Our Freedoms: Essays and Stories from India's Best Writers

by Nilanjana Roy

In recent times, there’s been a curious sexual insecurity, a crisis of masculinity, among Gujarati men. The whole ‘love jihad’ thing – what is it but a fear of Muslim men being more sexually attractive to our gullible women? And then along came Modi with his 56-inch chest, and all over Gujarat, and in New Jersey and in Wembley, Gujarati hearts started fluttering at the Gujarati Elvis. Here was Krishna, and here were his gopis, rescued from the lascivious topiwala. Modi, with his bombast, his aggression, reclaimed an idea of Gujarati virility. The RSS, the organization that he came from and that now controls him, is an entirely male body. That tells you everything you need to know about their ethos, and their insecurities. Gandhiji had another idea of masculinity, which was closer to a form of androgyny. But today’s Gujaratis have enough of Gandhi, enough of nonviolence, of satyagraha. They believe only in graha, not satya. ‘Dekho dekho kaun aaya, Gujarat ka sher aaya,’ they said in Gujarat at Modi’s rallies. A lion, not a pussy.