COMMENTARY

jUNE 21, 2014 vol xlix no 25 EPW Economic & Political Weekly
30
Decisionism and the Cult of
Narendra Modi
A Note
M S S Pandian, Satyaki Roy
The Indian electorates
endorsement of Narendra Modi
is inuenced by the ideology
of Decisionism similar to
that mobilised by the German
intelligentsia in the 1930s to
defend the Third Reich. Where
could the expectations and the
possible failure of the promises of
Decisionism lead us to?
T
he German political idea of Deci-
sionism (and its contemporary
avatars in present-day India) may
be germane to understanding the ench-
antment of the middle classes and the
subalterns with Narendra Modi, the
new prime minister of the Indian Union.
Decisionism is an outcome of a deep
craving for rm decisions by the politi-
cal authority in a situation where things
are perceived to be adrift. It was one
of the ideological resources mobilised
by the German intelligentsia to defend
the Third Reich in the 1930s. While
the Weimar Republic based on multi-
party coalition was condemned for its
inability to take decisions, the Nazis
were lauded for their ability to take
bold decisions.
The Decisionist desire is no doubt
informed by structures of expectations
and promises. Yet in its pure ideological
moment, as argued by the well-known
legal theorist and unrepentant critic of
liberalism, Carl Schmitt, what matters
in Decisionism is the very act of deciding
in itself, irrespective of the content and
consequences of such decisions. Thus,
decisions do not draw their validity
from their content but their form what
matters is that they are taken by the
right kind of political authority. One well-
known such decision was the 12-year-
long suspension of the Weimar Constitu-
tion by Adolf Hitler in 1933, under emer-
gency provisions.
Indias Decisionist Moment
The cult of Narendra Modi thrives on
an Indian variant of Decisionism. The
Bha ratiya Janata Party, sections of the
Indian intelligentsia and big corporate
interests have repeatedly claimed dur-
ing the 2014 election campaign that the
United Progressive Alliance-II govern-
ment was marked by policy paralysis
or indecision with deleterious conse-
quences for the economy and the
people. The rhetoric that Modi would
set everything right was the bedrock of
the new Decisionist hope of the Indian
electorate. A news paper commentary soon
M S S Pandian (mathiaspandian57@gmail.com)
teaches at the Centre for Historical Studies,
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
Satyaki Roy (roysatyaki@gmail.com) is
pursuing his postgraduation at the same centre.
COMMENTARY
Economic & Political Weekly EPW jUNE 21, 2014 vol xlix no 25
31
after the elections (Amrith Lal, The
Power of One, The Times of India,
18 May 2014) notes, Two decades of co-
alition politics and self- effacing leaders
seen as men without real mandate seem
to have triggered nostalgia for strong
leaders. Modi, Jaya[lalithaa], Mamata
(Banerjee) and Naveen (Patnaik) ex-
ploited this to the hilt... The spiritual
guru Shri Shri Ravi Shankars demand
to bar regional parties from national
polls and the euphoria about the lean
cabinet of Modi (described as based
on quality, not quota) are all signs
of the current Decisionist desire in
Indian politics.
The Decisionist promise works only
when it assures changes on a considera-
ble and visible scale. How does Modi
qualify for the Decisionist mantle? The
self-assured hubris among an inuential
section of economists about the Gujarat
model of development and its putative
replicability on the national scale was
propagated as a panacea for the future.
Equally, if not more, important is Modis
handling of the Gujarat pogrom of 2002
in which Muslims were taught a lesson
by means of state-endorsed, large-scale
violence by sections of the Hindus. The
signicance of the Gujarat pogrom lies
in the fact that decisions, as Carl Schmitt
would remind us, which are extralegal
are decisions at their best.
Every time Modi insists that the
events of 2002 be forgotten, he brings
them back to life and reinforces them.
The unstated message is, We can do it.
The memories of 2002, emptied of gory
details, projects him as the Decisionist
par excellence. At the same time, the
command to forget the actual events of
2002 is a move to create the Decisionist
vacuum, from which the action (and
hence order) of the future would arise.
Great Little Man
By an unconventional (some may call it,
even perverse) extension, Decisionism
can be aligned with another feature of
authoritarianism, i e, the idea of the
great little man: ...one of the basic
devices of personalised fascist propa-
ganda is the concept of the great little
man, a person who suggests both
omnipotence and the idea that he is just
one of the folks, a plain, red-blooded
American, untainted by material or
spiritual wealth. The Decisionist dream
of the subalterns is that the leader is one
like us, yet could decide/do what we
cannot. Theodor Adorno has shown
that such perception leads the common
people to identify with the idealised
leader as the compensation for the lack
in their lives.
The invocation of chaiwala in the
election campaign and its widespread
acceptance among the ordinary people
is instructive here. Even before Mani
Shankar Aiyar of the Congress dispar-
aged Modi for his past as a tea vendor,
Modi summoned his modest beginnings
on the railway platform of Vadnagarand
sought subaltern identication with him.
Aiyars acerbic elitism which prompted
him to promise a place for Modi to dis-
tribute tea at the Congresss Talkatora
session made such identication extensive.
Modi used it to the hilt and taunted the
Congress, I only sold tea and not the
country. He made Kiran Mahida, a
chaiwala from Vadodara, as a proposer
for his Lok Sabha candidature and invited
him to attend his swearing-in ceremony
at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
But subalternity of the leader is
inadequate to any project of Decision-
ism. The Decisionist needs to decide and
hence be different and wield unques-
tioned authority. Niktin Contractor, who
runs a community college in Satyajigunj,
decided to celebrate Modis swearing-in
with a newly inaugurated tea stall, ap-
propriately named after Mani Shankar
Aiyar, and distribute free tea and falafel.
Free tea makes instant sense. Why
falafel? Contractor reasoned, Modi
made a great gesture by talking with
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netan-
yahu and seeking deep ties with Israel.
Weve decided to distribute falafel to
mark the beginning of warm ties
between India and Israel. We hope
both countries will work together for a
better future.
The seduction of Decisionism for the
subaltern is that a former tea vendor, a
guy like us, could talk to the prime min-
ister of Israel, i e, a vicarious realisation
of ones aspirations in the leader. Modi
once again succeeded in mobilising
sections of the subalterns within the
framework of Decisionism.
One-Way Street
However, Decisionism could turn out to
be a one-way street. It works as long as
good days are promised. The central
plank of Decisionist messianism has
always been hope, a wild and utopian
desperation. What is important is the
construction of suspense, a tantalising
vision of the future as an exercise in
itself. Modi and his backers have
achieved this with remarkable skill.
Modi could declare, Good days are
coming. Then, paradoxically, undeliv-
ered visions as much as delivered vi-
sions can diminish the efcacy of Deci-
sionism. If promises are not delivered,
the enchantment with Decisionism will
wear thin. If the promised good days
are already here, the Decisionist frenzy
would subside and the cult of Modi will
ounder. Either way, the solution might
be authoritarian.
Authoritarian violence is increasingly
seductive for sections of the middle
classes and the subalterns at this Deci-
sionist moment. The Gujarat pogrom of
2002 is a case in point. For the middle
classes, it is merely an elephant in the
room; and for the subalterns, the poor
Hindus including the Other Backward
Classes (OBCs) and dalits who indulged
in anti-Muslim violence, it is an act of
nding their voice. Yet, the inevitable
crisis of Decisionist hope and promise
could open up other possibilities. It can
politically recover indecision as an ena-
bling ethic of waiting, listening, accom-
modating and co-living.
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