An Insidious Narrative Is Being Built Up Against ‘Modified’ India

A subversive narrative about India has been gaining traction worldwide, mainly in the West, but also elsewhere. Its thrust can be described thus: “India’s Fascist right-wing Hindu nationalist government is destroying its democracy by dividing society”.

It was present in various forms from before 2014. The term “right-wing Hindu nationalist” was virtually mandatory when any reference was made to the BJP by news agencies like Reuters, AP (Associated Press) and AFP (Agence France Presse).

The word “fascist” was liberally sprinkled when there was any mention of the RSS. Since then, the steady drumbeat of an India where democracy has been eroding has become commonplace, the latest being an article in the The New York Times on 25 September.

The rhythms are virtually identical wherever such statements are from, partly because the three news agencies above are the main sources of news stories, and often of their interpretation.

Why is this happening?

India is now a power with global impact, not just a regional player. No serious decision on world affairs can be taken without accommodating Indian views in some way.

None of the existing major world powers has any interest in seeing more competition – on the economic front or any other. No one will help India get stronger. Whatever is said to the contrary, every effort will be made to keep its role regional.

One of the easiest ways to do that is to control what Indians believe about themselves, and to tell non-Indians what to believe about India.

It is for this reason that the insidious narrative of “India’s Fascist right-wing Hindu nationalist government is destroying its democracy by dividing society” has been developed and nurtured and is being perpetrated. It serves a purpose inside and outside the country.

People in general are not aware of the way in which strategic interests, commercial considerations, academic efforts and religious goals converge in developing and delivering narratives.

Many Indians, even if aware of the above, choose not to believe or care about this reality.

The narratives are generated mainly in the West – with willing or unwitting local collaborators - through an incestuous relationship between the media, academia, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and thinktanks.

Their unique feature is that each of these entities derive credibility from their supposed objectivity and impartiality.

In other words, the targets of these narratives were and are expected to believe that these entities are not beholden in any way to those that finance them – very often the state through various fronts. Many are taken in by this expectation, because of the excellence of centuries of colonial mind-work on the natives.

In the West, people have for so long been fed a steady diet of moral superiority that it is a miracle that so many of them can see through the charade.

That is why a lot of people are unwilling or unable to accept that think-tanks, the organised media, academic institutions and NGOs are often direct or indirect instruments of one state or another.

Institutions like V-Dem, Freedom House, Amnesty International, Transparency International, etc. - follow a narrative that is guided by the interests of the powers that be.

For the present, that power rests largely with the Anglosphere (US, UK and their English-speaking brethren).

The sophisticated way in which this power is wielded through influence, advice and money - what Chanakya called "dana" (gifts) and "bheda" (influence, trickery, guile) - cannot be easily tracked or emulated. And it works.

The Modi government is not the first, nor will it be the last to face the narrative-driven takedown process.

From the very first day Donald Trump was elected as President of the US, he was hounded, ridiculed and pilloried in the media till he was banned from social media at the tail end of his presidency.

Note the power of the narrative controllers. They cancelled a sitting US president, who they deemed to be a challenge to their ecosystem.

The same strategy is being applied against Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, Viktor Orban in Hungary and almost certainly it will be pursued against Georgia Meloni in Italy.

There is also the case of Vladimir Putin of Russia, who has been demonised since 2008, if not earlier.

A few weeks ago, European officials referred to Hungary as an "electoral autocracy". Remember where you heard that phrase first?

Yes, it was V-Dem, in its report about India’s supposedly declining democracy. The report was subsequently taken apart on Swarajya.

The September 25 New York Times article is a perfect example of the Anglosphere constructing the stage for future direct action against the BJP/Modi government. The scaffolding work has intensified after Joe Biden took office as US president. Note that there has been no US ambassador in India for over 18 months.

The "democracy backslide" theme has been emphasised even in positively toned articles and media coverage on both sides of the Atlantic.

Think-tanks and NGOs acting in tandem, often speak identical language and then mainstream it.

The method is to keep repeating a fiction until European and American publics are convinced of its truth, and then they become much more amenable to imposing sanctions, acquiescing in violence through proxy wars, weapons supplies, and other such actions aimed at regime change.

Indian or Indian-origin people play a critical role in generating and perpetuating the narrative. Even a cursory survey will show that they act as intermediaries to provide the vital narrative ingredients.

They know the weaknesses and fracture points of their own society best, after all.

The Western publics see them as authentic, and the Indian public see them as indigenous – in both cases it lends credibility to the narrative.

For instance, during the Leicester riots this month, a large number of Indian or Indian-origin writers and social media influencers claimed the violence was a consequence of RSS/BJP/Hindutva instigation, despite denials by the Leicester police and local reporters.

This sort of thing can be expected to continue ahead of the 2024 general elections. It can also be surmised that other world powers, uncomfortable with a resurgent India, will very likely try to unseat, undermine or at the very least weaken the position of the BJP in the electoral landscape. Spreading awareness of the scope of this narrative war is the first step to combating it.