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Development and Discrimination
In the dominant paradigm of development, the story of development is dissociated from the story of nationalism. The proponents of Gujarat model of development are silent about the massacre of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002. In his book, Development and Nationhood: Essays in the Political Economy of South Asia (2005), Meghnad Desai incorporated an essay written in the early 1990s, in which he predicted what is happening today. To put it in his own words: “Whatever its virtues, territoriality has limited emotional hold except in times of invasion.
In the dominant paradigm of development, the story of development is dissociated from the story of nationalism. The proponents of Gujarat model of development are silent about the massacre of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002. In his book, Development and Nationhood: Essays in the Political Economy of South Asia (2005), Meghnad Desai incorporated an essay written in the early 1990s, in which he predicted what is happening today. To put it in his own words: “Whatever its virtues, territoriality has limited emotional hold except in times of invasion. There remains a strong current which would like to construct nationality on the lines of Hindu religion.”
In fact, there is no conflict between the neo-liberal paradigm of development and the agenda of Hindu nationalism. In his tenure as the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi ensured strong support from the big business houses and marketed the idea of “Vibrant Gujarat.” The Modi-style of politics “depoliticized local-level issues, problems and protests.” In the wake of the 2002 carnage, segregation of living spaces between the religious communities became sharper in Gujarat.
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