Two Nationalisms

The Hindutvavadi nationalist elite are exhilarated. They are filled with pride that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the fifth “world leader” that Donald Trump has called, ahead of even those from Japan or Russia, or even Germany and France. Trump’s presidential inauguration speech was, as expected, a nationalistic tirade proclaiming “America First.” A megalomaniac is given to yelling and ranting; one has come to expect this from Trump. His speech was all about protecting “our borders,” not allowing others to make “our products,” steal “our companies,” destroy “our jobs.”

Trump declared that a “small group in our nation’s capital”—“politicians,” “the establishment”—has allowed “foreign industry” to be “enriched” at the “expense of American industry,” permitted the spending of “trillions and trillions of dollars” of American money “overseas,” even as “America’s infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay.” He outdid his own overblown rhetoric when he claimed that “the wealth of our middle class has been ripped from their homes and then redistributed all across the world.” To hell with “the establishment,” he thundered, “we are transferring power from Washington DC and giving it back to you, the people.” But who is “the people” if not the Trump standing in for them?