Discussing about India’s place in the changing world by drawing parallels to is book Pax Indica with his book New World Disorder and the Indian Imperative, Manu S Pillai was in conversation with Shashi Tharoor on the final day of the Kerala Literature Festival. Tharoor said the book was about tracing the disorder the world is in.
An engaging narration of the ‘New World Narrative’ Tharoor, classified the backlashes the world is currently facing as economic and cultural, and said that the world leaders played a role in either of the backlashes. “When Trump said make America great again, he has whispered, make America white again,” Tharoor quoted. Brexit was the result of foreign languages being heard at the streets of England,” he added. Speaking about the representatives of cultural backlash, he said that Narendra Modi represented religio-national populism.The rise of China, ‘Shanghai-ng’ the jobs in the developed countries, and the paradoxes the world currently faced, affirms the fact that the existing structure is no longer adequate, brought in the relevance of the book and made it different from Pax Indica.
He also commented on climate crisis as the by-product of industrialisation where the developed countries colossally damaged the environment and then preached to the entire world about environmental consciousness. The irony lied in the fact that, there are still villages in India which couldn’t afford the luxury of electricity. But he also commented on the unbreathable status of Delhi’s air quality and added that the challenge of combating climate change lied on the developing countries as well.
The discussion threw light on the protests that was happening in the country that has led to stating diversity the country is hailed for as a mere example and that the aspiration of the youth to stand up for the country they believed in was commendable. The session concluded on the note that increased polarisation of the political world within each country and the geopolitical uncertainty makes a brand new template for the solutions the need of the hour.