The West and Goodwill

The West has remained an enigma for Bhārat. The enigma is particularly tormentous for Hindus. As part of the diaspora, they have been model citizens and contributed significantly to Western nations. ?Yet, they see that the Western response in case of slights to other communities is much stronger than imminent and materialized threats to them. This happens repeatedly almost as a pattern.

Looking at it from Bhārat’s viewpoint, the journey together has been a litany of betrayals. Some minor, some major. Some patent and some intriguing and needless. It is like the cup of goodwill is needlessly and repeatedly tipped over by the West. ?Best-choreographed events also turn into a sour note like a sonnet.

Against this backdrop, this matter requires a deeper analysis that reveals the way forward for India.

Presentiments and Predilections

If we study the last six centuries of encounters with the West, they had only two objectives: evangelize or westernize Bhārat. Undoubtedly many scholars appreciated Hindu civilization and many more studied it. That scholarship however did not equip them to appreciate the cultural and civilizational sensitivities of Hindus. They could not shed their filters. Undoubtedly some have a greater understanding of Indian views and Indian approach that is more symbolic. Yet, the standard lens in use takes a literal and clinical approach.

Hence, it suffices to say the West has its presentiments and predilections that are guided by the twin goals of evangelization and Westernization. This constrains them to listen to what they want to listen to, to see what they want to see, and to say what they want to say. They may hear you in passing. Nothing more than that.

The Western media, academia, politicians, executive to the common public will all simply remain blindsided. Hence it is a futile exercise to present to the West even the gravest of our concerns and recount their rank hypocrisies. Their inaction in light of India's perennial concerns speaks louder than their actions.

The geo-political factors undoubtedly exist but they are rather incidental and situational. Having said that engendering divisions and exploiting fault lines geographically, socially, or culturally becomes a convenient tactic.

The common modus operandi is to use Indians against India. This includes people of Indian descent who are chosen to write articles against India.

West cannot be a Model for Bhārat

Should Bhārat westernize further to bridge the gap? To earn Western goodwill Bhārat has made huge compromises, particularly at the cost of Hindus, and continues to do so. But unfortunately, the West cannot be a model for Bhārat. They have their issues and, in some aspects, it is steadily getting worse. Even democracy which is hailed as a silver bullet along with a permissive rights regime has made their nations unsafe and full of conflict. Ideologies have become dogmas, justice elusive and adherence to truth is casual.

What is unfortunate is that Western countries have gotten used to a regimen where they engage with certain countries in a certain fashion and respond to certain issues in a manner that is more habitual than deliberated, this is despite the underlying calculus changing significantly. As a result, at times even their watch towers are oriented wrongly.

Bhārat should evolve its own model

The more you follow others, the more you fall behind. It was a wasted opportunity in the 1950s when Bhārat put together a constitution that had borrowed elements to appear more Western. It is high time, that Bhārat looks at its ethos, heritage, values, and contemporary reality and charts its journey, protecting its interests, religions, traditions, civilization, and culture. Its civilization can serve as a guide. Let the notion of Dharma be the calling card and serve as an anchor. Let the Western vocabulary be post-script than the main script. Once we guide our destiny, anybody else will at most be a mile-post and nothing more. Then it is only a matter of time before the world will have a third pole, that goes beyond so-called democratic nations and those who are not. Sooner India navigates a non-western path it is better for all. Similarly, Bhārat can be non-secular and non-socialistic, without being antithetical to those principles, and even ephemerally non-democratic in exceptional situations. Let Dharma be the compass where pragmatism, realism, and idealism are the directions.

It is a legitimate expectation for Bhārat to expect that (i) its diplomats, missions, and relations are secure (ii) its people, their places, businesses, assets, and sacred spaces are safe on foreign soil and (iii) no conspiracies are engineered/permitted to endanger its people, economy and day-to-day lives from foreign soil. Without these, any mutual goodwill is at best evanescent.

Come June 2024, from covert support/inaction to terrorism against India for decades, we see an overt homage to a slain terrorist. This only adds yet another red sign to this enigmatic relationship.

India has perpetually sought a?relationship with the?West based on mutual respect and reciprocity. That has remained a mirage as the?strip search of an Indian diplomat in 2013 to a?spate of attacks on Indian diplomats and missions in recent years, it has been a case of “Plus ?a change, plus c'est la même chose”.

In addition to past objectives of evangelizing and westernizing, a third objective of destabilizing Bhārat has come to the fore. A trial run was done in Bangladesh, leading to the loss of lives of Hindus and much violence against them as well as their sacred spaces and practices.

The time has come for Bhārat to strategically shift when engaging the West. So far, we have had low cultural, educational, religious, and social barriers to importing all kinds of ideas, ideologies, value systems, and practices from the West and high barriers to importing luxury items such as Harley Davidson, and any innovative, sophisticated, and pricey item manufactured in the West. Now we need to do a flip.? A flip will be particularly good for developing our minds as well as markets. It is no longer important to manufacture in India or get technology transferred even in case of weaponry. Deep and well-developed markets drive everything else. We need to be patient.

Bhārat should develop a contrarian, counter-intuitive, and pragmatic socio-economic model that generates economic opportunities for Indians within India itself. It should be done by going beyond ideologies, dogmas, and conventional wisdom. We need to make India's?economy self-sufficient, robust, and resilient so that any migration of people is driven by preference rather than aspiration and desire rather than desperation.

It is probably ideal that Bhārat ceases to call itself India as India continues to be seen as a soft state that needs to do the bidding of global powers.