CNN has a special section on their world wide web site, ITN makes it a top story covering it for 20 min. out of their half an hour world news, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times continuously cover it for several days with special articles, a classical music radio station plays Indian Classical music continuously for about fifty hours and, finally, to top it all, as the grapevine has it, the Empire State Building — one of the tallest and most famous buildings in New York — glows with the Indian Tricolours at night, all on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Indian Independence from the British rule.
This sort of attention towards a non-communist developing nation is unprecedented, at least, I have not seen it during my stay in the US. All this brouhaha in a nation where the media is largely interested in covering sensational news items in general and, especially, when it comes to underdeveloped and developing nations.
Desi Celebration
The Desis — as the people of Indian origin in North America call themselves — of this region had their own celebration. In India Day Parade — an event held for the past several years around the Fifteenth of August — was held on Madison Avenue in Mid-Manhattan on Sunday (Aug. 17). The parade was not an unusual one either as it consisted of what it usually does: the Bollywood film stars (the crowd pullers), the local politicians (e.g. Mayor of New York City), the Made in India bureaucrats and, obviously, dominated by the affluent section of the Indian immigrant community.
To make the event all the more unrepresentative of India, at least from my point of view, the parade was Grand Marshaled by Amitabh Bachchan, lately, of the Beauty Pageant fame. A person who epitomized opportunism, in the broader and popular sense of the word, because of staging an event inspite of the strong protests from varying sections of the Indian people and still having the courage to publicly claim that he will do it again. Not surprisingly, the president of the federation that organizes the event is a person who dominates the desi entertainment industry by organizing events of Bollywood stars, largely, for the first and second generation Indians. Therefore, the event was full of filmi stars.
Saffron Patriotism
What was also strikingly different (this was my first live witnessing of this parade) from all the ‘official’ parades that we see on Rajpath was the composition of the parade itself. The composition of the parade was also, a reflection of the dominant sections of the Indian immigrants community in the US, their class character their political proclivities etc. The different ‘Jhankian’ (tableaus) were not divided on the basis of states, region, ethnic origins etc. but rather on the basis of caste, religious affiliations, cult or sect affiliations — consisting of the clientele of various religious shops (e.g. Hare Ram Hare Krishna) that market Hinduism in different shades of saffron — and even Indian and American firms that market to the Indian community. The Hindu sect ‘jhankian’ were mostly chanting sacred Hindu hymns but, conspicuously enough, not the Hindu Swaymsewak Sangh (which had small placards on the sides of their raths displaying the names of affiliated organizations and among them were Friends of the BJP, VHP etc.) who were shouting “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” etc. — largely slogans of saffron nationalism. What the strength of the HSS contingent did show was that it would definitely translate into a lot of dollars for the Sangh Parivar for the next election. To clarify that the parade was not just saffron, I must mention that other religions were also there especially the Christians, but conspicuously absent, were the Muslims. On the funny side, there were a few brahmins carrying the banner of the “Brahmin Society of America”, although they did not look like ‘brahmins’ they were definitely providing fuel to the fire of Brahiminism.
The Other Patriots
The only ‘jhanki’ prominently displaying our freedom fighters was the one from Punjab with Bhagat Singh prominently visible in the front. This probably served as a reminder for some people who might have forgotten what they were celebrating here. Another contingent representing a progressive women’s organization also carried placards against domestic violence.
Another fact worth mentioning here is that some Indian progressive people had organized a youth solidarity camp, during this week in Manhattan, for second generation Indians. Their motive was to discuss issues that concern India and, also, South Asians in the US. Incidentally, this camp was briefly covered by CNN.
Another Party
What did dominate the Independence Day Parade was the aura of pulp nationalism. This aura was not only created by the stars from Bollywood but also by the filmi hits being played on most of the ‘jhankian’ and the youth dancing to the tune of the filmi songs. For them, it seemed, it was another occasion to have a wild party.
Well, what did I expect when I went to see, supposedly, the event of the year for Indians in the US? I expected to see a milder version of the ‘official’ parade customized for the Indian Americans. In a sense this is what it was but still beyond my expectations. It was a more blatant, more glaring truth with minimal packaging.
Coca-Colonized?
CNN has a special page on the WWW titled “India and Pakistan: Fifty Years of Independence”. In the prominently featured `Perspectives’ section they carry an excerpt from Shashi Tharoor’s (Executive Assistant to the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan) new book `India: From Midnight to the Millenium’. Writing about liberalization in India, he opines that because of the British “Foreign investors were ... seen as the thin end of a neo-imperialist wedge.” Now that the situation has changed, he thinks, “We can drink Coca-Cola without becoming Coca-colonized”.
Thereafter he goes on to write “Much of our political troubles can be laid at the door of our economic choices. Youth and students without economic prospects in a rigidly controlled economy were ready material for agitations and militant movement, had we opened up the economy earlier, they might have been recruited by MNCs rather than by terrorist gangs”.
Banianisation of Indian Society
In another article titled ‘Indians Get Ahead...’ published in the Wall Street Journal (the favourite newspaper of the corporate executives) under the column ‘India 50 Years’ by Gurucharan Das (Chairman of Citibank India’s advisory board and formerly CEO of Proctor & Gamble India) the author writes “Since the 1991 economic reforms unleashed the long-suppressed commercial energies of the Indian people, everyone wants to be an entrepreneur — especially the sons of the Brahmins and the Kshatriyas. The high priest of a South Indian temple calls this unholy mixing of caste occupations “deplorable... [It is] the beginning of the end of Hindu society.” On the eve of its 50th anniversary as an independent nation, India is in the midst of a social revolution rivaled, perhaps, only by the redefinition of Japan’s merchant class during the 1868 Meiji Restoration, which helped transform Japan from an underdeveloped group of Islands into a thriving, modern society and economy.”
He goes on to conclude his article by writing “Indians are slowly realizing that economic reforms are not only about tariff levels, deregulation and structural adjustment. They are about a revolution in ideas, which is changing the mindset of the people and leading to the `banianization of Indian society.’”
Behind the Hype
Now that the ‘Indians’ have realized that ‘socialism’, the variety that they had, was a mistake and have now taken the plunge for full-fledged capitalism, India will be yet another market for more profits. Now that the MNCs are there to employ them, the ‘disoriented’ youth will not be ‘ready material’ for militant movements. This is what the West and its Indian collaborators are celebrating with tremendous enthusiasm. The imperialist nations and their Indian cousins are behind the hype of a ‘new’ India. Why should they not be? Are they not who have benefited the most from liberalization?
Beyond the Hype
The past several years have witnessed an increasingly open economic intervention by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, the instruments of imperialist capital. This is a blatant violation of the rights of a sovereign nation. There has been a public outcry against the economic polices that have been forced on India. Narmada Struggle and Enron protest are some of the glaring examples. The imperialist nations and their media do not portray these struggles as expression of popular opinion but rather as hurdles that we create for ourselves in our path of development. Interestingly, Mr. Tharoor might want to contemplate about an issue: Now that India has opened up its economy what is the ‘ready material’ for these agitations, since the youth and students are employed by MNCs.
Indian people have had fifty years of experience with democracy then why do they have to follow the dictates of the IMF and the World Bank? Are they not capable enough to determine their own course of development? Why are policies for India made in Geneva and New York? Is this what we call independence? Is the economic dominance of imperialist nations not very obvious? Then, why is there an attempt by imperialist nations and their friends — in and outside India — to conceal this fact? Is this not hypocrisy? Is this not the very alliance that is preventing the common Indian people from determining their own destiny? Is this not time we looked beyond the hype of ‘tryst with destiny’? Is this not time we exposed this historical nefarious alliance? The answer is yes! I think, our endeavours in this direction would bring fruition and, hopefully, we would not have to witness a similar situation fifty years hence.
PRATYUSH BHARATI