[lbo-talk] India's Hindu Party Reflects on Election Drubbing

[Michael McIntyre]

Pol, you're going to send McIntyre to the hospital if you're not careful.
You know, one of those
if-your-erection-lasts-more-than-four-hours-please-go-to-the-hospital-immediately
erections.  This piece you've posted here is the worst kind of ersatz left
political "analysis" of India's politics: large pronouncement unsupported by
evidence but larded with references to Gramsci and the other usual suspects
with whom the author has only the most perfunctory acquaintance.  No one on
this list would think of making grand pronouncements like this about U.S.
politics with no attention whatsoever paid to sub-national variation.  In
India, the level of understanding of local detail needed to get anything
like a comprehensive picture of Indian national politics is an order of
magnitude higher.  Frankel and Rao's edited two-volume set, Dominance and
State Power in Modern India, did the job for the first quarter-century or so
of Indian politics.  Glance through those volumes and you'll get a sense of
the kind of base that would be needed to support Gopalakrishnan's cavalier
generalizations.

MM

On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 12:13 PM, Politicus E. <epoliticus at gmail.com> wrote:


> The following article by Shankar Gopalakrishnan (entitled "The UPA
> Moment: Shadows of a Growing Crisis for the Indian State?") is still a
> good Gramscian analysis of the present conjuncture in India, although
> it requires some minor amendments in light of recent events.  It was
> published on 7 May 2009 in Radical Notes.  (I will deal with McIntyre
> tomorrow, once his erection has abated.)
> epoliticus
>
>
>
> The full article is available at:
> http://radicalnotes.com/content/view/101/39/.
>
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>