Accidental Blogger

The right wing Tea Party movement has come up a couple of times in our recent discussions. Narayan reflects on similar popular uprisings elsewhere.

In an op-ed piece in the New York Times titled The Tea Party Last Time, Prof. Robert Zaretsky recalls a time in France when populist anger led to the rise of a grass-roots political movement.

“MORE than 100,000 angry citizens united in the nation’s capital to take their country back: back from the tax collector and the political and financial elites, back from bureaucrats and backroom wheelers and dealers and, more elusively and alarmingly, back from those who, well, were not like them.”

These were not Americans in revolt in 2009 but French protestors in 1950, followers of a disaffected shopkeeper named Pierre Poujade.  Who knew?  It is instructive to follow Zaretsky’s retelling of the trajectory of the Poujadist movement.  The elements of that movement are to be found today : unreasoned rage against politicians (the president in particular), taxes, and ‘foreigners’, and a willingness to swallow lies.

My own history lesson comes from the early 60s when Bombay was in turmoil from a spate of water shortages that scarcely affected the richer sections of the city.  It served as a catalyst for a movement to oust ‘outsiders’ from the city for exacerbating the shortages. The easy victims of this thinking were South Indians in their enclaves of Matunga and Sion.  Riots, shop burning and killings ensued.  Nothing was resolved, but the movement resulted in the formation of the ultra-right Shiv Sena party whose early aim, ‘Maharashtra for Marathis’, progressed to ‘India for Hindus’ in a move for national legitimation.  The Shiv Sena’s activities throughout its existence are indistinguishable from thuggery.

A few years earlier, in ‘58, our family’s move to Bombay was delayed by a few months by even worse violence prompted by regional jingoism. The army was called out by the prime minister to restore order and protect national interests – curfews and all.  The Jharkhand party in that instance went on to successfully demand autonomy for their homeland in the impoverished state of Bihar.  The new state is now probably in poorer shape than its parent.  

Given their mass and momentum, it is inevitable that tea party parties are bound to achieve historical note.  But what do they portend in the long term?  The happening in Boston that gave a new twist to the leaf was exactly that – a happening.  Was it designed as representative of larger issues, or was the symbolism created after the event, grist for historians and the politically savvy?  I take courage from the fact that there is no tea – leaves, chests or bags – among our national symbols.

“The election, though, proved to be Poujade’s swan song. He had demanded the nation’s ear, but once he and his fellow deputies had it, they had nothing substantive to say. Slogans and placards were poor preparation for governance, and the group’s rank and file soon either retreated from the political arena or joined the traditional right.”

Zartesky’s history lesson is valuable and timely.  Change, whether the Obama type or anti-Obama, will come only when unavoidable and serve higher ideals than those espoused by the likes of Poujade and Thakre. I hope!