Even I’m not this cynical typically, but the lack of any public comments from Biden/Harris suggests that this is in fact an attempt to take Modi down a peg.
That this move could very well result in the deaths of Indians (compounded no doubt by the Modi govt’s failures) is a timely reminder that the path to global hegemony is not paved with kindness and charity, but w/ruthlessly calculated violence in the service of national interest
That some Indians can hardly contain their glee at the prospect of a weakened Modi is why India will remain a third rate power for the foreseeable future. An elite in a country as diverse of India will always have differences, but knowing when to circle the wagons is key.
Despite centuries of humiliation aided and abetted by excessive factionalism, this is a lesson that the Indian elite has not yet learned. They remain handmaidens of power, ever ready to serve as intermediaries between an outsider and the benighted natives
Naipaul— as usual— put it best: “Its mimicry is both less and more than a colonial mimicry. It is the special mimicry of an old country which has been without a native aristocracy for a thousand years and has learned to make room for outsiders, but only at the top”

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More from @vjgtweets

22 Apr
Just a reminder that the Indian gov’t is relying on The Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897 to tackle a pandemic in the year 2021
“Firstly, the most glaring omission in the Act is that the term ‘epidemic’ has not been defined in the entire Act.”

...
jurist.org/commentary/202…
“It also ignores the implementation of large vaccine drives. The concept of vaccination, while quite nascent in 1897, has assumed a platform of global importance that definitely requires a mention in the Act.”
Read 4 tweets
22 Apr
The British colonial government was optimized to protect the crown’s commercial interests in India, not to provide welfare or prosperity for Indians. In moments of crisis, the colonial edifice of the Indian state comes into particularly stark refrain.
As a related matter, this is why the BJP’s greatest policy successes thus far have not been due to an increase in state capacity, but a willingness to bypass the state completely (e.g. direct welfare delivery)
Read 4 tweets
31 Mar
Aurobindo on Bengal’s role as the fount of Indian nationalism:

“Bengal was once drunk with the wine of European civilisation and with the purely intellectual teaching that it received from the west...”
“It began to see all things, to judge all things through the imperfect instrumentality of the intellect. When it was so, Bengal became atheistic, it became a land of doubters and cynics.”
“But still in Bengal there was an element of strength. Whatever the Bengali believed...he lived what he believed.”
Read 5 tweets
29 Mar
"The study of history too can become warped. The colonized African student, whose roots in his own society are systematically starved of sustenance, is introduced to Greek and Roman history, the cradle history of modern Europe, and he is encouraged to treat this portion of the... Image
story of man together with the subsequent history of Europe as the only worthwhile portion.This history is anointed with a universalist flavoring which titillates the palate of certain African intellectuals so agreeably that they become alienated from their own immediate society"
"One of these subtle methods is to be found in the account of history. The history of Africa, as presented by European scholars, has been encumbered with malicious myths. It was even denied that we were a historical people" Image
Read 9 tweets
27 Mar
One of the stupidest tropes you’ll hear diaspora express is fear of “legitimizing” hindutva, as if the 300 million Indians who voted for the BJP in 2019 are waiting to have their world view validated by a bunch of English speaking activists on the other side the world.
In any case, this helps preserve an aura of mystique around hindutva that is useful to critics of the ruling dispensation who seek sympathetic western audiences. They want validation, not understanding.
This aura of mystique is also useful for the most cowardly of our own, who have never once stood up for themselves (they’ll always be the kid in the cafeteria, embarrassed about their “strange smelling” lunch)
Read 5 tweets
24 Mar
It is unsurprising that American city councils are filled with useful idiots who see an opportunity to seize electoral clout by passing meaningless resolutions against other countries, but the bigger concern is that certain Indians themselves see this as a legit form of politics
The habit of appealing to foreign powers to settle domestic political disputes is a bad habit with a long pedigree in India. Aurobindo called out the Congress Moderates for the same in the early 20th century:
In the passage below, he excoriates Gopal Gokhale (a leader of the moderate faction) for patronizing the Anglo-Indian press in preference to the swadeshi press
Read 7 tweets

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