Dhume does it again.
In his WSJ column, Sadanand Dhume suggests that Indian democracy must learn a lesson from the “Anglophone West.”
People learn from each other. It is entirely natural. However, why does the world, India in particular, has to learn from the “Anglophone West?” Why does everyone have to see the world - democracy and diversity included - from the perspective of the “Anglophone West?”
From secularism to green environmentalism, post-colonial and now resurgent India sees these Western experiments with much suspicion, and rightfully so. Censorships, mandates, and other forms of authoritarianism have exposed the weaknesses of Western liberal democracy. The Russo-Ukrainian war has done the same for the West’s Rule-Based World Order.
Contrary to what many may think, India wasn’t born in 1947. In over 5000 years old civilizational history, India has remained the most diverse society in race, language, culture, religion, and thought. Throughout history, some of the most numerically insignificant and marginalized minorities have ruled India, including the Muslims and the British.
Hindu nationalism, as Walter Russell Mead noted in his WSJ column (Mead seems to have a much better understanding of India than most South Asia scholars of the US universities and think tanks), “is, among other things, a demand that Indian civilization be accepted as the moral and spiritual equal of the West.”
As it happens, proving one’s worth often entails putting the other down. Mr. Dhume is doing precisely that to India on behalf of the British.