In India, Seeking Revolution in a Democracy

NEW DELHI — Swami Ramdev is a yoga instructor in saffron robes; he walks on wooden sandals and has an elastic body, an involuntary wink, flowing black hair and a full beard. He claims to have renounced worldly pleasures, but that excludes flying in private jets.

He is at the helm of a thriving business in traditional treatments, herbal products, media and textiles that is worth at least hundreds of millions of dollars. Nebulous details of his holdings are still trickling in.

Among his many stated views about a nation gone astray are that homosexuality is a sickness that needs curing, film actresses are immoral, the corrupt should be hanged from a rope and high-denomination notes should be banned to discomfort the “black money” economy.

On Saturday, he went on a fast-unto-death in Delhi to demand, among other things, that the Indian government bring back illicit funds that its citizens have stashed in other countries. Thousands gathered on a large ground to watch him, millions more on television.

The government, including the prime minister, had pleaded with him not to go on the fast. Then, before its first day was complete, the police came to take him away. When some of his followers turned violent, tear gas shells were fired to disperse the crowd. In the confusion, Swami Ramdev escaped. The police found him in female attire, trying to get away in the company of women. His thick, full beard gave him away, though he did try to cover it with a veil. He was flown to a place far from Delhi and freed. He wept in front of the cameras and accused the government of plotting to kill him. On Wednesday, he told a gathering that he would soon arm his supporters with weapons to fight the government.

The yoga instructor is the latest mascot of middle-class India’s desperate search for a revolution.

The nascent anti-corruption movement in India was birthed in the philosophy that a full-blown media circus is the only way educated citizens who have no political influence can fight the government. There was much euphoria when it all began in April, with the fast-unto-death campaign of a truly austere man, a former army driver and a social reformer, Anna Hazare. But as the middle class is now learning, it is in the nature of things that if you start a circus, sooner or later the clowns will arrive.

Mr. Hazare had postponed his fast in Delhi by a few days to wait for the cricket World Cup to end. India won the Cup after a gap of nearly three decades, and Mr. Hazare’s fast against political corruption channeled the collective joy of national pride into a festive demonstration against the loathed politicians. Mr. Hazare said he would die of starvation if the government did not set up a new, autonomous institution, called the Jan Lokpal, that would have the power to investigate corruption charges against all arms of the government, including the office of the prime minister and the judiciary. The government, nervously, promised to set up a committee, and Mr. Hazare ended his fast. On Wednesday he fasted again, this time in a daylong, symbolic event to express his dissatisfaction with how the government is approaching the issue of corruption.

Public disgust for politicians has been higher than normal in recent months, following the news media’s exposure of a series of scams running to billions of dollars. Also, the images of good-looking, well-dressed men and women in the Middle East apparently bringing down their dictators through demonstrations and social media have given the urban middle class hope that they, too, can bring about fashionable change — that a government elected by illiterates and semi-literates can be made to surrender to sophisticated public opinion. Mr. Hazare has become the hero of the modern urban elite, many of whom are employees or customers of the very companies accused of offering kickbacks to politicians.

The Indian urban elite are foreigners in their own country. They are the first world trapped inside the third world. They are Western. They do not vote, they have never attended a political rally, they find the Indian political system lowbrow. Their head of state, in spirit, is President Barack Obama of the United States. In a way, they are amateur Indians.

via nytimes.com