[Reader-list] Where's the critical thinking on the Gujarat election results?

[Subuhi Jiwani]

Dear all,
   
  Since the Gujarat elections results were announced, my editor-friend in New York (Bill Weinberg, www.ww4report.com) asked me for an angle from which he/we could approach the news and critically analyse what it means. I turned to the Sarai listserv in the hope that I would find some critical thinking on the subject here. But I have been grossly disappointed by the nature of the conversation. 
   
  Some of you have celebrated Modi's victory and are eagerly waiting for his entry into national-level politics. Others have bemoaned it and sent us links to Muslim prayers. Still others have compared the wrongdoings of Hindus and Muslims through the course of history. 
   
  I must also say here that the conversation has been caught up in responding to so-and-so and clarifying so-and-so's -- or the writer's -- points and his/her terminology. Several emails are exchanged between individuals and I've been hearing opinions, responses and counter-responses. But where is the critical thinking? The rigorous analysis? The incisive probing? The disrobing of Modi's seemingly successful hegemonic project in Gujarat? The Gujarati intellectuals who are living in the state?   
   
    Vivek's note was reassuring though. Let me say, as he does, that Modi's victory is a tragic event for Indian democracy. That "what we have here are two world views that hate each 
other but are, not coincidentally, symmetrical in their design" (Narayanan). 

   
  I remember an email that Moinak Biswas had sent to this group, an email that gave a personal and yet critical account of the protest in Kolkata against what happened in Nandigram. It was personal, emotional even, but an alternative kind of reportage. It was a voice that I wouldn't have heard in the mainstream media. It was empirical observation and fact mixed in with personal comment and critical thought. It was refreshing. It was the kind of alternative thinking -- and I don't mean only politically but methodologically too -- that I expect to encounter in this space.        
   
  One question that I have is: How did Modi manage so effectively to brainwash the Gujarati voters with his promise of development when the Tehelka expose, which once again underlined his protection of murderers and arsonists, had come out just weeks before the election?  
   
  All these questions only mean that there's a ton of more reading I need to do. Any insights you have on the matter are welcome.
   
  Warmly,
   
  Subuhi Jiwani


Subuhi Jiwani
Freelance writer
51, Pyramid 
next to Dariya Mahal
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Mumbai 400061 
98927-66618
(022)2636-6367

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With nothing can one approach a work of art so little as with critical words: they always come down to more or less happy misunderstandings... A work of art is good if it has sprung from necessity. In this nature of its origin lies the judgement of it: there is no other.

Rainer Maria Rilke, in a letter to Franz Xaver Kappus, 1903; from 'Letters to a young poet', 1934
       
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