The Respectability Trap
The pattern reveals itself everywhere once you start looking. Group A declares Group B their enemy. Group B, instead of rejecting this entirely, accepts the frame and spends decades trying to prove they're the good version of what Group A claims to hate. Group A moves the goalposts every single time.
This dynamic has played out repeatedly in Indian politics over the past half-century. The Congress and the Indian left spend decades calling the Sangh crude, uneducated & of course fascist. They position themselves as the sophisticated guardians of democratic values and intellectual discourse.
So what does the Sangh do? Instead of rejecting this frame entirely, they accept it as default and spend the next fifty years trying to prove they can be the good version of what the left claims to represent.
The Congress says real patriots are secular and inclusive. The Sangh doesn't say "your definition of patriotism is incomplete." They say "we're the real secularists" and start talking about how Hinduism is inherently pluralistic. They're playing defense on the left's chosen battlefield.
The left says democracy means rational debate and constitutional values. In response, the BJP starts obsessing over procedural correctness, citing constitutional provisions, building elaborate intellectual justifications for every move. Modi gives speeches about how ancient India invented democracy.
The Congress says they care about constitutional governance. So the BJP follows every constitutional procedure, wins elections cleanly, respects federal boundaries. Response? "Constitutional but not constitutional in spirit."
The economy posts record growth numbers, attracts investment, improves infrastructure. Response? "Growth without inclusion" or "the wrong kind of development."
They say they care about international respect. So Modi gets invited to address joint sessions of Congress, hosts G20, builds relationships with world leaders. Response? "Strongman being courted by other strongmen" or "international community is just being diplomatic."
It's the classic moving target strategy. The moment you start trying to prove you're not what they say you are, you've already conceded that their standards matter more than your own.
Modi can turn around the economy, implement innovative policies, improve actual outcomes for millions of people. But if he quotes the wrong Sanskrit texts or attends the wrong cultural events, he's a "dangerous fundamentalist."
Meanwhile Rahul Gandhi gives speeches that make no policy sense, skips parliament sessions and offers no substantive governance experience. But he quotes Yuval Noah Harari, gets profiled sympathetically in The Atlantic and gets to speak at foreign universities. The establishment nods approvingly.
The Sangh's original appeal was being unapologetically different from the stifling Nehruvian consensus that had failed the Indian people. But success made them hungry for respectability within that same consensus. They wanted to be taken seriously by the very people who built their careers on dismissing them.
What we get then is this absurd dance. The BJP performing constitutional propriety to prove they're sophisticated democrats. While the Sangh chases approval from institutions that were designed to exclude, the left doesn't even care whether they follow democratic procedures perfectly.
The Indian Left's power comes from being the gatekeeper. The Sangh must understand that the moment you need their validation, you've already given them exactly what they want. Skip the performance entirely. Build your own institutions, your own measures of success, your own definition of what legitimate governance actually looks like.
Create alternative frameworks for evaluating political success—metrics that prioritize governance outcomes over elite approval. Build media platforms, academic institutions, and cultural spaces that operate by different rules entirely.
Most importantly: stop caring about respectability within systems designed to delegitimize you.
