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Against the Assault on Thought
When the state cannot hide behind a façade of national performance, the government has to look for an alternative category of "us versus them" based on religion andcaste. This can be employed to divide people and rule to nip the transformative discourse in the bud. Progressive-minded people should stand together to challenge this with our own "us versus them."
Before the last general elections, two supposedly contrasting images of Narendra Modi were projected by the media: Modi, as the development man and Modi, as the Hindutva crusader. It was argued that he won the elections because of his development agenda, which dominated the Hindutva agenda. A dichotomy was, therefore, created in the minds of even the most liberal of the intellectuals between these two images of Modi. Many of them have argued that the second image of Modi as a Hindutva crusader dominates or comes only to the fore when the first does not deliver. I would like to first dispel this notion of two “contrasting” images because that lies at the core of blunting any resistance to the assault on thought that is being forced upon in India today.
Us versus Them
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