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Comment by Clewza313 | Hacker News Reader

India is arguably faithfully following the US here, because Modi's populism has more than a few parallels to Trump.

Given the timelines involved, I'd say it's more likely that not that Modi is following in the footsteps of Xi Jinping. In fact most of Asia is in the hands of some kind of ethno-nationalist leader, from Duterte in the Phillipines to Suga in Japan, Xi in China or Jae-In in S. Korea. Modi is not really exceptional when viewed on the scale of other asian leaders. But Asia has always had a much more ethno-nationalist bent, so it may be surprising to people who compare Indian politics to those of Western Europe. Even western darlings like Aung San Suu Kyi, once in power, turned out to be of a strong ethno-nationalist bent, which I'm sure shocked a lot of her supporters in the West.

That's a really interesting take. History must have had a role to play here, although I wonder in what way that could've influenced the current outlook and mindset of the peoples.

Wait, do you really think president Moon of S. Korea is ethno-nationalist of all things? You have no idea what you're talking about - he's just your run-of-the-mill liberal.

You really need to be careful generalizing the whole Asia region to fit your narrative. S. Korea was already a bit culturally ethno-nationalist not because of reasons like 'racism' or something like Western populist politics, but because of the more complex history of being colonized and almost assimilated by Japan. And diplomatically S. Korea's has always been pro-US for pragmatic reasons (military protection) and would probably stay that way for some time. (That doesn't mean there isn't any anti-US sentiment among citizens, it's just that it hasn't been materialized into anything significant in actual global relations.)

+1 to this. Grandparent comment greatly reduces Asian politics. Even the bit on Aung San Suu Kyi is way too simplified.

You're overestimating Trump. India under Modi is in the process of trying to build an authoritarian Hindu nation-state with a completely alternative model compared to the secular, western-inspired mode it has run on up until now.

Trump, despite tricking a few LARPers into thinking he had some kind of great agenda was just a TV show host. He was about as likely to rebuild the US in some kind of new image as a televangelist is in bringing the kingdom of god to earth.

India has always been run on a far more authoritarian model than the U.S. Yes, it's a true democracy but freedom and democracy are not the same thing, and the legacy of the former colonizers is very much there still. Modi is just pushing the overall authoritarian stance of Indian institutions in a different direction that anyways provides him with a lot of shallow, surface popularity.

I’d say it is less by Modi directly and more by the nazi inspired organization called the RSS that’s shaping up India lately. The only difference is that they won’t be repeating the hubris/mistakes of a Fuhrer style set up with a single point of failure.

All other things aside, Modi’s first term started in 2014, Trump’s in 2016. Even assuming that one is similar to the other, it raises the question of who’s following whom...

Definitely, if not consciously - I saw earlier today that Trump and his minions propagated the meme that says

"In reality, they're not after me, they're after you. I'm just in the way"

well after Modi, and in the time since it's been adopted by Netanyahu as well. I often wonder why these people are called "nationalists"...

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