The Indian PM, Mr. Narendra Modi, addressed a joint session of Congress for the second time Thursday, a rare honor. As he did in 2016, he spoke in English, which is not his first language. (Text of speech.) The occasion is important, because India is a first-rank power. Since PM Modi makes much of democratic destiny in our times (America “is the oldest & India the largest democracy”), it’s worth stopping to point out the consequences of democracy for rhetoric & occasions of state. All dignity is sacrificed—endless applause, standing ovations, a mix of uneducated sentiment & false sentiment drowning out everything, encouraging many intelligent people to ignore public occasions altogether, embarrassing taste… The US Congress debases itself eagerly to welcome a speaker full of freewheeling pomposities, endless infelicities, & only the most banal rhetorical figures1. Congress somehow is still important, though it’s held in contempt in America, often for good reasons. Mr. Modi is undoubtedly one of the handful of politicians of great accomplishment in the post-Cold War era—he puts to shame most famous European or American leaders—one cannot imagine talking about any of the Congressmen as a worthy interlocutor for Mr. Modi, to say nothing else; perhaps in his native language, Mr. Modi is even eloquent & moving. Yet the occasion as a whole is a phenomenon of political decadence; good judgment is largely absent & what people call power is altogether elsewhere than these spectacles…
Since speechwriting is a lost art, since so few politicians are good writers or speakers, thinking about speeches is also largely lost; this is somehow connected to the debasement of the English language—broadly, there are no great writers left. Still, it’s important to take seriously what the most important politicians say. So I’ll offer a comparison of the two Modi speeches in Congress, seven years apart.
A formal similarity: Piety in the exordium. In 2016 (text of that speech), Mr. Modi mentioned visiting Arlington cemetery, a monument for those who sacrificed their lives for democracy, as well as the anniversary of D-Day; in 2023, he mentioned Congressmen who had died since his previous speech, who could be interpreted also as sacrificing their lives for democracy. Piety is then extended to heroes of democracy in both speeches, of course, meaning Gandhi & MLK. Gandhi is the father of India; perhaps MLK can be thought of similarly, not just because both are political martyrs, but because they can be understood as having transformed India & America into much more democratic societies. Accordingly, diversity & inclusion are major themes of the speeches, & the perorations look to a globalized democracy more or less guaranteeing prosperous peace on earth.
The formal dissimilarity has to do with language. In 2016, Mr. Modi offered very flattering remarks to his American hosts & mentioned various figures from American history, including some now largely forgotten, like Thoreau, whose idea of civil disobedience he credited as an inspiration to Gandhi, & Whitman, whom he quoted in the peroration. In 2023, there was none of that, reflecting the vast change in world affairs: Mr. Modi talked repeatedly in Hindi, starting with his greeting, Namaskar, as well as mentioning the Vedas, & assorted Indian sayings.
The major part of the speeches, however, is dedicated to the rise of India as a world power. In 2016, this was a desideratum:
Our 800 million youth, especially, are particularly impatient. India is undergoing a profound social & economic change. A billion of its citizens are already politically empowered. My dream is to economically empower them through many social & economic transformations. And, do so by 2022, the 75th an. of India’s independence.
My to-do list is long and ambitious. But you will understand. It includes:
• A vibrant rural economy with robust farm sector;
• a roof over each head & electricity to all households;
• to skill millions of our youth;
• build 100 smart cities;
• have broadband for a billion, & connect our villages to the digital world;
• & create 21st c. rail, road, & port infrastructure.These are not just aspirations; they are goals to be reached in a finite time-frame. & to be achieved with a light carbon foot print, with greater emphasis on renewables.
In 2023, Mr. Modi found much to be proud of among his achievements:
When I first visited the US as PM, India was the tenth largest economy in the world. Today, India is the fifth largest economy. & India will be the third largest economy soon. We are not only growing bigger, but we are also growing faster. When India grows, the whole world grows. After all, we are one sixth of the world’s population! In the last century, when India won its freedom, it inspired many other countries to free themselves from colonial rule. In this century, when India sets benchmarks in growth, it will inspire many other countries to do the same. Our vision is सबका साथ, सबका विकास, सबका विश्वास, सबका प्रयास. It means: Together, for everyone’s growth, with everyone’s trust & everyone’s efforts.
Let me share with you how this vision is translating into action, with speed & scale. We are focusing on infrastructure development. We have given nearly 40 million homes to provide shelter to over 150 million people. That is nearly six times the population of Australia! We run a national health insurance program that ensures free medical treatment for about 500 million people. That is greater than the population of South America! We took banking to the unbanked with the world’s largest financial inclusion drive. Nearly 500 million people benefited. This is close to the population of North America! We have worked on building Digital India. Today, there are more than 850 million smart phones & internet users in the country. This is more than the population of Europe! We protected our people with 2.2 billion doses of made in India COVID vaccines, & that too free of cost! I may be running out of continents soon, so I will stop here…
If you are not familiar with the astonishing transformation of India in the last decade, let me simply say that hundreds of millions of people seem now to have access to the minimum comforts & decencies that are required for civilization. Nothing is more democratic than putting an end to squalor. The consequences are impossible to calculate; as Mr. Modi suggests, India has a vast & young population. Prospering is very new to them; all they know of politics is his own doing, & he is an old man.
I believe conservatives should contemplate these realities & learn to fear. Conservatives generally to do not involve themselves in foreign affairs & are woefully unprepared for the drama of our times accordingly. In terms of foreign affairs, India is a needful ally to American efforts to limit the reputation & the strength of China. But India is as tied to China economically as America is, & although it is in conflict with China, it cannot form an alliance with America. Partly, this is because the liberal foreign policy elite in America loathes Mr. Modi (any number of things from humanitarian moralism to prejudices relates to globalization); but partly it has to do with India’s own political situation, which, among other things, requires the assertion of its sovereignty, not taking orders from D.C., much less the NYT. Mr. Modi’s BJP is not the party of the small liberalized elite of India, but of resurgent populism after generations of enduring the contempt of that elite. Moreover, America is now largely anti-energy & India is obviously pro. Accordingly, although India accepted American demands to stop buying Iranian oil a few years back, it has simply refused similar demands in regards to Russian oil last year. There are other interests in conflict, but broadly speaking, one guesses that at least some Indians understand what’s happening in America: Americans do not understand & do not care to understand India, neither liberals nor conservatives, neither elites nor aspiring educators. The results cannot be good.
To wit, Mr. Modi presented a remarkable picture, a mix of all the factions in American politics. His piety & patriotism, his remarks concerning tradition, must speak to the ordinary conservative. His championing of mankind’s democratic destiny must speak to the liberal. The Progressives among the liberals will especially like his full embrace of diversity & the role of women at all levels of endeavor in India.2 The environmentalist elites will also find much to like in his commitment to renewables. The business Republicans as well as the technological innovators will also find plenty to applaud, as well as the technocrats looking for state capacity. Yet this doesn’t make Mr. Modi all-American, I’m not sure he could even be called an ally in anything but the ridiculous sense used today. Proud men are not allies; empires are not allies; perhaps the technology now spreading among wealthy economies, digital technology itself, does not favor alliances.
This is very bad news only for conservatives; partly, as I said, because they ignore foreign affairs & therefore cannot acquire prestige at the highest levels of politics; but partly because Mr. Modi made every effort to speak of everything liberals now cherish — diversity & inclusion, equity, economic empowerment, women, sustainable environmentalism, carbon footprints, & mother Earth. India is open for business & will accept some of the ideological demands of the maddest Americans to have ever risen to elite status. (Obviously, Mr. Modi was silent about trans-gender issues or other mad things; presumably, he believes that the Indian family is too strong to be overturned as is happening in other places, & the public-private distinction is to some extent governed by piety.) India is likelier to become a resource for liberals to ruin conservatives than the other way around.
I’ll close wit the funniest moment in the speech, part of the peroration:
As the young American Poet Amanda Gorman has expressed:
"When day comes we step out of the shade,
aflame & unafraid,
the new dawn blooms as we free it.
For there is always light,
if only we're brave enough to see it.”Our trusted partnership is like the Sun in this new dawn that will spread light all around. I am reminded of a poem that I once wrote :
आसमान में सिर उठाकर
घने बादलों को चीरकर
रोशनी का संकल्प लें
अभी तो सूरज उगा है ।
दृढ़ निश्चय के साथ चलकर
हर मुश्किल को पार कर
घोर अंधेरे को मिटाने
अभी तो सूरज उगा है।।If I were to say it in English, it would be:
Raising its head in the skies,
piercing through the dense clouds,
with the promise of light,
the sun has just risen.
Armed with a deep resolve,
overcoming all the odds,
to dispel the forces of darkness,
the sun has just risen.
Ms. Gorman is a nonentity brought by the Biden administration to his Inauguration. Evidence of American decadence. Mr. Modi contrasts the entitlement of latter-day liberalism (“the new dawn blooms as we free it”) with his own astonishing ambition.
A quote: “I can go on and on. But, to sum it up, I would say,
The scope of our co-operation is endless,
The potential of our synergies is limitless,
And, the chemistry in our relations is effortless.”
Another: “Democracy is the idea that welcomes debate & discourse.
Democracy is the culture that gives wings to thought & expression.
India is blessed to have such values from times immemorial.
In the evolution of the democratic spirit, India is the Mother of Democracy.”
I suspect that the phrase: “I believe that investing in a girl child lifts up the entire family” should be interpreted not in the American context of feminism, but in its Indian context, one of poverty not prosperity; as opposition to previous treatment of girls, which could at times be awful, though perhaps usually a matter of ugly necessity rather than injustice.