The Congress-NCP alliance has done it again. I really hope that the BJP understands that Maharashtra as indeed many parts of India, say UP etc , do not vote on development , good governance etc. Narendrabhai gave a speech about improving governance, development, integrity of leadership etc in Maharashtra , and despite his astounding record on these counts, it does not seem to have much resonance in Maharashtra in this poll or the earlier Lok sabha 2009.

Understanding the ground and the people

This is partly because as a state Maharashtra is substantially dominated by Marathas and in the in the words of Nirad Chaudhary , Marathas are “greedy and xenophobic”. There is a great sense of grievancehood. (and that’s why MNS big share of votes).

Also another reason, a Marathi-Brahmin acquaintance of mine, believes that for Maharashtrians integrity of leaders is not important. Maharashtrians simply want is to make it any means. So in this situation of grievancehood, greed etc a forward looking agenda (growth, good governance) is not all that important.

BJP must realize that …

The larger point I hope to underscore is that the BJP and particularly Shri Modi must realize that good governance, transformational economic development, security, integrity of leadership as planks have a huge appeal in Gujarat, but they do not necessarily have that same resonance across India. And also as Swapan Dasgupta had articulated earlier in ‘Modi has a point’ , “India which doggedly refuses to enter the 21st century?”. ( I do not mean to sing paeans to Gujarat but to highlight this contrast).This was also demonstrated in Lok sabha poll 2009, Congress despite achieving almost nothing in UPA I, came back.

The roots are in ideas of distorted Hinduism

The roots of these contrasting aspirations of India in my view, lie in the many ideas of distorted Hinduism- such as passivity, the irredeemable world, acceptance , detachment, moral relevatism etc, however erroneously interpreted they may be. (They get dispersed by osmosis in a civilization, even if every person has not read the scriptures). Gujarat is more inclined towards Semitic- Protestant thinking, owing to its Jain & Mercantilist influence, than the rest of India, which also explains its comparative religious intolerance, and its passion to be the best it can.

Sad story in repeat mode

According to experts, Maharashtra in the last 10 yrs has declined sharply on all growth and human development indices. Despite this it is a comment on mahasahtra’s citizens that they choose to bring a govt which is universally acknowledged by the likes of Shekhar Gupta (Indian express editor) and many others, that it was a terrible govt. So what message does this give the govt, do nothing and you’ll be back for still another 5 yrs. It was the same story with election 2009 and UPA-I and india choose to bring it back.

Hindu ethos and country’s political reality

The possible explanation for this as the Nobel laureate V S Naipual said are that Hindus (this country does have a Hindu ethos because they are 80 % majority) are

1. unaware of physical reality -which leads to muddled thinking

2. also Naipaul says -Hindus as a race learnt very little from previous disasters such as invasions etc .

3. as noted psychologist Sudhir Kakar said, Indians do not explore the external world to see how they can fashion it better for themselves, rather they are defined by it.

4. He also said that the Indian understanding of reality is “relatively tenous” or in other words not as strong and clear as western people.

This perhaps means we cannot hope to see a sensible , kind, benign, free of corruption , rule of law govt like the UK EVER, because Indians largely do not aspire for big , transformational economic growth, development or excellent governance. They are happy will very small ad-hoc incremental changes.

Gujarat is an exceptional case

Gujarat is an outlier to this, because its thinking is comparatively more Protestant (i.e. clear thinking, and the need for good governance, development etc), and less Hindu, its also not tolerant as Hindus generally are.

A telling example of being defined by reality is we pay bribes as speed money to get something done from govt, , but few have thought of getting together and actually changing this terrible system for the better.. Same with the water situation, people get tankers but no one it would seem wants to change the municipal system, which provides water.