Tata, Modi, bhai bhai

southern asia | economy | non-anarchist press Sunday October 19, 2008 21:57 by epoliticus epoliticus at gmail dot com

In an interesting but unsurprising turn of events, Tata Motors and the Indian state of Gujarat signed a memorandum of understanding that enables the corporation to construct a factory for their Nano brand of automobiles. Will capitalist development induce an Indian civil war?

In an interesting but unsurprising turn of events, Tata Motors and the Indian state of Gujarat signed a memorandum of understanding that enables the corporation to construct a factory for their Nano brand of automobiles. It is quite a fitting marriage between a big capitalist and a fascist politico.

Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat, has the distinction of being the chief minister of a rapidly industrializing state and having managed the 2002 anti-Muslim pogroms. The Tehelka coverage of the role of the Gujarati government in the pogroms provides invaluable context. Their coverage confirms what is in any case common knowledge, i.e., that the state's police forces and legal institutions efficiently rendered their services to the fascist mob. Thus, the consummation of their marriage suggests that Tata Motors has confidence in the Gujarati state machinery to satisfy its obligations to the capitalist class.

Modi also has the notorious distinction of praising nazism and Hitler. Consider that Gujarati primary school textbooks offer the following uncritical examination of the terrors of fascism. According to the Times of India, "[t]he strong national pride that both these phenomena generated, the efficiency in the bureaucracy and the administration and other 'achievements' are detailed [i.e., in the textbooks], but pogroms against Jews and atrocities against trade unionists, migrant labourers, and any section of people who did not fit into Mussolini or Hitler's definition of rightful citizen don't find any mention." It is apt that a Tata consecrate an alliance with such a revolting character.

But all this is to focus on the dust of short-term events. A macroscopic perspective suggests a more urgent question: shall their marriage foreshadow the birth of an Indian civil war? The Indian state, in its present constitution, cannot withstand a transition to capitalism.

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