In February 2005, the Asian American Hotel Owners' Association (AAHOA) invited Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to headline their annual meeting. A group of Indian Americans protested. Modi, after all, had had his hand on the levers of power when Hindutva's armies had killed over a thousand people in February 2002, in the wake of the death of a group of Hindutva activists in Godhra, allegedly by a Muslim mob. Some held him personally responsible, either for sins of commission (he set the forces in motion and purposefully held back the police) or for sins of omission (he failed to prevent the riots or to stop them once they began). Either way, Modi did not look good. He was bad for Brand India.
But not to the leaders of AAHOA. To them, Modi was Gujarat. M P Rama, AAHOA's vice chair, wanted Modi because his organisation "saw a great business opportunity. We told Narendrabhai Modi to come and tell our members about Gujarat's potential." As it turned out, the US government denied Modi's visa application. Gujarat's strongman stayed home.
Everyone knows about Narendra Modi, and about the post-Godhra massacre. But what is astounding is that, like other modern pogroms, the guilty go unpunished and the survivors continue to suffer. Dionne Bunsha, a correspondent for Frontline, covered Gujarat's trials for the magazine and has now written a book from the survivor's point of view. Scarred takes us from the train fire at Godhra to the refugee camps across the state. With forensic clarity, Bunsha shows us how the BJP and its Jung Parivar unleashed terror across the country, and how the BJP-controlled state government worked its malevolence against Muslims.
This is not the story of a 'failed state', but of incredible efficiency: the carnage went smoothly, as the saffron forces murdered Muslims and destroyed their economic base. Authoritarianism in power faces a conundrum. It is never good at the articulation of popular grievances, or at preparing solutions for them. Instead, it offers a narrative of the Final Battle between Good and Evil, between Hindus and Muslims – where the ultimate destruction of the latter will inaugurate a Ram Rajya, in which there will be no want and justice will reign. The only way to address the pressing needs of the people, then, is to enjoin them to kill Muslims. Bunsha's book shows us how this political ideology functions in everyday terms, and what it means to bear the social costs of this sort of messianic fascism