Making Gujarat Vibrant: Hindutva, development and the rise of subnationalism in India

Abstract

A significant aspect of India's postcolonial history has been the rise of subnationalism—popularly addressed as the challenge of regionalism—which has often pitted the Indian state against the regional centres of power. In fact, the organisation of Indian territory along linguistic lines favoured the emergence of regional movements challenging the authority of the central government in arguments typical of nationalist rhetoric, such as the specificity of language, territory and traditions. This notion of subnation, however, has taken a new turn during the past two decades of neoliberal reforms as regional states compete with each other to attract greater foreign and domestic investment and to secure higher growth rates. Taking as a point of departure the case of ‘Vibrant Gujarat’, this article proposes rethinking the emergence of subnational cultures in the past two decades in the light of the effects of the neoliberal economic reforms and the rise of Hindu extremist movements in the political arena.

Acknowledgments

I thank everyone who has read and commented on the early drafts of this work, and particularly Dr Ravinder Kaur, who has endured numerous revisions. I alone am responsible for any remaining inconsistencies.

Notes

1 I Hirway, ‘Dynamics of development in Gujarat; some issues’, Economic and Political Weekly, 26 August–2 September 2000, p 3111. See also D Mahadevia, ‘Interventions in development: a shift towards a model of exclusion’, in A Kundu & D Mahadevia (eds), Poverty and Vulnerability in a Globalising Metropolis: Ahmedabad, New Delhi: Manak Publications, 2002.

2 See, for instance, the documentary Final Solution by Rakesh Sharma (2004), in which the director shows long clips of the speeches Modi delivered in rallies during the Gaurav Yatra.

3 ‘Narendra Modi's speech at Vibrant Gujarat’, at http://ibnlive.in.com/news/narendra-modis-speech-at-vibrant-gujarat-2011/140214-53.html, accessed July 2011.

4 RD King, Nehru and the Language Politics of India, Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1997; and S Nag, ‘Multiplication of nations? Political economy of sub-nationalism in India’, Economic and Political Weekly, 17–24 July 1993.

5 The rise of Hindu extremism in Gujarat is a well researched theme. See O Shani, Communalism, Caste and Hindu Nationalism: The Violence in Gujarat, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007; A Yagnik and S Sheth, The Shaping of Modern Gujarat: Plurality, Hindutva and Beyond, New Delhi: Penguin, 2005; A Yagnik and S Sheth, Ahmedabad, from Royal City to Megacity, New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2011; A Nandy, S Trivedy, S Mayaram and A Yagnik, Creating a Nationality: the Ramjanmabhumi Movement and Fear of the Self, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1995; G Shah, ‘Caste, Hindutva and Hinduness', Economic and Political Weekly, 13 April 2002; J Breman, The Making and Unmaking of an Industrial Working Class; Sliding Down the Labour Hierarchy in Ahmedabad, India, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2004; H Spodek, ‘In the Hindutva laboratory: pogroms and politics in Gujarat, 2002', Modern Asian Studies, 44(2), 2010. However, few authors have sought to analyse the cultural effects of a political rhetoric combining religious and economic propaganda. This article aims to fill this gap within the debate over identity politics and neoliberal reforms in present-day Gujarat.

6 Mahadevia, ‘Interventions in development’, p 80 ff, 120 ff.

7 In the 1920 session in Nagpur, the Congress had adopted the linguistic principle to organise its internal structure and, in the 1945–46 elections, the party's electoral manifesto included the objective of redrawing the political map of India along linguistic lines. This notwithstanding, Prime Minister Nehru, fearing the divisive potential of politics based on language, started favouring the non-linguistic option. See ‘States merger proposal’, Economic Weekly, January 1956.

8 TB Hansen, The Saffron Wave: Democracy and Hindu Nationalism in Modern India, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999, p 41 ff.

9 My reconstruction of the events is based mainly on the autobiographical accounts of two leaders of the then Maha Gujarat Janata Parishad, Brhamkumar Bhatt and Indulal Yagnik. The events referred to by these authors, and their interpretation, have been cross-checked with newspaper articles from the Times of India (Bombay edition), and the Economic Weekly. B Bhatt, Lé Ké Rahemgé Mahagujarat (in Gujarati), Ahmedabad: Dasharat Gandhi, Sarangpur, 1987; and Yagnik, Atmakatha.

10 TB Hansen, Wages of Violence: Naming and Identity in Postcolonial Bombay, Princeton NJ: Woodstock; Princeton University Press 2002, p 42.

11 ‘Opportunist solution’ (editorial), Economic Weekly, 11 August 1956.

12 A Varshney, Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in India, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002, p 249.

13 Hirway, ‘Dynamics of development in Gujarat’, p 3110.

14 M Nussbaum, The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and India's Future, New Delhi: Permanent Black, 2007, pp 133–134.

15 Shinoda has noted that traditional economic elites and upper class/caste groups, mainly Bania, Brahmin and Patel, had much higher access to state concessions for small-scale industries than did backward groups, Dalits and Adivasis (tribal peoples). T Shinoda, ‘Institutional change and entrepreneurial development: ssi sector’, Economic and Political Weekly, 26 August–2 Semptember 2000.

16 F Jameson, ‘Globalisation and political strategy’, New Left Review, 4, 2000, pp 49, 53.

17 G Patel, ‘Narendra Modi's one-day cricket: what and why?’, Economic and Political Weekly, 30 November 2002, p 4832.

18 F Ibrahim, ‘Capitalism, multiculturalism and tolerance: a perspective on “Vibrant Gujarat”’, Economic and Political Weekly, 25 August 2007, pp 3446–3447.

19 Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, in a speech to a summit of international investors, defined vegetarianism as the ‘main strength’ of Gujarati people, and a ‘native’ feature of the Gujarati culture. Modi, ‘Speech delivered to the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors Summit’, 2 October 2003, at http://www.gujaratindia.com/media/media4.htm, accessed 14 January 2009.

20 KN Raval, ‘Law and order in Ahmedabad’, paper presented at the seminar ‘Is Ahmedabad Dying?’, Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology and Gujarat Institute of Civil Engineers and Architects, Ahmedabad, 1987, p XIV. The argument about girls moving about safely in the city in the evenings has become a recurrent topos in middle class narratives about the city, which people from higher social groups often presented to me as proof of its ‘modern’ character.

21 V Joshi, ‘Cultural context of development’, Economic and Political Weekly, 26 August–2 September 2000, p 3165.

22 Hirway, ‘Dynamics of development in Gujarat’, p 3106.

23 Interview with Ashok Bhatt, Member of the bjp, May 2008.

24 N Sud, ‘The Nano and good governance in Gujarat’, Economic and Political Weekly, 13 December 2008, p 13.

25 For a presentation of the initiative, see the official website at http://www.vibrantgujarat.com/.

26 N Modi, ‘Speech delivered to the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors Summit’, 28 September 2003, at http://www.gujaratindia.com/media/media4.htm, accessed 14 January 2009, p 1.

27 Ibid, p 5.

28 Ibid, p 1; and Modi, Speech 3 October 2003, p 5.

29 Mahadevia, ‘Interventions in development’, p 80.

30 A Nandy, ‘Blame the middle class’, Times of India, 8 January 2008. After this article was published, the Gujarat Branch of the National Council of Civil Liberties filed a case against the author charging him with exciting communal feelings and tensions in the state.

31 Interview with Ashok Bhatt, May 2008, emphasis added.

32 M Chatterjee & M Shah, Organising Street Vendors: sewa's Experience in Ahmedabad City, Ahmedabad: Self Employed Women's Association, 1997.

33 H Spodek, ‘In the Hindutva laboratory’, p 33.

34 A Prakash, ‘Re-imagination of the state and Gujarat's electoral verdict’, Economic and Political Weekly, 19 April 2003, pp 1602–1609.

35 Particularly since 2004, when the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance gained power in the central government.

36 For detailed accounts of the pogrom, see S Varadarajan, Gujarat, the Making of a Tragedy, New Delhi and New York: Penguin Books, 2002.

37 ‘Gaurav Yatra: Phase IV commences from Saturday’, Indian Express, 4 October 2002.

38 N Modi, addressing a meeting during the Gaurav Yatra. The meeting was recorded and reported in Sharma, Final Solution.

39 See, for instance, Communalism Combat, special Issue, March–April 2002, p 110.

40 Sharma, Final Solution.

41 S Ganguly, ‘The crisis of Indian secularism’, Journal of Democracy, 14(4), 2003, p 16.

42 For a typical example of the use made by bjp leaders of the concept of secularism, see the interview with LK Advani, ‘Advani goes back to future vowing to protect Hindu India’, Indian Express, 25 November 2004.

43 N Sud, ‘Constructing and contesting a Gujarati–Hindu Ethno-religious identity through development programmes in an Indian province’, Oxford Development Studies, 35(2), 2007, p 137ff. See also R Sachar, Social, Economic and Educational Status of the Muslim Community of India: A Report, New Delhi: Prime Minister's High Level Committee, Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India, 2006, pp 149–150.

44 Letter From Gujarat CM Narendra Modi to Citizens, 13 Septmeber 2011, at http://narendramodi.in/news/news_detail/1622, accessed September 2011.

45 A Yadav, ‘The truth behind the stage show’, Tehelka, 1 October 2011.