that it called cold and communal.
Congress externalises the same problem today to a neighbouring country that has as much to do with Assam as Shashi has to do with cogent arguments.
@Le_Sabre54 Final absurd comparison, since everyone's doing it:
Pakistan fought militancy (at least) since 2007. In many ways, it's still fighting. The tide turned when it was diagnosed – these demons were our own.
But India has chosen to elect its demons. It's time for a better diagnosis.
Pakistan fought militancy (at least) since 2007. In many ways, it's still fighting. The tide turned when it was diagnosed – these demons were our own.
But India has chosen to elect its demons. It's time for a better diagnosis.
