> More recently, Narendra Modi, the city’s elected member of the Indian parliament and the country’s current prime minister, demolished ancient temples and alleys in order to plant his insecurely grand and ultra-modern monuments of Hindu supremacism.
This is false. The real story is well known that the temples were recovered from the buildings demolished to create access to Kashi Vishwanath temple. These buildings were encroachments. The opposition leaders decided to use it as an opportunity to attack Modi. The tragedy is that Indian leftists will cite any nonsense as long as it supports their anti-BJP, anti-Modi narrative. Here is the news:
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/varanasi/demolition...
Looks like the author didn't get the memo that Varanasi (and India) has rejected this outdated poverty-porn view and chose to embrace progress like China and rest of the modern world.
India has drastically reduced the number of people living in extreme poverty to 15MM (from 124MM) since 2016. This is why they keep voting in the "Hindu Nationalist" BJP in record numbers.
I will never understand a lot of my young peers in Europe who as students decided to do poverty travel. Those are the folks who enjoy this article about Benares.
It is comparable to looking at poor people in the zoo and celebrating yourself for it under the guise of "broadening your perspective". After 2 weeks you take your brand new Air Force sneakers into an Airbus A350 and simply fly back to wealth and convenience.
It baffles my mind but maybe that's because my SO is Filipina from a poor village who hates white assholes pretending to do something meaningful (and advertising themselves as saints on Insta of course). Imagine seeing some white moron with dreadlocks diving into your life of poverty for a week "to get the experience".
>> The confrontation between the two groups—between those disenchanted by modern civilization and those despairingly seeking a foothold in it—was not something I had seen described in any of the books I read. The many ironies of the situation, and the historical inequities behind them, should have alerted me to my material. But I kept waiting for a great subject, something commensurate with the great literature I read, to reveal itself to me.
The contrast between these two groups (the disenchanted and the desperate let's call them) is something I recall seeing when I visited India in the 2000's (which is odd how long ago that seems now...) On one hand you have people who are born and raised in what are apparently these very holy and sacred cities (at least as the religious population considers them to be) and there are some who are doing everything they can do get out and live the American dream. On the other hand, there are those who do the opposite, wealthy heirs to tens and hundred million dollar estates who forsake everything to meditate in an Ashram on the banks of the Ganga.
What a world to live in. And then you have others who live desperately straddling the two, never quite at home in one or the other.
Seriously, someone please stop this madman Modi! In 1989, Benares was vibrating with romantics (aka poor/cramped/unsanitary) where I could take pictures of poor but smiling people and write captions like "happiness is not about money". Modern India has ruined everything - no abject poverty, everyone has cellphones, no collapsing ruins of ancient uncared temples, etc. Modi, please stop!
Yes, as much as i tremendously enjoyed Varanasi in 2008 (in fact the only place I ever visited in whole world that had some sort of indescribable 'magic' in the air, and this comes from very rational non-religious person) and have some of the strongest memories in my life (being 1 meter from burning deceased on Manikarnika ghat, not entirely my choice I still feel the heat), I am tremendously happy for all the people lifted out of poverty.
I don't think westerner without prior similar experience can comprehend how poor people like dalits can actually be, not only monetarily but also when treated by rest of the society. If it means I will never ever see streets lined with beggars with leprosy who are in pretty rough shape while having absolutely nothing, and not have conversations I had because they will be on their phones, so be it. Mankind needs this.
It is not wrong to demolish the old and build something new in its place. I'm all for it. Culture should never be (rather, cannot be) static.
The problem with RSS/BJP is that their focus is more on demolition; their 'new' department lacks things like basic aesthetic sense. Their vision lacks originality, indigenuity in all things. They seem to simply imitate dominant forms (currently western culture and capitalism), and make surface-level adjustments and call it 'Indian'.
One would argue even their vision of neo-Hinduism itself is essentially a copy of traits from Abrahamic religion, but surface level adjustments such as what deities to worship. There is no philosophical inquiry any more, in fact anything other branch than _Bhakti_ ("devotion", or personally I would call "blind devotion") is rejected. Anything that doesn't conform to hierarchy is rejected.
Their monuments aren't inspiring, their plans for the future are lazily researched, everything they do seems a shallow copy something else. The very currency notes they introduced are ugly.
> The very currency notes they introduced are ugly.
Also, the paper is flimsy, the colour runs if you get them wet, and the visually-impaired can't tell them apart [1]. Classic BJP last-minute my-nephew-can-do-this-cheaper implementation.
Yes. These guys worship Ram, a reticent and self effacing king, while also making the largest cricket stadium in the world and naming it after an active politician - Modi.
Their hero worship of both Ram and Modi is a type of political bipolar disorder.
> The ruination began not long after I left Benares. Criminal gangs specializing in kidnapping and extortion had already filled the vacuum created by failed industrialization in the region. In the 1990s, mafia dons from nearby districts began to shape local politics and to build shopping malls of glass and steel near the river.
Yet BJP/modi is bad. The author very well knows how fast organized crime in the country and at the state level has continued to declined since the rise of bjp in the center and the state.
Half the country is still living in extreme poverty unless you believe planning commission definition that ₹ 32 / day ( 26 in rural)! is adequate not to be in poverty.
By any reasonable metric for example World Bank's lower middle income baseline of $3.20/ day we would have more than 50% of the country considered living in extreme poverty.
I also think his thesis isn't to celebrate poverty but to consider that development (or modernity, globalization, pick a term) comes with its own problems.
> Please don't imply that someone of Indian descent can never be considered a Westerner.
He is not merely "of Indian descent" but was born and raised in India and is still an Indian national. The story in question is from a time when he had not even left India. Suggesting that this piece is from a "Western writer" is insulting to the author, his background, and experiences. By the measure you propose, a Caucasian born and raised in America, who moved to India later in life and wrote about experiences while living in America, should be referred to as an "Eastern writer".
It depends on your definition of poverty or acceptable standard of living.
- According to the Planning Commission earning more than ₹ 32 ($0.4) / day (26 for Rural) ! means you are over the poverty line , even with this absurdly low number India still has 90 Million people living in poverty.
- Using World Bank's 2017 revised two phased metric - "lower middle-income" line set at $3.20/ day and an "upper middle-income" line set at $5.50/ day. Applying this to 2011 data we can expect around 60% of India i.e. 768 million people were living below lower-middle income levels in 2011.
Cost of living , economic progress, population, inflation and dozen other things have changed in the last 10 years and we can argue all day long on the more accurate number, however by any reasonable metric well over 500 Million in India are living in poverty.
This is false. The real story is well known that the temples were recovered from the buildings demolished to create access to Kashi Vishwanath temple. These buildings were encroachments. The opposition leaders decided to use it as an opportunity to attack Modi. The tragedy is that Indian leftists will cite any nonsense as long as it supports their anti-BJP, anti-Modi narrative. Here is the news: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/varanasi/demolition...