I protested Modi’s Madison Square Garden speech

Today, Sunday 28 September 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited New York City to give a speech to the general public at Madison Square Garden. I did not attend the speech, but I was outside protesting Modi’s behavior. I will explain my complaint, the response that I got, and share some details of the event. In summary, I complained that because Modi is rich and his wife is poor, then he should share some of his wealth with her.

Coming out of this protest and hearing from so many Indians, I am very much reminded that my skin is white and the ideas in my head make no sense in Indian culture. The parts of Modi’s political platform that I especially like are his commitments to developing infrastructure to facilitate imports and exports with India, expansion of diplomatic and consular services, recognition of tourism as a respectable industry, and overall increased collaboration between India and external markets in a controlled and thoughtful way that keeps Indians in control of their business relationships with foreign companies. Modi has a lot of other good ideas but in these fields, I read about him saying and doing things and I am grateful that he takes interest in this because other Indian politicians do not, and I care about these issues.

Completely unrelated to the things I like about his political policy, I protested Modi’s visit because of his relationship with his wife. My view, which I think would be shared by practically any Western person, is that Modi is a privileged person and that his wife is very poor, and that he does not share his wealth and privilege with her. I also believe that much of her situation is due to Modi marrying her and then abandoning the marriage. Modi could make the situation better and be an example for good behavior by sending money to his wife and telling all Indian men that they have to share their money with their wives, and that wives are equal in marriage in all ways especially access to the bank account.

This is already a very touchy issue so please let me present some facts and some premises. If anyone disagrees with these statements, then of course they would not agree with my conclusion. It is my expectation that most Western people and probably non-Indians in general would see things my way, and that Indian people regardless of whether they support or oppose Modi would still see what I am saying as wrong.

Here are some facts which I think are uncontroversial:

1. In 1968 when he was 18 years old, Modi married a woman named Jashodaben Chimanlal
2. This was a marriage arranged in the childhood of these people.
3. Shortly after solemnizing the marriage, Modi left contact with his wife and everyone he knew to practice Hindu wandering in the Himalayas. Living in the wilderness is something of a religious tradition in India and generally considered respectable to Hindus.
4. Modi has said very little about his marriage, and for most of his life has publicly said that he was not married.
5. Modi has had very little contact with his wife after their separation.
6. When Modi filed his election candidacy papers in 2014, he confirmed in his official statement that he remained married.
7. In India, and especially in rural areas, a woman whose husband is not with her faces lots of discrimination. At the least, it is impossible for her to get remarried. She will be forced to get a job for women’s wages, which are less than a man’s and with much less opportunity for jobs.
8. Jashodaben has three published text interviews brought to English.
• I am Narendra Modi’s Wife, 2009
• I like to read about him (Modi)… I know he will become PM February 2014
• Exclusive : Narendra Modi’s wife Jashodaben in conversation with Tv9 Gujarati, video, May 2014
• A significant unpublished interview might be that in 2002, journalist Darshan Desai of ”Indian Express” claims that he met Jashodaben but Modi convinced him to not publish an interview.
9. Jashodaben says that she is Modi’s wife, and that they talked regularly until 1987.
10. Jashodaben has been very poor for her entire life, with a monthly salary before retirement of Rs 10,000 (USD 160) as of 2009.
11. There is no public record anywhere of Jashodaben getting any allowance, financial spousal support, or maintenance fee from Modi.

Here are my personal opinions which led me to protest:

1. Jashodaben suffered a lot as compared to Modi in his own life as a result of her being a woman in a village whose husband was not with her.
2. Jashodaben’s life was more difficult because both of her parents died while she was young, and a married woman without a husband and without parents has an even harder time in India.
3. In the part of India where Jashodaben lived, a rural village in Gujarat, women get only one marriage. A previously married women is undesirable for future marriage.
4. Wives deserve an allowance or financial maintenance from their husbands if they are not together.
5. Modi has been rich enough for a long time. I know that the money that touches his hands does not stay in his bank account, but by any standard, he is wealthy enough to have something to share.
6. Modi is setting a bad example as leader of his country. There is a story in the Ramayana about the dhobis (washerman) who expected Ram to set a good example of how the people should behave. The right example to set is that half of everything a husband owns belongs to the wife, including bank accounts and income.
7. As prime minister, Modi is making 1.6 lakh rupees (USD 2600, not much) per month salary. Half of that money belongs to Jashodaben and should be put into her own hands.

So I went to Madison Square Garden during Modi’s talk and I held up signs and yelled. The first people who told me to quit protesting were other protestors of Indian origin who were themselves there to do the obvious protest, objection to the 2002 Gujarat riots. Two people in this group told me that I was not Indian and that I should just leave. They told me this on 7th Avenue right near the entrance to Penn Station, which must be one of the busiest places in New York. I gathered from their telling me this that they were not much accustomed to New York, white people, and that this was probably their first protest, because it makes no sense at all to tell a white boy in New York to quit protesting in a busy place.

Here are some typical Indian arguments about why Modi does not need to give his wife money:

1. “Modi is not married.” A lot of Indians in New York were saying this, despite Modi in India himself declaring in legal papers that he was married.
2. “Modi never consummated the marriage.” I am not sure if Modi ever said this but I would be surprised if he ever talked about his sexual relations, since Indian politicians are not allowed to talk about sexuality so far as I know. The reports I have seen said that Modi spent about three months with his wife when he was 18 years old, and Modi’s brother said that there was no sex. As a white American, whether he had sex with her or not makes no difference to me, but in any case, neither Modi nor Jashodaben are allowed to discuss this in public in Indian society.
3. “Jashodaben could have gotten remarried, or done anything else in the world that she liked.” I do not believe this. There is a huge stigma in India on women who have gone through a marriage ceremony. The stigma is greater for the part of India from which Jashodaben comes, and greater in the rural areas where she lived, and greater still for poor women with little education. Jashodaben was very poor, had no mother, and two years after marrying Modi her father died as well. By around age 17 she was an orphan who knew she was married and that her husband was away, and I think she felt that she was married. Other reports say that Modi continued to talk to her until 1987, so they had some kind of intimate and special relationship. I think that whatever they did together led her to believe that they were still married.
4. “Jashodaben does not need the money, she had a good government job.” This is true, because she got Rs 10,000 per month (about USD $170) at the height of her career as a teacher in 2009, which is good enough money. However, she is the wife of a wealthy man and she deserves half of what he owns.
5. “Jashodaben does not want the money.” The presumption here is that if Jashodaben wants money then she would file a lawsuit or attack Modi. Indian women just do not do these things and it makes no sense to say that she would take this course of action, especially against the prime minister. To keep her out of media attention she was brought to a rich celebrity religious leader’s home, so obviously she is willing to enjoy luxuries in life if they come to her.
6. “Modi is not rich. He has no money.” Modi owns a bit of real estate and some small investments worth about USD 2-300,000. This is rich by any standards, even if it is definitely humble for a man with power like he has. He gets a prime minister salary of 1.6 lakh per month, which is 2500-3000 USD, so not much on international standard. However, Modi is definitely enjoying luxuries. It is an Indian tradition to not touch cash money but many Indians will accept luxuries that they are presented. Modi, for example, has an expansive luxury wardrobe. It is not expensive by international standards, but it is a luxury by any standard to dress in this way, and in lots of other ways Modi gets to enjoy comfort beyond what anyone on a teacher’s salary can have. People say that Modi gives his salary to charity, but in Western thought, half of his salary belongs to Jashodaben, and it is not generous to give someone else’s money to charity. Modi can put the money in her hand and she what she does with it.

Modi is a great leader with great ideas. I might even say that he seems perfect in every way that I examine him, except for how he treats his wife. Just as the dhobis watched Ram, the world is watching Modi, and he should set a good example by either giving his wife a divorce or acknowledging his marriage by giving her money. By Western perspective, and by the perspective of every culture in the world except for Indian culture, money is good, money is something to talk about, money is something that family members can share, and money is something that in a completely public way husbands give to their wives.