How to Think About Modi's Visit to Silicon Valley by Priya Satia

The Indian community of Silicon Valley is preparing to welcome Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with open arms next week, in a route stop that has outshined the PM's ultimate U.S. destination--his meeting with President Obama. Mr. Modi comes to promote Digital India, and local Indians are preparing a rock-star reception at the SAP center in San Jose to rival his Madison Square Garden reception last year. But this unfettered hospitality also highlights the impunity with which states like India and the US may now exercise violence and the intolerance for minorities and minority views that underwrites that violence.

Some of the fanfare around the PM's visit is skillfully generated by right-wing Hindu organizations here and in India, but much of it is genuine--many equating pride in Modi with pride in India and many genuinely proud of Modi himself. There is certainly much to remark in the rise of this humble man from Gujarat through the ranks of the RSS, the right-wing Hindu nationalist organization through which he built his political career in the BJP party. A vegetarian, workaholic, evidently celibate politician would hardly seem to fit the hedonistic and rebellious image of a "rock star," but the meaning of "rock star" has now shifted, particularly in Silicon Valley. As a New York Times Magazine author noted, "Pretty much anyone can be a 'rock star' these days -- except actual rock stars, who are encouraged to think of themselves as brands." ...

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