In Modi’s head
By Guillaume Delacroix and Sophie Landrin, published by Solin/Actes Sud. 261 p., €21.
A harmless grandfather with a white beard, a fan of yoga and taking the great people of this world in his arms to give them demonstrative “hugs”: Narendra Modi is a master in the art of refining a reassuring international image . Now at the head of the most populous country in the world, he is received with honors – in Washington or in Paris – by Westerners attracted by the prospect of big contracts and the desire to act as a counterweight to a China whose ambitions are worrying. But beneath the good-natured appearance of this charismatic leader who, at 73, is aiming for a third term after the general elections in early June, hides a much more worrying character. This is what Guillaume Delacroix (collaborator of L’Express) and Sophie Landrin demonstrate in an in-depth investigation, which demystifies the Indian Prime Minister by delving into the sources of his ideology.
From the age of 8, this son of oil pressers, fascinated by religion, joined a powerful Hindu nationalist group, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, every day after school., whose teaching still constitutes his intellectual matrix and that of his party, the BJP. “Immersed from a very young age in this far-right organization which became his second family, or rather his real family, Narendra Modi was modeled by his thoughts. Imbued with this supremacist ideology, he raised it to the pinnacle of the State”, thus torpedoing the project of the founding fathers of India, write the authors.
His goal ? Give India a central place on the international scene and restore pride to the Hindus, after centuries of domination by the Mughal sultans and then the British Empire. Muslims are an ideal target, and everything is done to make them “second-class citizens”, summarizes the book, which paints the portrait of a narcissistic, megalomaniac and authoritarian leader. Externally extolling the virtues of the “greatest democracy in the world”, internally it represses the media, puts pressure on the justice system, and attempts to stifle all forms of dissent.
Certainly, unlike Turkey, India is not bellicose. “But Erdogan, the radical Muslim, frightens Westerners, while Modi, the Hindu nationalist, seduces them. A strange paradox which can perhaps be explained by the ignorance which still surrounds India, this distant and exotic Orient,” asks the work. After reading it, you can no longer be naive.
Requiem for Hong Kong
By Dorian Malovic, Bayard Récits. 263 p., €19.
How China killed Hong Kong, by Dorian Malovic
© / Editions Bayard
Both a personal story full of life scenes and encounters and a long-term political analysis, Dorian Malovic’s book recounts the slow and inexorable dissolution into the Chinese authoritarian model of Hong Kong, a territory whose every alley he walked for years. decades. Currently head of the daily’s “Asia” department The cross, the journalist settled in the “fragrant port” (literal translation of Hong Kong) in 1987. The vital energy of the Hong Kong people fascinated him. “It’s hard to imagine today how much this tiny British colony could inspire dreams in the 1980s,” summarizes the author, who immerses us in the feverish atmosphere of the time. We smell the smell of oil from popular restaurants, we hear lively discussions in Cantonese, we listen to the testimonies of refugees from Maoist China.
Then comes the terrible shock of the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing. But the alert is short-lived. It will be swept away by several decades of excitement and double-digit growth, which will not be hampered by the return of the territory to China in 1997. A period of deceptive carelessness, which will begin to change during the “umbrella revolt” of 2014, before the brutal bringing to heel of Hong Kong after the giant demonstrations of 2019. Long a symbol of freedom, the megalopolis has entirely fallen under the yoke of the communist regime: pro-democracy newspapers are banned, political opponents are imprisoned or reduced to silence .
For the author, “devastated by the destruction of Hong Kong”, things are now clear: “China has betrayed us”. In reality, during these four decades which saw it become the second largest economic power in the world, the Chinese Communist Party “did not change its nature”, only its face. The annihilation of the island’s identity and the stifling of its freedoms was a long-standing project. The West has been blind, thinking that increased trade with China would lead to greater political openness. The author also believed it, and he blames himself. “Did I look wrong?”, he asks himself bitterly.
In a precise and lively retrospective demonstration, Dorian Malovic points out the clues which escaped everyone, and which could have alerted us. By creating striking parallels between the fate of the Tiananmen students, the Tibetan people, and the Uighurs of Xinjiang, he denounces the implacable Chinese totalitarian machine which destabilizes the international order and militarily intimidates its Asian neighbors. “There is still time to say no to him!”, concludes the author. So that other territories do not suffer the same slow death as Hong Kong.
Beijing blues
By Charlotte Cahné, edition of Le Masque, 288 p., €8.90.
Called “Around the world in thrillers”, the new collection imagined by Le Masque Poche in January 2024 intends to combine reading and travel through detective novels from all walks of life. Let’s stop in China with Charlotte Cahné, whose Beijing blues in 2020 (French Mask of the Year award) and which the publishing house is republishing today. Its “hero” and narrator is a 49-year-old junkie with a broken face and a cowboy look. This Hadrien de Clichy, half-painter, half-informant for the Stup cops, had barely arrived in Beijing, invited by the Institute of Franco-Chinese Arts to work in peace on his “Taoist” painting, that his talents as a neophyte investigator are put to use. Eva, a friend in residence at the Institute, is arrested by the police for having provided a false alibi to her comrade Chen, who is accused of having killed his wife, Lin, a rich entrepreneur who has just become a mother. His mission ? Get Eva out of Chinese jails, and to do so clear Chen.
Beyond the facts, Charlotte Cahné, strategy consultant, intelligently describes a Beijing in perpetual transformation, rejecting the poor on the outskirts to welcome the nouveau riche – the description of hutongs, neighborhoods of alleys with square courtyards, which are being eradicated at will, is impressive. Just like the generation of only children at the heart of this dark novel. The ravages of the policy put in place in 1980 are obvious: bearing the ambitions and desires of their parents, young people are struggling to build themselves. What can we do, if not strive to succeed, at the risk of missing out on life and friendship? It’s also impossible to refuse marriage and childbirth… An edifying dive into a Beijing that is as fascinating as it is disturbing.
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