I have a lot of skepticism towards Hindu nationalism… but seriously? That article validates every criticism I’ve heard from Hindu nationalists about the liberal Indian intelligentsia.

It reads like the author really does care more about what liberal Westerners think than about other Indians. And the whole “we can’t become more Hindu because liberal democracy is inherently Western” is just about the stupidest argument you could make if you want to convince Hindu nationalists of the necessity of liberal democracy. If you set up Hinduism and liberal democracy as mutually exclusive, which do you think they’re going to pick?

Growth rate is usually measured by % growth. If you start with 2 Hindus and they convert 4 of their friends, you have 200% growth rate.

I don’t think it’s all that telling a figure for very small minorities.

“– The Modi government does not face criticism because it’s not doing a good enough job of selling its story. I”

Without going through all of Dhume’s article , I thin there is much truth in the above statement. Hindutva is not good at propaganda or intellectual diatribes or using modern political especially leftist rhetoric to it’a advantage. It does not have an ‘intellectual’ wing which can face the external world with sound arguments.

Otherwise it quite democratic both internally and externally. Of course it is reliant on RSS during election times ; OTOH is it much different than the British Labour Party’s reliance on unions to get votes and in fact the labour unions have a lot of say in Labour’s membership and policy making. Even though Tony Blair pruned Labour’s reliance on Trade Unions for his ‘New Labour’ there is still much reliannce.

Islamists in the west and elsewhere have been coached by leftists in using leftist rhetoric for their public relations and they make strange bedfellows. Labour is relying on Pakistani Muslim vote , so he has given a free pass for Islamist propaganda, perhaps Democrats are doing something similar.

To come back to the propaganda capability and reach of Hindutva , there is much to be desired massive work to be done – to begin with Hindutva should less critical of academia and know how to co-opt them.

Hindutva is an genuine though imperfect democratic movement. Indian democracy has been strengthened by BJP.

People like Dhume are pining for undemocratic and elitist Dynastic politics .

You’re not describing an Indian issue, you’re describing an issue everywhere. People aren’t technocrats at heart. They use politics for identity and self-expression.

Just look at the sad fate of the YIMBY and Urbanism crowds in America. They have a number of technocratic solutions to improve American cities. Aside from a few Twitter bubbles, nobody cares. They’d rather focus on being woke and hating Trump.

That legit doesn’t make sense to me. Without universal suffrage and mass politics, Hindu nationalism would not exist. Universal suffrage meas you elicit voices from everyone…and everyone includes the unwoke dudes who moved in from random UP mofussils!

Trying to pass off the BJP as “anti-democratic” is a cute rhetorical maneuver that may get Dhume accolades at his cocktail parties, but doesn’t really pass muster. They won fair and square, Dhume should get over it.

Movie is about caste conflict, though filmmakers seem to have gotten cold feet in explicitly stating it so. General euphemisms of “you people” and “we people” have been employed to convey the identity of lower and upper castes.

Dhanush presumably is the “Asuran”, the hero of the Dalits side (or is he schedule tribe?). (Relatively) fair skinned upper caste folks are the villains of the piece.

What I found curious is that usually it is the upper caste non-Brahmin Tamils who are considered the upholders of Dravidian pride. If Dalits are the real Asurs, does that make these flag bears of Dravidian pride “Aryans” ? Ouch!

And the irony over irony is the real Asurs may actually be an Iranian branch of Aryans!

https://vahaduo.github.io/vahaduo/
Averages from here:
https://justpaste.it/459dt

0.02829668 Brahmin_Tamil_Nadu
0.02866288 Iyer
0.03166273 Gujarati
0.03221895 Kshatriya
0.03529841 Punjabi_Lahore
0.03793804 Kol
0.03872670 Brahmin_West_Bengal
0.04128814 Kanjar
0.04652143 Brahmin_Uttar_Pradesh
0.04670603 Velamas
0.05310946 Kamboj_o
0.05443638 Brahmin_Gujarat
0.05513042 Dharkar
0.06577446 Dusadh
0.06734463 Yadava
0.06774379 Gujar_India
0.06778602 Uttar_Pradesh
0.07075400 Kurumba
0.07118506 Maratha
0.07222586 Piramalai
0.07761529 Chamar
0.07785351 Bengali_Bangladesh
0.07817490 Gupta
0.08885336 Gujar_Pakistan
0.08939254 Chenchu

I’m not a Leftie. The side you are supporting (Modi and bunch) are way to my left when it comes to economic issues and the role of government, though not in social/cultural terms.

You haven’t lived in India and don’t seem to know much about how things work here (occasional visits spent in the extended family cocoon don’t count). These kinds of social/political issues suck all the oxygen out of the public space of discourse, leaving no time to discuss and debate the stuff that really matters for our future. Basically all that matters to our daily lives is left to inept bureaucrats who keep doing things the same way they were done 100 years ago; the leaders at the top (like Modi) have no learning or imagination to analyze and fix things. So they focus on hot button issues that are easy to comprehend and sell.

You have been spoiled by living in a country where institutions are strong and competent enough to manage most of your daily life for you, so you can focus on your personal life and career (you don’t seem to appreciate this, but that’s a different matter).

jstanotherlurker, this is precisely the point of the author of the “missing temples” article. you will see some ancient temples south and west of ganges valley, like in rajasthan and bundelkhand. but across the entire swath of ganges valley down to bengal, and across entire indus valley one will be hard pressed to find even a single standing ancient temple that is still in use.

these riverine valleys were the stronghold of islamic empires. outside these plains areas lay the realm of hindu kings, who maintained some degree of autonomy and could build temples in their hilly fastness. but in the plains they were all wiped clean.