unknown
2014-10-27 13:38:07 UTC
I find naipaul an insufferable boor but he is right on with his insight
into the indian poor self image and wounded psyche.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/10/25/opinion/pankaj-mishra-nirandra-modis-idea-of-india.html
India, V.S. Naipaul declared in 1976, is "a wounded civilization,"
whose obvious political and economic dysfunction conceals a deeper
intellectual crisis. As evidence, he pointed out some strange symptoms
he noticed among upper-caste middle-class Hindus since his first visit
to his ancestral country in 1962. These well-born Indians betrayed a
craze for "phoren" consumer goods and approval from the West, as well
as a self-important paranoia about the "foreign hand." "Without the
foreign chit," Mr. Naipaul concluded, "Indians can have no confirmation
of their own reality."
Mr. Naipaul was also appalled by the prickly vanity of many Hindus who
asserted that their holy scriptures already contained the discoveries
and inventions of Western science, and that an India revitalized by its
ancient wisdom would soon vanquish the decadent West. He was
particularly wary of the "apocalyptic Hindu terms" of such 19th-century
religious revivalists as Swami Vivekananda, whose exhortation to
nation-build through the ethic of the kshatriya (the warrior caste) has
made him the central icon of India's new Hindu nationalist rulers.
Despite his overgeneralizations, Mr. Naipaul's mapping of the
upper-caste nationalist's id did create a useful meme of intellectual
insecurity, confusion and aggressiveness. And this meme is increasingly
recognizable again. Today a new generation of Indian nationalists
lurches between victimhood and chauvinism, and with ominous
implications. As the country appears to rise (and simultaneously fall),
many ambitious members of a greatly expanded and fully global Hindu
middle class feel frustrated in their demand for higher status from
white Westerners.
into the indian poor self image and wounded psyche.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/10/25/opinion/pankaj-mishra-nirandra-modis-idea-of-india.html
India, V.S. Naipaul declared in 1976, is "a wounded civilization,"
whose obvious political and economic dysfunction conceals a deeper
intellectual crisis. As evidence, he pointed out some strange symptoms
he noticed among upper-caste middle-class Hindus since his first visit
to his ancestral country in 1962. These well-born Indians betrayed a
craze for "phoren" consumer goods and approval from the West, as well
as a self-important paranoia about the "foreign hand." "Without the
foreign chit," Mr. Naipaul concluded, "Indians can have no confirmation
of their own reality."
Mr. Naipaul was also appalled by the prickly vanity of many Hindus who
asserted that their holy scriptures already contained the discoveries
and inventions of Western science, and that an India revitalized by its
ancient wisdom would soon vanquish the decadent West. He was
particularly wary of the "apocalyptic Hindu terms" of such 19th-century
religious revivalists as Swami Vivekananda, whose exhortation to
nation-build through the ethic of the kshatriya (the warrior caste) has
made him the central icon of India's new Hindu nationalist rulers.
Despite his overgeneralizations, Mr. Naipaul's mapping of the
upper-caste nationalist's id did create a useful meme of intellectual
insecurity, confusion and aggressiveness. And this meme is increasingly
recognizable again. Today a new generation of Indian nationalists
lurches between victimhood and chauvinism, and with ominous
implications. As the country appears to rise (and simultaneously fall),
many ambitious members of a greatly expanded and fully global Hindu
middle class feel frustrated in their demand for higher status from
white Westerners.