On the eve of independence, for which he had fought so hard, Gandhi went to bed early, as if it weren't with him, in a Calcutta neighborhood shaken by riots. Seventy-five years after that August 15, nobody knows what the father of emancipated India would think of his creature. Although this has contradicted the doomsayers of the time, it has also frustrated the good forecasts in vogue ten or fifteen years ago.
Certainly, India has just surpassed 70 years of life expectancy and has reduced the birth rate to the optimal level of 2.1 children per woman. But it has not become a superpower, and the world is unable to name any Indian brand.
The only scepter that it will take from China with certainty – within ten months, according to the UN – is that of the most populous country in the world. Increased visibility, which should bring greater responsibility.
However, all the indicators of the Narendra Modi era – since 2014 – point to a deterioration of parliamentarism and the division of powers. It has gone from vibrant to limping democracy. And where it bottoms out, with global effects, is in environmental issues.
Kashmir has been gagged, and the country's non-denominational character is on edge. Although it is the sixth largest economy in the world, its problems of inequality and poverty, aggravated by the caste system, do not subside. The West has put its good words in India, but the factories in China. Even Bangladesh already surpasses it in per capita income.
The polarizing Narendra Modi will preside over tomorrow's events at the Red Fort in Delhi without any big plans. There will be no mention of Nehru. And in the absence of large malls, the Government entrusts everything to the exaltation of the flag, which its doctrinal matrix, RSS, reviled for including the green of Islam.
Rahul Gandhi, epigone of the Nehru family, has denounced that the State forces people to buy pennants to opt for rice or flour. The subsistence of hundreds of millions still depends on the ration card.
You have to give Modi an economic miracle. His favorite tycoon and countryman, Gautam Adani, who comes from coal, has been promoted to richest man in Asia. And Mukesh Ambani, master of the world's largest refinery, is expanding again, like his polyester. What they earn today by heating, tomorrow they will do it by decarbonizing.
Modi, even though he is a great speaker in Hindi – a language he has given prestige to – does not give press conferences or interviews. Idols don't take questions.
However, the path that the only country-civilization of this dimension has embarked on – together with China – should raise questions, with the standards that apply to Beijing.
Without orientalism or paternalism. Although Modi's populism lived between cotton during the years of Trump and Netanyahu, his two referents.
Modi increased his majority, in the last elections, thanks to a cosmetic bombardment in Pakistan, amplified by his televisions. But his removal from power is no longer a pipe dream, as the loss of populous Bihar this week demonstrates.
Until then it will continue to rename cities with Muslim names like Allahabad.
Laudably, he has just promoted an Aboriginal woman, Droupadi Murmu, to president. The goal is that animists do not convert to Christianity, with increased penalties.
Of course, India continues to believe in education as a source of family progress. But it's trailing behind in happiness ratings. To overcome it, he has perfected the escapism of Bollywood and, tomorrow, the waving of millions of polyester flags.
