Evil Empire 83a global exemplar of liberalism. Spain and Portugal were closer to
despotism than democracy until the 1970s; parts of rural Italy, Spain,
and Portugal actually looked like the Third World. It is true that by the
1990s the rights of women, factory workers, and sexual minorities were
never as secure as in the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and
Scandinavia. But Europe never ceased to have problems with accepting
people from Asia and Africa, who were brought in to service the new
miracle economies. The coming of neoliberalism after the fall of com-
munism only made things worse, spreading a new ideological fervor
on behalf of efficiency, flexibility, and marketization. Its devastating
effects in Russia in the 1990s already pointed to a new era of oligarchy
and messianic politics. Nearly thirty years later, its consequences in Eu-
rope—widespread dispossession, destruction of traditional livelihoods,
denial of dignity, and compensatory scapegoating of immigrants—are
all too clear. Whiteness has reemerged as a virulent political religion,
but it is important to remember that large parts of Europe were never
really comfortable with racial heterogeneity.
wa: You’ve been critical of India’s engagement with globalization. Modi
was elected prime minister in 2014, having run on Hindu nationalism
and his pro-business record. Since then India’s economy has grown,
but there has also been rampant income inequality and a surge in mob
violence against minorities, especially Muslims accused of eating beef.
In July India’s Supreme Court condemned this “mobocracy.” How have
Modi’s economic and political policies, which were supposed to create
more open and free societies, been used and manipulated for oppression?
pm: We have to look at what specific processes of globalization amount
to in India, rather than accept at face value the ideological claims made
for them. There has been a lot of self-congratulation—among both