Ramchandra Guha’s article in the Sunday Times e

Ramchandra Guha’s article in the Sunday Times, UK.

Ramchandra Guha a bitter critic of PM Narendra Modi and his, ‘Hindu Majoritarian’ policies wrote a surprisingly favourable article in the Sunday Times dated 13 August. Titled, ‘Can India be the next superpower’ he admits that India has proven wrong the prophets of doom who predicted that the country would not last long. The Western media prophesised that India would experience mass famine, militant dictatorship and may break up. Guha claims that in recent years a different tune is being sung in which India is being projected as an emerging great power of the world. Guha says that India’s vibrant democracy is a proof that impoverished nations can be democratic too. The rapid growth of its economy and its flourishing IT and pharmaceutical sector are offered as proof of India’s ability to make destitution a thing of the past. According to Guha as Europe, Japan and China age, India could supply millions of young  skilled workers to these countries. He says Modi is a powerful orator who can speak with apparent authority on subjects as diverse as Solar Energy and Artificial Intelligence. Modi is courted by both the West and Russia. After this fulsome praise Guha changes gear and reverts to his anti-Modi/Hindu mode. He calls Modi the most divisive, charismatic and cunning politician. According to Guha, Modi and the BJP are authoritarian by instinct and majoritarian by belief. The democratic backsliding and attacks on minorities are therefore not accidental according to him. Guha claims that to secure a third term, Modi and his party may seek to further stoke tensions against Muslims, so as to consolidate the majority Hindu votes at election time. While at the  beginning of his article Guha praises India’s democracy and predicts a Modi victory in next years elections he now claims that the BJP may stoke tensions against Muslims so as to consolidate the Hindu majority vote. Such is his  passionate dislike of Hindus that Guha gets entangled in his own web of contradictions. In one of his articles called, ‘Cult of Modi’, Guha says that the democratic pillars such as the press, judiciary, the bureaucracy and even the Cabinet have been used as instruments of the State by the Modi government. In an article in 2021 he says that ‘our’ failures cannot be blamed on the foreigners who colonised us. He listed three areas of concern:

1 Treatment of Women

2 Lack of interest in modern knowledge. 

3 And the trust Hindus have in scriptures over reason. 

These criticisms contradict his praise of India’s IT success. Trust in Hindu scriptures does not mean that Hindus do not accept reason. In another article in 2021 Guha claimed that the Hindu mind has shrunk in its capacity for free thought and self critique. In a 2022 article Guha asks a rhetorical question: ‘Can the Hindu mind regain its balance, shed its belief in its supremacist ideology and truly embrace the ideals of the freedom struggle’? A faith that talks of Vasudev Kutumbhkam is accused of having a supremacist ideology. Hindus have never converted anyone through violence. Guha would not dare to ask such questions of other faiths because he knows that the reaction would be unimaginable. His earlier remark of ‘our’ failures just shows how quickly Guha claims his Hindu credentials when it suits his purpose. Left wing Historians, academics and journalists are clutching at straws to preserve their self importance in a world which has moved away from their hateful ideology. 

Nitin Mehta 

www.nitinmehta.co.uk

13 August 2023