Meera Nanda wrote a wonderful book on how Hindutva infuses in the market economy and how the economy gets saffronized. No market is innocent. Every market is ideology driven. This is also true about the Indian market and India’s economy. Indian economy is driven by the network of the Banias and now slowly Brahmins are coming into the frontline of the businesses. On the name of God, in India, one can sell propaganda in God Market!

A survey conducted by a few scholars showed that after analyzing the members of the boards of the companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) that the Indian capital is completely cornered by the 7 percent of the Brahmins-Bania Nexus. This situation is never going to create developed India unless the capital is equally distributed and shared by India’s majority of the population. A few trends have been alarming in India in terms of capital formation and capital accumulation by a handful of individuals.

Ramdev has forayed in politics, yoga, and now he is emerging as the businesses trying to become a dominant player in the FMCG market. We have no idea how he created 6000 crores empire by selling the products based on the Swadeshi brand if reports are to be believed, his company is not solely Swadeshi, but relies on the Chinese imports.

Religion is a big industry in India, God market, particularly, the big temples have become like big corporate houses. One of the economists even described Indian economy as temple economy as people make donations to the temples to wash their sins away. There are so much gold and precious metals deposited in the temples. The treasure found in the Padmanabha temple in Kerala just a few years back was eye opening and now there are reports that the precious gems are stolen from the temple.

In the past, when the famous temple of Balaji in Tirupati, was managed by the Brahmin trustees, they wanted to ensure every Brahmin of the state of the Andhra Pradesh. It is shocking that the temple trustees can even think about it in the democratic country. It is not just about the money horde in the temples, but prime lands have been occupied by the temples all over India, sometimes the land is taken without the proper legal mechanism.

RSS, which tries to use religion, God market, to further its vicious agenda of Brahminical dictatorship, has been allotted prime lands by the BJP government at the helms of power in New Delhi. RSS is also the biggest NGO that receives foreign money and reports show that the money received by the RSS and its affiliates (called saffron dollars/pounds) is used to sponsor saffron terror in India.

The intersection of the religious fundamentalism, market, and politics drives the deep state in India. Unless this nexus is broken, India will not see the liberation of its vast population fragmented into Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and the Other Backward Classes. The businesses of the Muslims in India’s tier II cities like Bhopal, Ahmedabad, etc and bigger cities like Hyderabad has been declining fast and the business areas dominated by the Muslims are shrinking.

The RSS/BJP Government is advertising day and night that the SCs are becoming job-givers and they are not job-seekers. It is the case of pork barrel policy where the BJP is trying to create the impression that it is doing something to bring the SCs in the businesses, but on the ground, nothing seems to be happening. When most of the big businesses emerge, they have to depend on the Government support. The businesses cannot create the infrastructure needed to develop business activities and hence they approach the government for various concessions. Most of the leading businesses houses have been supported by the Government concessions and they borrow heavily from the banks where the public money is parked.

Ramdev said in the recent conclave held in Mumbai that India can become economic superpower by 2044. It is a long time to make India an economic superpower, but if likes of Ramdev dominate the market by infusing religiosity into the market, India can never become economic superpower even by 3044. What we need to do is bring in the quality education and really concentrate on the fundamentals that make a country an economic superpower.

Daydreaming and wishful thinking will do nothing, but perpetuate the problems facing the economy. Indian economy is staring at huge NPA, non-functional market, monopoly, and fragmented labor forces. Indian labor has not world class skills to compete with the skilled nations. We need a multi-pronged strategy that will cater to various fundamental needs and glaring problems so that all Indians can rise up to help the country really become an economic superpower. But to become a superpower is not the aim of the group, it smells of the nationalistic jingoism.

We have to become a respectable nation in the world known for the values that Indian Constitution tried to build into its political framework.

We as 1.2 billion can assume that role of a humanity that can live, flourish, develop despite such a diversity that we have. If we can do that, economic power will come soon, but no power can come if we live in fragmented and disharmonious societies.

Author – Mangesh Dahiwale, Human Rights Activist

Image credit – BBC