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With Values Like These ... With Values Like These ...
(2 months later)
NEW DELHI — Of all the pictorial charts used in Indian schools as teaching aids, it was the Ideal Boy that haunted my generation. The Ideal Boy woke up and brushed his teeth with care, saluted his parents, prayed, had his meals on time, helped others, performed sundry duties and, more puzzling, took “lost children to police post.” NEW DELHI — Of all the pictorial charts used in Indian schools as teaching aids, it was the Ideal Boy that haunted my generation. The Ideal Boy woke up and brushed his teeth with care, saluted his parents, prayed, had his meals on time, helped others, performed sundry duties and, more puzzling, took “lost children to police post.”
The Ideal Boy embodied certain Indian values, and though these seemed innocuous enough, there was something about his smudgy features, identifiably mainstream Hindu and North Indian, and his expression of saintly smugness that scarred my child brain. Now that I am an adult, and that the right-wing has come back to power in India, I understand why I was so queasy back then. The feeling was a foreboding that otherwise unobjectionable traditional Indian values — respect for one’s family, obedience to elders, modesty for women — might be invoked to reject or repress certain groups. The Ideal Boy embodied certain Indian values, and though these seemed innocuous enough, there was something about his smudgy features, identifiably mainstream Hindu and North Indian, and his expression of saintly smugness that scarred my child brain. Now that I am an adult, and that the right-wing has come back to power in India, I understand why I was so queasy back then. The feeling was a foreboding that otherwise unobjectionable traditional Indian values — respect for one’s family, obedience to elders, modesty for women — might be invoked to reject or repress certain groups.
The new Bharatiya Janata Party government seems determined to look to Asia for political and cultural inspiration. Prime Minister Narendra Modi projects an image of himself as an authority — even an authoritarian — figure, in keeping with the regional ideal of a strong leader. All the while he has been careful to reach out to his counterparts. His first scheduled trips abroad will be to Bhutan and then Japan: and the Chinese foreign minister has just ended a visit to India.The new Bharatiya Janata Party government seems determined to look to Asia for political and cultural inspiration. Prime Minister Narendra Modi projects an image of himself as an authority — even an authoritarian — figure, in keeping with the regional ideal of a strong leader. All the while he has been careful to reach out to his counterparts. His first scheduled trips abroad will be to Bhutan and then Japan: and the Chinese foreign minister has just ended a visit to India.
His approach isn’t just a personal predilection; it also reflects a wider shift within India: the search, especially among right-wing politicians and intellectuals, for a common set of Asian cultural norms that would help them create and strengthen a new sense of Indian identity.His approach isn’t just a personal predilection; it also reflects a wider shift within India: the search, especially among right-wing politicians and intellectuals, for a common set of Asian cultural norms that would help them create and strengthen a new sense of Indian identity.
In the 1990s, Lee Kuan Yew, the former prime minister of Singapore, triggered a fierce debate by drawing a line between Western freedoms and human rights, on the one hand, and on the other, an Asian vision of living in harmony, which might place individual rights in abeyance for the good of the community. In India, this “Asian values” debate found its way into discussions on development, among other things, notably in arguments trying to discredit environmentalists for being too heavily influenced by the West.In the 1990s, Lee Kuan Yew, the former prime minister of Singapore, triggered a fierce debate by drawing a line between Western freedoms and human rights, on the one hand, and on the other, an Asian vision of living in harmony, which might place individual rights in abeyance for the good of the community. In India, this “Asian values” debate found its way into discussions on development, among other things, notably in arguments trying to discredit environmentalists for being too heavily influenced by the West.
The problems with that position are the same now as they were then. As the economist Amartya Sen put it in 1997, “What can we take to be the values of so vast a region, with such diversity?” As a result, invoking an Indian, or Asian, identity in such a plural country, or region, often becomes an excuse for the majority to speak over many minorities.The problems with that position are the same now as they were then. As the economist Amartya Sen put it in 1997, “What can we take to be the values of so vast a region, with such diversity?” As a result, invoking an Indian, or Asian, identity in such a plural country, or region, often becomes an excuse for the majority to speak over many minorities.
And why assume, Mr. Sen also argued, that “Western notions” were “somehow alien to Asia”? Yet just a couple of weeks ago, a report by the Indian government’s Intelligence Bureau on the influence of NGOs was leaked to the media. One of its conclusions was that many local NGOs — some funded by “donors based in the U.S., the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands and Scandinavian countries” — had been “using people-centric issues” to stall development projects. Another was that some of their work served “as tools for the strategic foreign policy interests” of Western governments.And why assume, Mr. Sen also argued, that “Western notions” were “somehow alien to Asia”? Yet just a couple of weeks ago, a report by the Indian government’s Intelligence Bureau on the influence of NGOs was leaked to the media. One of its conclusions was that many local NGOs — some funded by “donors based in the U.S., the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands and Scandinavian countries” — had been “using people-centric issues” to stall development projects. Another was that some of their work served “as tools for the strategic foreign policy interests” of Western governments.
This stiff-collared bureaucrat-speak isn’t just a peculiarity of the Intelligence Bureau: It reveals a suspicion of the West — and of a human rights culture seen to have been forged in the West — that is widespread in India, among politicians and businessmen and, indeed, many ordinary Indians.This stiff-collared bureaucrat-speak isn’t just a peculiarity of the Intelligence Bureau: It reveals a suspicion of the West — and of a human rights culture seen to have been forged in the West — that is widespread in India, among politicians and businessmen and, indeed, many ordinary Indians.
Every major case of rape recently, for example, has prompted a belligerent reaction against the victim, often couched in terms that pit India against the West. On June 7, a leading ideologue of the extreme right-wing organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, S. Gurumurthy, raised a minor storm of protest when he tweeted: “If Indian women westernize rapes will rise by 50/60 times to reach the levels of West, But there will be no media report No UN intervention.” Among his next few tweets was this definition of Westernization: “Unbridled individualism which destroys relations and families.” Every major case of rape recently, for example, has prompted a belligerent reaction against the victim, often couched in terms that pit India against the West. On June 7, a leading ideologue of the extreme right-wing organization Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, S. Gurumurthy, raised a minor storm of protest when he tweeted: “If Indian women westernize rapes will rise by 50/60 times to reach the levels of West, But there will be no media report No UN intervention.” Among his next few tweets was this definition of Westernization: “Unbridled individualism which destroys relations and families.”
These days, the purportedly shady influence of the West is invoked not only to explain why women are victims of sexual violence, but also why Indian culture is in danger, artists should be censored or anyone who questions the costs of development is “anti-national.” In other words, the return of the Asian values debate in India has already become an excuse to assault civil and political rights.These days, the purportedly shady influence of the West is invoked not only to explain why women are victims of sexual violence, but also why Indian culture is in danger, artists should be censored or anyone who questions the costs of development is “anti-national.” In other words, the return of the Asian values debate in India has already become an excuse to assault civil and political rights.
The first time around, Mr. Sen had argued that “The so-called Asian values that are invoked to justify authoritarianism are not especially Asian in any significant sense.” This was a wise attempt to get beyond hopeless dichotomies. But it appealed to rationality, and lately rationality is a value that has seemed not Indian enough.The first time around, Mr. Sen had argued that “The so-called Asian values that are invoked to justify authoritarianism are not especially Asian in any significant sense.” This was a wise attempt to get beyond hopeless dichotomies. But it appealed to rationality, and lately rationality is a value that has seemed not Indian enough.
Nilanjana S. Roy is an essayist and critic, and author of the novel “The Wildings.”Nilanjana S. Roy is an essayist and critic, and author of the novel “The Wildings.”