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The one glaring difference between the US and India brought out by these elections has been the positions taken by large corporations (which is usually a decent reflection of what privileged, urban consumers want).
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Despite the NFLs position, pressure from the President, and violent protests by some Americans, Nike stood by Colin Kaepernick. And the response to this ad showed that they had read their consumers right. https://www.vox.com/2018/9/4/17818148/nike-boycott-kaepernick
After the death of George Floyd, even traditionally conservative Wall Street and tech companies jumped in. BLM was no longer fringe. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/13/after-years-marginalizing-black-employees-customers-corporate-america-says-black-lives-matter/
Even if they didn’t have anything real to say, or anything meaningful to do, they were keen to position themselves on what their consumers saw as the right side. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/06/brands-racism-protests-amazon-nfl-nike/612613/
Contrasting this with India, the message behind the recent Tanishq ad withdrawal is intriguing. Support for bigotry in India is clearly driven not from some rural backwater, but from its young professional urban well off population- Tanishq’s market. https://scroll.in/article/975895/tanishq-ad-withdrawal-shows-that-most-corporations-wont-fight-hate-its-up-to-individuals-to-do
It’s not limited to Tanishq. This article has a great list of advertisers on Republic TV and Times Now. It’s pretty much everyone (apart from a few names like Bajaj that have consciously distanced themselves). https://thewire.in/media/trp-corporate-sponsors-news-channels
Unlike in the US, where you have to look hard to find a republican in California, the educated techie bastion of Bangalore South happily elects a Tejasvi Surya to parliament. https://frontline.thehindu.com/dispatches/article29148696.ece
And while the NYT might briefly have called the Shiv Sena “progressive”, it’s not a label anyone else would attach to the party in power in India’s financial capital. Also good to remember that the BJP Sena alliance dominated Maharashtra politics until their split.
Two other Indian institutions with huge cultural influence, Bollywood and the Indian cricket team, both stay largely silent on controversial issues (but speak up for demonetisation) for similar reasons. It’s what the urban Indian consumer wants. https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/cricket/irfan-pathan-interview-cricketers-insecurities-sensitive-issues-6471164/
A Kangana Ranaut can comfortably say “caste doesn’t exist anymore” because that’s what the upper caste Indian consumer wants to hear. https://theprint.in/opinion/kangana-ranaut-isnt-casteless-her-elders-passed-on-an-invisible-code-to-her/489458/
While a superstar like SRK has to pick his words with extraordinary care, to make his point, and avoid alienating his fans. https://www.thequint.com/entertainment/bollywood/shah-rukh-khan-religion-india-diversity-congress
There are two sources of power in any democracy - the mass vote, and the noisy moneyed vote. The moneyed vote in India, with few exceptions, sits comfortably with the reactionary politics of the right wing. We have to look elsewhere for hope.
