In After the recently concluded Karnataka assembly elections, many critics in their eagerness to jolt the Bharatiya Janata Party made intellectually questionable arguments. Two such arguments stand for their insidious suggestions.
The first was made by Manmohan Singh’s former media advisor Sanjaya Baru. Write For Deccan Chronicle, he made a sweeping indictment that the 36 percent of voters in Karnataka who stood with the BJP were “communal sections of the middle class”. The second and far more insidious argument was made by the historian Ramachandra Guha. In Conversation Along with journalist Karan Thapar, Guha sought to push the narrative of a “BJP-free South India”, while rejecting that the party’s vote share remained more or less intact.
While the BJP has fallen prey to allegations of irregularities and corruption of the simple-majority system, its vote share across the state and its strong performance in and around Bengaluru underscore that none of the arguments have a solid factual basis.
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Do not broad-brush in the south direction
The arguments of both Guha and Baru fit into a broader narrative of South Indian exceptionalism in national politics that has been pushed for some time by some politicians and parties in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. However, the reality is that the mathematics of electoral politics is markedly different in the South Indian states. Considering the demographics of these two states and the issues that define their electoral battlegrounds, it is a fool’s errand to extrapolate the results in Karnataka to future electoral battles in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. It is a lame attempt to paint the politics of all the states of the region with a broad brush of South Indian distinctiveness. The big idea is to impose Tamil Nadu’s barely relevant Dravidian template on the neighboring Telugu-speaking states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. By uncritically upholding this mold as an exemplary system of governance, political commentators are unwittingly making the same mistake of stereotyping all South Indians ‘Madrasi’,
In any case, in the last two decades, the South Indian states have witnessed massive socio-economic changes that have broken stereotypes and debunked popular misconceptions. The recent uproar over migrant workers in Tamil Nadu is an example of this. Given the economic importance of migrant laborers in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and the Northeast, this underscores the dangers of political parochialism. It is a phenomenon of workforce mobility that lent support to the BJP within its voter base in Karnataka – the same group Baru unceremoniously termed the “communal section”.
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blurred boundaries
Interdependence has deepened over the years with GST reforms encouraging inter-state economic activity; The resulting soft power of culture has made the Nehruvian-era linguistic division of states less relevant. The proof of this fact is the growing popularity of South Indian films in the Hindi heartland. It is not limited to Tollywood blockbusters like bahubali And RRR but also for several lesser-known dubbed films that regularly fill movie slots on several Hindi movie channels, including DD Freedish DTHIndia has the largest satellite television platform reaching over 40 million homes across the country.
while doing research for my latest book collective spirit concrete action, I learned how this diffusion of culture has harnessed linguistic diversity across India for the greater good. From NS Rajappan, a physically challenged resident of Kerala took on Finding himself tasked with removing plastic waste from the lakes, Yeldi Hari Prasad, a traditional weaver from Sircilla in Telangana, gifted the Prime Minister a hand-knitted cloth with the G20 logo, which reflects his spirit. The whole world is a family (The world is one family), individuals experience a shared sense of purpose that transcends transcendence.
‘BJP free south’ is a ploy
Silent social change initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, away from the craze of 24×7 political news cycle on social and mainstream media mind matter The radio program reflects positivity and shared optimism. It has inspired millions of people in India from bus conductors to toy makers. From Subrahmanya Bharathi’s poem on Irish teacher Sister Nivedita, a disciple of Swami Vivekananda, to Kasi Tamil Sangamam in 2022, one gets a sense of how artificial and imaginary the divisive rhetoric of South Indian exceptionalism really is.
The BJP’s political fortunes in South India will ultimately be determined by its ability to connect with voters in each of these states on issues of paramount importance to them. The fact that hundreds of Indians from Tamil Nadu to Telangana identify with PM Modi mind matter And be an agent of change at the grassroots level, supporting sustainable development is a good start. And it is a fitting rebuttal to the toxic and divisive political narratives projected by critics such as Guha and Baru in their eagerness to discredit the BJP in South India.
Shashi Shekhar Vempati is the former CEO of Prasar Bharati, India’s public service broadcaster. He tweeted on @shashidigital. Thoughts are personal.
(Edited by Hamra Like)