Brand New Nation: Capitalist Dreams and Nationalist Designs in Twenty-First-Century India by Ravinder Kaur

Author:Ravinder Kaur [Kaur, Ravinder]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9781503612594
Amazon: 1503612597
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 2020-08-03T23:00:00+00:00

I return here to the question of recovery posed at the beginning of this chapter. What might the recovery and revival of the cultural practice of adda mean within the fast-paced circuits of capitalist modernization? Recall here that the visible nostalgia for adda, perceived to be a dying art, has long been articulated as a desire to make oneself at home, to somehow “get a grip on the modern world,” said to be transforming at an accelerated speed.⁶⁹ The adda, in this landscape of anxiety, represented an intimate world, an essential fulcrum around which a sense of identity and belonging could be realized. Yet, as we witnessed in Davos, the cultural practice of adda not only has not vanished but has instead been spectacularly revived in an altogether new form. The very essence of intimate belonging that adda signified has now been recovered and brought fully under the arch of capitalism. This twist in the history of adda could hardly have been anticipated by those fearful of losing their cultural essence in the currents of globalization. The difference that adda represents has not only survived globalized capitalism but also strengthened and been strengthened by those forces.⁷⁰

The India Adda, in its new colorful, commodified form redesigned for global consumers, signals the shift toward a market economy. The very revival of adda shows how any aspect of human life that can be assigned a market value can be recovered; the waste matter can be deemed valuable if it becomes market worthy. In this instance, the theatrical performance of adda in Davos generates market value for Brand India by showcasing Indian culture as naturally predisposed to human collaboration and innovation crucial to businesses. By invoking its ancient civilizational heritage, India reiterates its position as an old hand at the game of trade and cross-cultural connections. The practice of adda, a sign of openness, hospitality, and warmth, marks the Indian difference that separates India from Western cultures that are seen as inherently materialistic. It also appears as a window through which to encounter the dramatic changes in the social-political landscape.

The first disclosure the India Adda offers concerns the power play, negotiations, and even compromises that constitute the free market. It reveals the ways in which state power and capital cohabit and even shape the contours of the fully opened-up Indian market enclave. We witness here how the state, at once sublime and profane, increasingly seeks to appropriate the capitalist tools and corporate look as it assumes the role of patron even as capital positions itself to be in active pursuit of the larger national interest. The first sign of these possible tensions was already visible in 2012 during the Davos debate when the call to dismantle the democratic government was articulated by some business leaders. What was unclear then was that the 2012 debate—characterized by freewheeling, open, critical speech—would be the last of its kind to be telecast from the India Adda premises. The reasons were never made clear, but India Adda was no longer host to such unedited televised debates.

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