The Strong Leader and The Indian Male

Whatever the results of the 2019 election, the idea of the strong, masculine leader will endure.

Modi is just the personification of that strong leader. Others will succeed him, and he will be forgotten in a few years.

What the liberals havent articulated well enough is why the concept of strong leader is on the rise.

I believe its because of the modernisation of our society.

There is a deep anxiety in the Indian male about his role and his continued dominance in the society. Especially the upper caste Hindu males.

They were once top dogs. A certain section of them continue to be so, but they continue to see modernity challenge their status in the society.

The rise of feminist movements, the gradual acceptance of the LGBTQ movement, the dalit movements and the increasing representation of women in positions of power in the boardrooms and SME sector have all created a deep sense of anxiety and fear in the Indian male.

How does he keep is domain protected? He tries to instrumentalise his anxiety through systematic abuse at the workplace and his social circles.

But he has had to contend with being politically correct and increasingly sly about it or he gets called out for it publicly. He has had to adjust to taking more domestic resposnibilities at home just to bolster the veneer that he is indeed modern if not progressive. This does not come naturally to him. For he sees elder males enjoy hallowed status in the family without having done much to help their partners at home.

He has had to accept that women, dalits and those from the LGBTQ community can supercede him on account of merit in professions.

He is deeply anxious and afraid.

What does he do? He seeks answers. He doesnt find them.

Enter the strong leader.

The one man capable of anything. Capable of legitimising abuse delivered crisply and openly. Without a care on the world for any backlash. For all backlash can be dismissed as political adversarialism.

The strong leader is capable of lying bluntly. For any fact-check can be deflected by whataboutery.

The Strong leader is capable of overstating his virtues magnificiently, for any logical enquiry into it can be dismissed as empty intellectualism.

The Indian male needs a a strong leader who can do the things that the Indian male wants to do, but is constrained by his need to modernise, while his want to keep his power pulls him in the opposite direction.

He wants to be the asshole, but is ashamed to admit it. For he himself is not in a position where he can continue to enjoy continous immunity for his assholery.

The strong leader is the Urban Indian male’s release valve, instrumentalised through the phenomenon of identification through persoinification.

Modi will be gone one day, but he is a symptom of a deep rooted social problem that is often misunderstood as only a political one.

What Modi’s opponents havent understood is that political and social alliances based on caste, religion and class will not beat the idea he personifies.

Want to beat the idea?

Build alliances differently. Isolate the MCP’s. Build strong social movements that fight for gender equality, economic equality and equal rights for the LGBTQ community.

The only way the strong leader will be buried is by reviving and redefining the civil rights movement.

There are groups trying to do that in India now, but the instruments they are bringing to the fight are old and rusty. You cannot fight this idea in seminar halls. You can beat it on social media, through memes, through stand up comedy, through the entire gamut of tools technology offers.

A Kunal Kamra and Aisi Taisi Democracy are doing a far better job at it. Not only because they utilise the social media and are using humour to do so, but they are also speaking in the language that the supporters of the strong leader have appropriated for themsleves. The language of the masses, the medium of exchange in the tea stalls and the dialect of banter amongst the youth.

If the seminar hall approach doesnt adapt to the changing times, the idea of the strong leader will endure. Whether he rides on the popularity wave dressed in saffron, green or white will be irrelevant.

I am pessismistc the idea of the strong leader can be buried anytime soon.

It will endure… and things may get worse.