Arjun Appadurai: Ripping Apart the Central Vista Is Nothing Short of the Reconquest of Delhi / Romi Khosla: Central Vista Project is Government’s Desire to Change History
The will cannot will backwards… That time does not run backward, that is his wrath; ‘that which was’ is the name of the stone he cannot move. And so he moves stones out of wrath and displeasure, and he wreaks revenge on whatever does not feel wrath and displeasure as he does. Thus the will, the liberator, took to hurting; and on all who can suffer he wreaks revenge for his inability to go backwards. This, indeed this alone, is what revenge is: the will’s ill will against time and its ‘it was.’.... “Verily, a great folly dwells in our will; and it has become a curse for everything human that this folly has acquired spirit: Nietzsche, in Thus Spake Zarathustra; London, 1978; p 139-140
Ripping Apart the Central Vista Is Nothing Short of the Reconquest of Delhi
The Central Vista project reveals the desire of the current regime to permanently bury the years of the long 20th century (until the elections of 2014). It mirrors the Babri Masjid destruction project that was intended to entomb Indian history before the British and replace it with the Ram Rajya remake of modern Hindutva historiography. In this instance, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) hatred for Islamic India, its contempt for the cultural West, and its loathing for anything to do with Jawaharlal Nehru or the Gandhis adds a special flavour.
Indeed, I have never seen a regime that hates the political
Capital so deeply while also desiring its political capital. This is not
surprising given the beautiful geography of Delhi, with its remarkable layering
of monuments, gardens and heritage markers of centuries of Islamic art,
architecture and culture. What is worse is that this culture lives on, in the
massive presence of Muslim festivities, foods, prayers and political
mobilisations, most recently those of Shaheen Bagh. The Central Vista project is
the mausoleum of the spirit of Shaheen Bagh.
Audio Visual: Central Vista Project is Government’s Desire to Change History
This is the behaviour of conquerors, and not of
democratically elected leaders. And that is how the leadership of the BJP sees
itself. The wearing down of the women of Shaheen Bagh, the stubborn refusal to
listen to the farmers on the outskirts of Delhi, the blatant lack of compassion
towards India’s migrant workers as they ricochet between city and country,
the coup d’état against the Aam Aadmi Party through the role
of the Lieutenant Governor, and now the grand climax: the cutting down of
trees, the destruction of major archives and museums, the crushing of living
memories in the heart of Lutyens’ Delhi.
Conquerors, throughout human history, have shown no sense of
obligation to the laws, customs, values or norms of the society or polity they
conquer. At best, they are gracious, at worst they are genocidal. And this
psychology of conquest is what explains the utter contempt of the BJP regime
for the law, for the press, for honest elections, for elementary protections
from the Constitution, and for any form of dissent whatsoever….
https://thewire.in/government/central-vista-delhi-reconquest-hindutva
Anand
K. Sahay: The idea behind capturing power in any kind of way: fair or foul
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