[Reader-list] Proud of a notion

[Pawan Durani]

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/proud-of-a-notion/393506/

If one can hopefully treat the Kerala chief minister's remarks as a
one-off, the Mumbai tragedy has seen the continuation of the Left's
efforts, including earlier ones by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, to find a
niche in the nationalist narrative. There was a time the Left was at
best indifferent to what are broadly called national security matters
or stories of patriotism. Recall the dismissive Left attitude to the
investigation into the 1998 Coimbatore blasts. Marxists then sounded
as if concerns over targeting senior political figures was just
over-excited bunkum. That is why CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat's
reference to Achuthanandan's "homage" to Sandeep Unnikrishnan is
important. Clearly, the Left's attitude to the armed forces and
national security is changing. But the Left's efforts are hobbled by
three problems.

First, the Left carries the intellectual baggage of Marxist
internationalism. This has been discarded almost everywhere. But what
Raul Castro doesn't want to talk about and China's ultra-nationalist
communists hold in contempt still excites Left politicians in India.
The second reason why the Left seldom sounds convincing in its
periodic articulation of the idea of India is also thanks to theory.

The "thinkers" in Delhi continue to be deeply suspicious of what they
see as the nationalist project of "privileged classes". This theory
comes up against two realities. Contrary to Marxist profundities,
material conditions never wholly explain the alchemy of nationalism.
Also, prosperity is increasing in India. Millions of people have been
added to what is described roughly as the middle class, and in rural
India the insufficient presence and therefore the hunger for, not
indifference to, modernity set the social and political context. Class
matters (so do, sadly, caste and religion), but what matters most is
the demand for a ticket to modern India.

The third problem with leftist attempts to speak authoritatively for
India comes from praxis. The Left's electoral geography in India
disincentivises a pan-national political view. Bengal and Kerala,
mercifully, haven't been terrorist targets and so until recently the
Left's responses to Terror lacked energy. Indeed, the Left has been
more energetic on sub-nationalism — the Bengal CPM has in many ways
articulated "Bengali" grievances against "centres of power". The silly
interventions for Sourav Ganguly by Bengal CPM leaders speak of a
deeper, quasi-chauvinistic impulse. The neglect in taking on extremist
groups operating from Kerala is a more worrisome manifestation. It is
in India's interest of course that the Left find a better nationalist
voice. But it is even more in the Left's interest