‘Evangelical Funding Is Straining India-US Relations,’ Warns Swapan Dasgupta, Calling For Dialogue Among Conservatives

Former Rajya Sabha member and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Swapan Dasgupta last week called for an increased dialogue between the Conservatives in the anglophone countries, particularly those in the United States (US), and India.

“When evangelical activities in India are funded by organisations based in the US, it is accompanied by a condescending attitude which looks down upon the Hindu traditions and culture as something which is primitive and barbaric,” Dasgupta said while speaking at the National Conservatism Conference at Washington DC on 8 July.

Hinting at the affinity between the Conservatives in the US who support Republican Party and the evangelical organisations which propagate Christianity in India, the senior BJP ideologue said, “The Hindu umbrella has space for various schools of thoughts, even atheism. However, what is considered abhorrent in India is the idea of converting to another faith.

"Now a dialogue is needed here (in case of the evangelism) because the cultural underpinnings of the US are mostly Judeo-Christian and that of India are largely Hindu. When someone confronts the latter theologically, it creates a rift (between India and the west).”

Dasgupta also pointed out that the American view of India was largely based on how the United Kingdom, India’s former coloniser, viewed the south Asian country.

“The logic behind the US relying on the British opinion on Indian matters being that the British understood India better. Now, whether right or wrong, that was the conventional wisdom.

“With this historical context, sometimes America doesn’t get India… sometimes India is unable to understand the American stance… but the relationship between the two democracies has been very profound, with occasional points of friction which are not very marked,” the former Rajya Sabha MP said.

Dasgupta, who earned his doctorate in modern history and later taught South Asian Politics at the Oxford University’s Nuffield College, also distinguished Indian Conservatism from the Western variants.

“Indian conservatism’s pre-occupation is with nationalism and the idea of union. And when it comes to nationalism, it is something that embraces both sides of the political spectrum. Even a good number of Indian liberals say we are nationalists.

The only point on which the conservatives and liberals differ is as to whose version of nationalism is better? Thus, unlike in the US, nationalism is not seen as a pejorative construct in India,” the BJP leader said.

“Moreover, Indian conservatism is not merely a political identity but it is about the national identity. It used to be joked that India is as much a nation as the equator and that it is a patch up of several identities. It was the Indian conservatives who countered this belief.

"In the contemporary context, Indian conservatism is about national recovery and resurgence. There was a time when the Left celebrated the formerly colonised third world countries and took pride in them being backward. But times are changing and people want living standards that match those in first world countries, and it is happening. This is evident through the infrastructure push in India, for instance Indian airports are much better than the JF Kennedy airport in New York,” Dasgupta added.

The senior BJP ideologue opined that as Indian diaspora grew in the US and elsewhere, the differences between India and the West have gradually reduced.

“This is true in the case of Conservatism as well. While there are differences between the Indian and its western variants, there are commonalities between conservatives across the world that need to be explored. Those commonalities will be highlighted only when there is more engagement,” Dasgupta said.

The senior BJP leader also drew a parallel by pointing out how BJP in India was also looked down upon by the liberal elite as a stupid party similar to what is thought of the Republicans by the alumni of the elite Ivy League universities.

“I hope when you all have your regime change in November this process of trying to understand, exploring commonalities and engagement will increase,” Dagupta added.