“Why India’s Left-Liberal Gatekeepers Need a “Normal” Pakistan” – Reverse The Gaze, Mar 10, 2026
“Why are so many Indian left-liberals, especially the media and cultural gatekeepers, so eager to normalize and humanize Pakistan, even as Pakistan’s polity, military, and large sections of its society remain openly hostile to Hindus and to Bharat itself? The answer lies less in any genuine belief in peace or “Aman ki Asha” and more in the internal power economy of India’s own elite class: their currency is permanent moral superiority over the Hindu majority, and for that they need Hindus to stay confused, guilt-ridden, and on the defensive.
For decades, Pakistani institutions – from state media and mosque networks to school curricula – have relentlessly propagated an ideology of Islamic supremacism, casting Hindus as weak, duplicitous, and inherently inferior, while Muslims are presented as strong, truthful, and destined to rule. Islamist elites on both sides of the border quietly harbor this view: “We ruled you for a millennium and graciously spared your annihilation or total conversion… your natural station is as morally lax subordinates, destined one day to embrace Islam through our magnanimous forbearance.”
This mindset did not arise overnight; it is the result of generations raised on a diet of religious radicalism, conspiracy theories, and a Partition narrative that justifies perpetual hostility towards “Hindu India.” When Indian elites insist that the problems with Pakistan are merely “political” or “territorial,” they are not just wrong; they are actively erasing the civilizational and religious dimension that Pakistan itself foregrounds.
The Liberal’s Need to Look Down on the Majority
Indian left-liberal elites have, since Independence, positioned themselves as the enlightened vanguard dragging a benighted Hindu society into “modernity.” Their self-image depends on a sharp vertical hierarchy: on top, the cosmopolitan, secular, English-speaking minority; below, the traditional, vernacular Hindu majority that must be lectured, reformed, and disciplined. To sustain this pyramid, it is essential that the majority never feels morally secure or civilizationally confident….”
Read the full article at reversethegaze.substack.com
