While being a successful practitioner of realpolitik in politics, Modi possesses a spiritual side to his persona. (Illustration by C R Sasikumar)
Modi has signalled that India or the dispensation he leads does not claim to possess the only mantra for human welfare in these difficult times. It is vital to hold on to this principle during the G20 presidency.
Written by Vivek Katju
Updated: December 14, 2022 7:45:44 am
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of India’s presidency of the G20 is suffused with genuine idealism which is best captured in his words, “let us join together” to “make” it one of “healing, harmony and hope”. There is no doubt that in this period of the deepest challenges confronting humanity amidst ever-expanding polarisation, the world needs to “come together” to find collective solutions to several critical global issues if not existential crises. It is significant that Modi believes that mindsets, conditioned by past confrontations caused by “scarce resources” and the “clash of ideas, ideologies and identities”, can be fundamentally altered. He believes this is possible because humans are not inherently selfish; he points to the “lasting appeal of so many spiritual traditions that advocate the fundamental one-ness of us all” as proof.
In respect of India’s spiritual traditions of one-ness, Modi mentioned that “one such tradition, popular in India, sees all living beings, and even inanimate things, as composed of the same basic five elements — the panchtatva of earth, water, fire, earth and space”. Significantly, while releasing the logo, theme and website of India’s G20 presidency on November 8, Modi had emphasised that the logo “reflected” the “mantra of vasudhaiva kutumbakam”. He went much further to state that “the contemplation of Advaita here has been the philosophy of the unity of the living being”. He then proceeded to recommend that this philosophy should become a medium to solve today’s global conflicts and dilemmas. In the same speech he also mentioned “Buddha’s message of freedom from war and Mahatma Gandhi’s solution in resistance to violence”. In his intervention at the Bali G20 summit session on Food and Energy Security, Modi said, “I am confident that next year when the G20 meets in the holy land of Buddha and Gandhi, we will all agree to send a strong message of peace to the world”. He did not mention, in this remark, that India was also the land of the Advaitvad philosophical tradition and the relevance of this tradition for the contemporary world.
While being a successful practitioner of realpolitik in politics, Modi possesses a spiritual side to his persona. It is the latter which seems to impel him to root India’s G20 presidency in the “one-ness” of the human race. There also appears to be a quick evolution in his projection of the idea of human “one-ness” in the context of the G20 presidency. Whereas in his November 8 speech he had focused only on Indian philosophical traditions — indeed he is perhaps the first Prime Minister of India to mention the philosophy of Advaitvad as a solution to the world’s ills — in his exposition on December 1, Modi referred to “so many spiritual traditions” human one-ness.
This is appropriate because the idea that humanity is one is not a part of the Indic tradition only. It is also present in sections of Abrahamic thinking. The idea that God belongs to all is captured in the Quran which states that He is “Rab-ul-Alamein”. Exclusivity emerges from an insistence that only a single path is the way to salvation. Social divisiveness which in its extreme form is dehumanisation is an inevitable consequence of exclusivity. The ancient Indian exploration of humankind and its relationship with nature and the divine flowed in myriad directions and led to the formation of varied philosophical schools and traditions — Advaitvad, a part of Vedanta, was only one of them. Thus, by using the words “so many spiritual traditions”, Modi has signalled that India or the dispensation he leads does not claim to possess the only mantra for human welfare in these difficult times. It is vital to hold on to this principle during the G20 presidency. Pushing Indic ideas as the only way out of the present crisis has to be avoided.
Over the past many years, there is a constant reference to the term “vasudhaiva kutumbakam” as part of the Indian diplomatic narrative. Modi too has referred to it at various times including in the context of the G20. It is obviously meant to connote that the world is one, that humanity is one — part of one family. Building on the notion of Vasudhaiva Kutumbukam, Modi wrote: “As in our own families, those whose needs are the greatest must always be our first concern”. This is a noble thought and is part of Modi’s justified advocacy of the needs of the Global South. However, even in families, grievances of family members, real or imagined, have to be addressed. And, that is best done by reconciling their interests, which is never an easy task for it is only in ideal families that all members look out for each other.
My grandfather, Kailas Nath Katju, has recorded in his legal memoirs that not once in his over 40 years of legal practice was his advice for out-of-court reconciliation in family disputes heeded by his clients. His suggestion that it was better to put money in a sibling’s pocket than in court and his own fees invariably was rejected. Modi has, therefore, undertaken the great task of persuading the advanced members of the global family to genuinely look to the welfare of its less fortunate members because it is in their long-term interest to do so.
The G20 presidency is an opportunity for the country. India will attract considerable attention during the year. With that there will inevitably be greater scrutiny of its social and political harmony and economic conditions. It will be a testing period not only for the ruling dispensation but the political class as a whole.
The writer is a former diplomat
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