Nation's Two Bodies: rethinking the idea of ‘new' India and its other

Abstract

The idea of a post-1990s re-formed India is shaped by an imaginary of a fractured body of the nation—a ‘new’ nation in tune with the neoliberal desires of a structurally adjusted world and the ‘old’ nation constitutive of superfluous matter in excess of that seductive world. This imaginary is not only etched in popular discourses but also in the policy-making apparatus engaged in the task of creating a global identity for India. Taking the Brand India initiative—promoted by the Indian state to produce positive images of the nation for global publicity—as a case study, this article argues that in this shift from nation building to nation branding, the very idea of prosperity and equity has now become first and foremost a matter of image. In this world of images, one can also witness how a competitive strategy to seek more corporate investments through concerted brand campaigns has redefined the relationship between the nation and corporations. While earlier it was the corporations which sought the endorsement and patronage of the sovereign, now it is sovereign nations which are seeking to become the most ‘favoured investment destinations’ that purvey global capital.

Acknowledgements

I remain deeply thankful to Aniket Alam, Ananya Jahanara Kabir and Srirupa Roy for providing critical readings of this article. The article has benefitted from discussions at the 2010 Asian Dynamics Initiative workshop ‘Governing Difference’, University of Copenhagen as well as South Asia History Seminars 2011 at SOAS, London. I wish I knew how to include more of the good ideas generated in these conversations.

Notes

1 Brand India campaign, ‘Right Place, Right time’, 2007, India Brand Equity Foundation, at www.ibef.org

2 India vs India, ‘India Poised’ campaign 2007, Times of India Group, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP-TwHwLc98, accessed 15 December 2011.

3 ‘Protests force Tata to stop building car plant’, New York Times, 2 September 2008; and ‘Singur is a slap on the face of Brand India’, Indian Express, 3 September 2008.

4 ‘India dominates Billionaires' List’, Wall Street Journal, 6 March 2008, at www.blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2008/03/06/india-dominates-billionaires-list/, accessed 15 December 2011.

5 John Comaroff & Jean Comaroff, Ethnicity, Inc, Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press, 2009.

6 For a detailed account of corporate activity under colonial rule, see R Birla, Stages of Capital: Law, Culture and Market Governance in Late Colonial India, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009.

7 The idea of emerging powers is explored in C Jaffrelot (ed), The Emerging States: The Well Spring of a New World Order, New York: Columbia University Press, 2009.

8 See P Chatterjee, Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World: A Derivative Discourse, London: Zed Books, 1986; and D Ludden, ‘India's development regime’, in N Dirks (ed), Colonialism and Culture, Ann Arbor, MI: Michigan University Press, 1992, pp 247–288.

9 D Gaonkar, ‘An avalanche of images’, Public Culture, 22(2), 2010, pp 217–222.

10 William Mazarella describes brands as conceptual extensions of trademark that assert legal ownership of identity through logos and advertising images. However, Brand India does not make any legal claim towards ownership of India; rather it appears mainly as a marketing discourse. W Mazarella, Shoveling Smoke: Advertising and Globalization in Contemporary India, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003, pp 185–187.

11 For an account of the shift towards brand making in newly re-formed India, see A Rajagopal, ‘Thinking through emerging markets: brand logics and the cultural forms of political society in India’, Social Text, 17(3), 1999, pp 131–149.

12 ‘Towards creating Brand India’, Financial Express, 15 February 2003.

13 Manmohan Singh is popularly and complimentarily called the ceo of India Inc, a shift that is meant to mark the market friendliness of the nation. See, for example, the recently published portrait of the prime minister by A Ahuja (ed), Manmohan Singh: ceo, India Inc, Delhi: Pentagon Press, 2009.

14 Y Johnston, ‘Developing Brand South Africa’, in K Dinnie (ed), Nation Branding: Concepts, Issues, Practices, Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2008, p 5.

15 F Gilmore, ‘A country—can it be repositioned? Spain—the success story of country branding’, Journal of Brand Management, 9(4–5), 2002, p 283.

16 See S Roy, Beyond Belief: India and the Politics of Postcolonial Nationalism, Delhi: Permanent Black, 2007.

17 ‘Problem with your country's image? Mr Anholt can help’, Guardian, 11 November 2006.

18 Gilmore, ‘A country—can it be repositioned?’, p 283.

19 J Ranciere, The Future of the Image, London: Verso, 2009, p 1.

20 WJT Mitchell, What do Pictures Want? The Lives and Loves of Images, Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press, 2005, pp 28–56.

21 A Appadurai, Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalisation, Minneapolis, MN: Minnesota University Press, 1999.

22 The annual meeting is an exclusive by ‘invitation only’ assembly of big businesses eager to network and influence policy makers. The paid membership is open to companies with an average turnover of $5 billion. See www.weforum.org/members, accessed 15 December 2011.

23 ‘A partner in shaping history: the first forty years 1971–2010’, Web Economic Forum, Geneva, 2009.

24 Interview with Amit Shahi, Creative Director of Ideaswork, a Delhi-based advertising agency specialising in place branding, 15 October 2010.

25 cnbc-tv18 ‘cwg mess and Brand India’, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XE2WPzM-sA&feature=related, accessed 5 December 2011.

26 ‘Commonwealth Games village is “unfit for human habitation”’, Guardian, 21 September 2010, at http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2010/sep/21/commonwealth-games-unfit-human-habitation, accessed 5 December 2011.

27 L Bhanot, Secretary, Commonwealth Games Organising Committee, comments in ‘Games village world class’, 21 September 2010, ndtv news reportage, at http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/news/games-village-world-class-lalit-bhanot/164966, accessed 15 December 2011.

28 S Desai, ceo, Future Brands, ‘Can India be found among the rubble?’, cnbc-tv18 reportage and discussion, 18 October 2010.

29 V Singhvi, ‘Old India has failed new India again’, Hindustan Times, 25 September 2010. A longer version of the article is ‘Old India vs new India’, available at www.virsanghvi.com/CounterPoint-ArticleDetail.aspx?ID=552, accessed 15 December 2011.

30 India Poised campaign.

31 ‘ficci fears corruption will damage Brand India’, The Hindu, 14 December 2010.

32 ‘An open letter to our leaders', Hindustan Times, 17 January 2011.

33 ‘Corporate India says it backs Anna Hazare’, Deccan Herald, 8 April 2011.

34 ‘2G scam: Supreme Court upset with Khurshid's remarks, asks “Are we wasting our time?”’, 12 October 2011, at www.ndtv.com/article/india/2g-scam-supreme-court-upset-withkhurshid-s-remarks-asks-are-we-wasting-our-time-140599, accessed 15 December 2011.

35 S Khilnani, The Idea of India, New Delhi: Penguin, 1999; and R Guha, India after Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy, Basingstoke: Pan Macmillan, 2007.

36 J Baudrillard, ‘Simulacra and simulations’, in M Poster (ed), Jean Baudrillard: Selected Writings, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1988, pp 166–184.

37 Mitchell, What do Pictures Want?, p 56.