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Hmm … hedging on this because I am not a Japanese citizen, and neither can I make any claim on being a spokesman for them. But I do have some opinions as a permanent resident who has lived over half my life in Japan. Depending on the quality of the manga you want to create, bear with me, allow me to state my arguments, and my answer will be waiting for you just around the corner. Scout’s honor. ;-)First, let’s take a brief look at the political / social scene over here. The conservative LDP has a supermajority but the typically scattered left leaning opposition is reacting in a typical variety of ways. As for boots on the ground, student volunteer groups (bottom up) have really emerged since the Great Tohoku earthquake and community activism is increasing — partially as a necessary response to the hollowing out of the middle class. Steve Martin (Steven Martin)'s answer to How are the homeless people treated by the general population in Japan?Tokyo has elected a female as mayor Tokyo elects first female governor and Koike was not backed by her own party. She, in turn, backed the anti nuclear opposition’s recent win in governorship of Niigata Nuclear foe Ryuichi Yoneyama elected Niigata governor, threatening Tepco reactor restarts | The Japan Times. Just looking at the recent news involving the Tsukiji Fishmarket move Tsukiji Fish-Market Move Delayed Over Cost and Health Concerns and scandal after scandal involving the upcoming Tokyo Olympics is pretty indicative of a wide variety of attitudes and behavior.The constant cat-and-mouse, zero-sum game of neo-liberal capitalism (not that any other -ism is sustainable) has really hit the news with a couple of high profile suicides which have been ruled as due to over work … and I mean REALLY bad working conditions … 50 hours of overtime per week … that’s an extra 10 hours per day for a 5 day week, 8 hours extra for 6 day work weeks. Dentsu was warned about overtime four months before employee's suicide | The Japan Times and Japanese court rules against nuclear operator in suicide suit.Both suicides are indicative of a tactic used by smaller companies resulting in many more deaths that don’t make the news. By Japanese labor law, ‘management’ is exempted from a cap on overtime hours, so the company hires a college kid and gives him/her the title of ‘Manager’ and voila … unpaid overtime is now a given.But the latter of the 2 suicides mentioned above is more worrisome because crucial industries, such as the power industry and particularly nuclear power plants, are exempt from restrictions against too much overtime. Do you REALLY want some half-awake, outsourced laborer watching the safety monitors of nuclear reactors? Well that was pretty much the situation at Fukushima before the tsunami hit. And what have we learned since then? Zilch. Hell, we might as well give those nuclear power workers a bottle of Suntory’s finest whisky and send ’em off to work … Driving Drowsy vs. Driving Drunk: the Fatal Mistake Most People Make.Next, consider the illusion of homogenous consensus. There is an illusion of manufactured consent over here for at least two reasons:1 - The education system reinforces a culture of compliance by conflating liberal Western ideals of education with standardized testing and institutionalized gate-keeping … and if the ruling conservative LDP has its way, it will get far worse … Humanities under attack | The Japan Times and Japan Dumbs Down Its Universities. And,2 - Because there actually is manufactured consent, as Chomsky defines it. The ramming through of a controversial States Secrets Law has dropped Japan’s Freedom of Press rating by Reporters Without Borders down to 72, neck and neck with Tanzania and Lesotho … Japan : Don’t mess with “state secrets” | Reporters without borders. The Japan Press Club has long been so insular for good reason … to control the diversity of Japanese views and expectations.As a simple experiment anyone reading this post can do … take a look at the English version of the Wikipedia link for Hiroko Kuniya - Wikipedia. Then go to the bottom left corner of the page and click on the link for the Japanese version … 国谷裕子 - Wikipedia. If your browser is not configured to give an instant translation into English, just copy paste the article into Google Translate … and compare the English version with what the Japanese are allowed to see. Notice the difference?What about those students I mentioned earlier?I’ve seen some of Michael J. Sandel’s guest lectures over here on NHK television. His wife is Japanese, and his talks on morality are timely and in tune with much of what Thomas Piketty says, and what Noam Chomsky has been saying for a long time. Check out his T.E.D. speech … What's the right thing to do? And I really like his style.But I’ve also seen some of his televised lectures at Harvard, and realized that my Jr. College girls Jissen Women's Educational Institute (my former employer, and not one of the more competitively ranked schools here) were just as capable as Harvard students of giving nuanced and sophisticated views of morality that were quite varied … IF given the opportunity.The High Schools are under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education and the teachers are considered public servants of the government. But there is a huge conflict of interest which is especially highlighted by the granting of voting rights to 18 year olds this year. The government mandates ‘political neutrality’ in the classroom, which as any pedagogue knows, just by looking at the layout of the seats and desks even before a student enters the room, is impossible. The end result is that students are not permitted to discuss changes to the nuclear power option, changes in the law permitting pro-active military intervention, or the Emperor’s controversial request to retire (abdicate?) and the ruling powers attempts to block his freedom to do so ... Systemic avoidance of political issues by schools keeps youth vote in the dark | The Japan TimesThe choice of textbooks in Jr. High and High schools are not exempt from the right-wing swing. Descriptions of Japan's territory increase in textbooks - The Mainichi. As a former member of the Ministry of Education’s English textbook committee, I’ve kept a half open eye on changes in textbook content as well. Steve Martin (Steven Martin)'s answer to How are WWI and WWII taught in Japan? Whereas 10 years ago, the content was more likely to be introducing the world to young Japanese students, now the textbooks are increasingly including content designed for Japanese to explain (market?) their own culture to the world … in English. Of course, authorities have decided that such choice of content is ‘politically neutral’.In fact, some entire prefectures require students to notify school authorities if they plan on attending political activities — even off campus … Ehime high schools to require notice from students who want to attend political events. This has put both students and teachers in a bind, because neither are sure how much freedom is permitted … since the teacher is both a government employee AND the one who determines evaluations which permit students to enter into the next institution upon graduation.Naturally, such a bind already places the student under pressure to not report attending any political activities which are demonstrations or protests against the current ruling party’s policies. Many students (and foreigners like myself) realize that even volunteer activities are not permitted by some authorities without first gaining permission from your own institutional authority.The problem is an education system which, unlike most Western counterparts, is more conservative than society at large. It is still heavily invested in the sage-on-stage style where students are expected to sit down and shut the fuck up. No wonder Japanese colleges are not even considered the best in Asia, much less the world.The illusion of homogenous views and expectations persists because there is little opportunity to express those views and expectations.This is not a well organized essay of an answer by any means, and I do hope to come back to it to give the facts the justice they deserve. But for the time being I will end this post by saying the operative dysfunction in Japanese society now is ‘Authoritarianism’.Today’s news alone (Oct. 20) gives two very good examples of this:1 - Osaka Gov. defends cops who insulted Okinawa anti-base protesters - The Mainichi This is the equivalent of a Tennessee State Trooper sent down to Mississippi to muzzle local protests against a new military base in the state park, and those troopers telling the local ‘nigger’ demonstrators to get the hell out of the way. Naturally, Okinawa’s Governor is less than satisfied with the Osaka Governor’s apology over the trooper’s remark, followed by a ‘good job there, good ol’ boys’ to the troopers.2 - Like last year’s ramming through of the States Secrets Law and changes to the constitution (or its interpretation) allowing the self-defense force to turn into a pro-active military … the way the closed door TPP talks are being railroaded through has made some tempers flare today, and with good reason. Japanese Opposition to Demand Cancellation of TPP Public HearingsThings are changing quickly in Japan, and not for the better, I’m afraid. Now to keep my earlier promise.The single most essential and unwritten rule of ‘Japanese culture’ is this … The entitled make the rules, and then use, abuse, or ‘forget’ those rules at their own convenience, for their own profit. This rule has a corollary;Although in the west, since the ancient Greeks, it is assumed that the highest obligation of citizenship is to hold those entitled accountable, at least one Japanese writer (JAF article, March 2018) has said that ‘citizen’ (shakaijin) in Japan is only a couple of hundred years old at most, introduced to Japan at the beginning of the Meiji Restoration. In fact, the highest obligation of citizenship in Japan is consistent with a millenial old Confucian value of compliance to authority. The only difference is that now the authority is concentrated in a rather opaque morass of bureaucracy, business, and politics as a family business.In retrospect, I guess I am just echoing what has already been said by John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton — "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."Contrary to what the nationalists would have us believe, the similarity between Japan and other countries regarding ‘unwritten rules’ is far more salient than any titillatingly exotic ‘orientalism’. According to one statistic, Japan has the 3rd highest suicide rate in the world, Korea is ranked worst for suicides … almost double that of Japan. The bulk of Japanese suicides appear to be emerging from the male working class (see my comment to Chatherine below). But hot off the press, the latest news from Korea — Korean Workers Launch Major Wave of Strikes, Winning International Support. Any neurons lighting up in pattern-recognition?If this sounds familiar, it might be because Plato said the same thing about ancient Athens, 2300 years ago … Allegory of the Cave. I have digressed from the original question by unveiling an unwritten rule of homo sapiens in general as the most salient unwritten rule in Japan. Sue me. ;-)As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I am not a Japanese citizen. But I am a social primate, close cousin to the bonobo. And I my best guess is that morally mature social primates, bonobos and humans alike, have a sense of what is ‘just’ or ‘right’ built into our genes. No less than bonobos (thank you Frans de Waal), I am obliged to hold those in authority accountable — and to stand up for those who are not able to stand up for themselves.Robots, otaku, Hello Kitty, and Bullet Trains. Bullshit. Just more stuff. And better or faster at getting it. We really haven’t progressed as a species since the stone age.Somebody, quick. Toss me another beer.Would love to see your manga turn into an out and out anime — in the best of Japanese tradition.And in the best of ‘Japanese’ tradition (check out the sound track for ルパン三世), my suggestion for an anime backing track …Update, Nov. 28, 2017Still unemployed, but I was recently asked to be a finals judge at Soka University’s ‘All Japan English Speech Contest’ (again), and to be a preliminary round judge for Tokyo University’s ‘All Japan English Speech Contest’ … the latter being open to anyone, college student or not, who is a non-native speaker of English.Last Sunday, I was one of three judges and a questioner who served the student organized contest at Soka University. The winner was a 2nd year college student from another school (front and center in the photo), who talked about discrimination against a large minority in Japan. She herself is a member of that minority, and you would never know it by looking at her or listening to her. She is ‘Zainichi’ … Japanese of Korean Ancestry, and has experienced the hate speech and on-line versions of hate-speech first hand.It turns out that ‘opposition’ party leader and mayor of Tokyo, Koike … is not as much of an opposition as she posed in her election to mayorship, more like a faction of the far-right ruling LDP, a ‘faux oppostition’ … Tokyo govenor Yuriko Koike defends party’s policy not granting foreign residents of Japan the right to vote.Though born and raised in Japan, the winner of this year’s All Japan English Speech Contest, unlike the other college students she competed with, is not allowed to even step on the stage of voting in national elections, much less run for office.One can quibble about the term ‘racist’ … but I would say it is an accurate description of most of Japan’s laws regarding human rights … the right to vote, marriage, child custody, immigration, employment, and so on … and ‘racist’ is a hell of a lot easier to say than ‘ethno-centrist’.And Feb. 2018 … as a semifinal’s judge at the Tokyo University E.S.S. All Japan Speech Contest. I specifically chose to be introduced as such …

The following is very much my reading of the current political situation in India. I am not an expert on either politics or history, so take this answer with a grain of salt :Indian political scene is filled with misnomers : “Liberals” are not really liberal, “Rationalists” are actually communists, all sides of political spectrum are basically “progressive”, that is want living conditions of humanity to get better with time, “Secular” word is very unclear in definition, “Indian Intellectuals” many a times aren’t intellectuals (many celebrities who are counted as intellectuals haven’t really completed their basic education, they can be called leaders, not intellectual).So “Being liberal is good” is not really a fact like you have mentioned. It is a statement like saying “Movie X is good”. It is a subjective statement.You need to understand that the “liberal” politics in India is not really liberal (liberal politics is a different type of politics altogether which has no support base in India), but a mix between Fabian socialism, neoliberalism and identity politics. (essentially the politics of Indian National Congress at different stages during Indian democracy period, which has been in power for most of the time post-independence).In current context, If you understand that you like the policies implemented by the INC in India, you can definitely call yourself an “Indian Liberal”, but please don’t feel you have a liability to be called “liberal” as the word has a good reputation. You might like the Indian Liberal philosophy, the Liberal(or classic liberal as now it is called, given there is a neoliberal philosophy too) philosophy, none, a mixture of both, whatever you feel like.As of 2019 , I want to explain (as to how I understand) what is an “Indian Liberal” philosophy and what are they really against in current BJP regime. (And that there is a lot in common too which they should not really be against)The Indian Liberal Political stance1) Fabian Socialism:I think if you are reading this answer you probably already know what socialism is. Socialism is basically a democratic form of communism which aims at bringing wealth redistribution and state/co-operative ownership of important means of production. By just policy of democratic socialism, Political Communism in India and Socialism are not really different as both comply to electoral means to gain power. (There is also real communism in India which wants to overthrow capitalists through a bloody and warlike revolution, what we know today as Naxalite - Wikipedia ). However, Fabian thought is what sets them apart.Fabian thought is slightly different though. Fabian Society - Wikipedia . It believes that the best form of government is that which is run by an elite and aims to redistribute wealth as a “Socialism run by Aristocracy” (This is not my words, but Annie Besant’s, J.L.Nehru’s political guru).If you look at Indian politics, most elite people’s families have been elite for generations. Just google a bit about post-Nehru Congress leaders or our artists or mediapersons etc, you will see a lot of them come from elite families (who were quite influential after or sometimes even before independence) and stay elite. They don’t want to show it, try to portray themselves as common people, but they are. Fabian Socialism creates an ecosystem which tries to implement socialism without becoming more populist (We will discuss about the term later).If you remember before the internet and social media, the only way to understand the depths behind a topic was to read opinions on a topic in newspapers. I used to read opinions and editorials of Indian English newspapers when I was a kid. Thinking of it, a lot of subjective knowledge was passed to me as real knowledge and I probably still believe a lot of it even now. That is the epitome of Fabian society, I was guided into what I believe is right in a lot of topics by elites whom the media thought were experts in their fields.In India, the way Fabian Socialism works is the following:1. Highlight weak sections within the majority and become their representative. 2. An elite ecosystem to run the country and create propaganda3. Meritocracy in executive and technocracy to keep populism in check (the people think they get a say in running government).The entire concept of dynasty politics is not just limited to politics, but also in media, arts, business, judiciary etc. Fabian thought aims at building an elite which runs the show. In UK, OxBridge educated elite is another example of a similar “socialist aristocracy”: List of University of Oxford people with PPE degrees - WikipediaThere is a small inlet for the common people to break into this elite through competitions etc to make sure they are not dissatisfied.So its not just Nehru-Gandhi family, but a set of families which run the country. They take in a few new elite people and the old ones are retained, keeping their narrative aligned always. They let certain meritorious people into elite who comply with their narrative enriching the ecosystem . Let me explain a bit more.Socialism in my view is basically elite-run Communism. It follows similar goals to communism, but is unlike communism, not brutal and authoritarian, allows for economics to flourish too and makes more rational choices.There is a somewhat parallel movement in India we had of a more populist (identity politics based) socialism and you have common people rising to become powerful politicians. (Mulayam Singh Yadav, Nitish Kumar, George Fernandes, Lalu Yadav, Kansiram etc ). But since the ecosystem was built to facilitate fabian socialism, they all convert into fabian socialists in the long run. Most of these populist socialist parties have now evolved into what is known as “dynestic politics” parties in India. That is the reason why some people even allege that the BJP is becoming like the Congress (because the country works based on ecosystem and parties have to adopt it to some extent to run the nation). The class of 1975 - Times of IndiaIf we think in the terms of George Orwell, the INC is the Inner Party - Wikipedia and it has developed an ecosystem that any ruling party has to comply to.In modern context, Socialism’s most important call is to end wealth inequality. Means of production and other philosophies have been replaced by Neoliberalism (including here in India) and welfare state. Only very recently, we are seeing Jeremy Corbyns, AOCs and Bernies of the world bringing the hard left back. Truth is that combining Socialist welfare state with neoliberalism has had some really good consequences for people for countries.Look at the HDI:Or World Happiness Index:Or quality of life:The 23 cities with the best quality of life in the worldIn India, you can roughly equate the AAP government’s work in Delhi to be India’s equivalent to the welfare state. Delhi Government Performance Report 2015-2019(That link is from website of the political party itself so yeah, use some salt)2) Neoliberalism:Neoliberalism - Wikipedia is a policy that most left-of-center political parties adopted 1990s onwards (Democrats in US, Labor Party in UK, INC in India). Embracing capitalism and globalization as more “efficient” socialism. Neoliberalism basically lets globalization take precedence. As trade increases, prosperity grows, and more money for helping depraved. This sacrifices the goal of finishing “economic inequality” , but no one complains given better circumstances that arise. Parties also become more center in the political spectrum, making them more acceptable.The other policies of identity politics remain, while the cathedral/ecosystem allows meritocratic entrance not just by meritocratic competitions but also by entrepreneurship. The entrepreneurs who get into the elite using the system is what a lot of critics call “cronies” in modern era. This policy has proven to drive growth. Most modern global multinational companies took their form thanks to neoliberal policies and they became huge. Neoliberalism and multinational giants support and reinforce each other. You can assume that most Forbes companies these days are a product of globalization and Neoliberalism. So is a lot of discoveries and inventions and human achievements.This has definitely made the world a better place:Poor people are getting a better life due to this and in some countries in Africa, the average age is going up by more than 1 year to live every year, that is people have more years to live ahead of them as they get older.A very nice narrative around this can be found in Enlightenment Now, one of my favorite books, which tells how chasing openness in science, reason, humanism and betterment of people has been achieved in last few years and the world is becoming a better place every day:Indian National Congress was somewhat neoliberal during their stint as UPA governments in 2004–2014. The good thing is you can be socialist and neoliberal both (infact that is the most prevalent form of center-left politics in the world) .3) Identity Politics:So how would a minority of elites can run such a huge country on socialism/neoliberalism ? If you basically tell people you want to run a democratic neoliberal government to open up the country, help traders, entrepreneurs and scientists, you will not get even a few votes in a democracy.The answer is by never letting a majority form. Social Justice is a good concept, but when it is combined with identity politics, it becomes an effective measure to never let the majority unite. Any and every society in the world has its flaws and fault lines. You can effectively make the weaker sections support the elite without a lot of trouble. In India, you have Minority politics, Backward caste politics, Scheduled caste politics, Women politics and so on. This is a brilliant way to keep populism in check. Votebank politics is the common name for this phenomenon in India. All you have to do is positive discrimination to rule.Minorities must have first claim on resources: PMIdentity Politics does give a feel to marginalized segments of society that they have sway in the society, and that is why it wins.Unlike intellectuals and elite who respond more to facts, common people respond more to emotion and will respect identity politics shown real and emotional stories of oppression, poverty and struggle.There is some argument that identity politics actually works: In Defense of Identity Politics - Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and SocietyBut most people disagree:Why identity politics benefits the right more than the left | Sheri BermanIndian Liberal is against What ?Well, now that I have described in my own definition what an Indian Liberal is, let me describe what are they fighting against:Modi-ism (This is not really a term, but I don’t really know what we have as an actual term for this phenomenon)Modern Hindutva, BJP, Modi-ism or whatever terms you want to put to the current phenomenon that has rocked India in terms of politics recently is not a new one. It evolved from Congress itself when it was a big tent party for Indian Independence before it took a decisive fabian socialism turn under Nehru. Unlike most right-of-center parties in the world, Modi’s politics is not really conservative (You can see a lot of people writing “Hindutva is not Hinduism”, that is because not all tenets of our traditional religion is what he aspires to), fiscally socialist(Modi government distributes many freebies to poor people), but yet pro-business (in fact they have sometimes been criticized for being anti-business too). Economically, BJP is closer to Democrats (general democrats, not the left fringe we see these days) than Republicans in US. Modi government is trying to run a version of Obamacare in India. The “Gujrat Model” he wants to bring to the nation is more or less how we define Neoliberalism above. Growth in Gujarat hasn’t been confined to 1% of populationEconomically, the only difference between Modi and previous Indian governments is his openness to let businesses created outside the elite class. He has reduced red tape and number of laws, made getting businesses registered, loaned and closed easier. He also promotes SMEs/MSMEs/startups and pitches them everywhere. This appeal to allow non-elite people in the top is what we will address next.As an Indian Liberal , you might oppose Modi for the following for just opposition’s sake, but there is not too much ground to this criticism:His Neoliberal economicsHim being “old-fashioned” or “orthodox”Socialist policiesThe truth is he is trying to solve the same issues as a Indian Liberal government would try and solve and agrees with you things need to change from the status quo. Sometimes he might come up with similar solutions to what an Indian Liberal government would come up with (with lesser or higher efficiency), sometimes his policies will be radically different.There are two issues however on which there is massive disagreement. These are the fundamental issues which when Modi tries to change, people blame him for changing the “idea of India”Populism :The most fundamental difference between Modi’s thought and Indian Liberal thought is who sets the narrative : the majority of people or a set of elite.Populism is the rule of the majority. Basically Populism means sticking to what the majority thinks is right. Some basic things you can easily guess that the majority in a nation state wants is :non-interference in day to day lifecontrol of moralitysocial mobility andSocial Influence and RelevanceThis puts Populism at odds with the rule of the elite. Let’s see examples of these fundamental differences:1. More social mobility as long as you dont want to destroy the system. If you respect the system (Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, CPC in China and Communist Party in USSR), you could rise from the bottom of the society to the top.Stalin ,for example, came from a family of shoemakers:In a elite run state (US from 1990–2016 was a proper neocon-neolib state) , most people who get power even from marginalized sections of society are elite too. Barack Obama, for example, had a more privileged life than most African Americans.Speaking from A Place of Privilege: Why Barack Obama Can't Win for Losing on Race?As you see above, many people in the community weren’t totally happy with the way he ran his Presidency (Not talking about Republicans who were unhappy with him, I am talking about people who had voted for him expecting him to bring some huge reform for his own community).How Obama Failed Black AmericansThat’s because as an establishment candidate there is only so much he could do (and he was a pretty good President overall), you cannot expect populist policies from him like what these people were expecting.2. Social Influence of the majority is better and they are left alone: Trump canceling Paris climate accord for coal miners or putting trade embargo on China to make sure manufacturing stays in US are steps that help common Americans live their life without expecting too many changes. This is something majority likes, stressful constant life. Gradual changes is what they want. Elites are strong and well placed to take blow from changes in day to day life, common people are not. That is the reason why their openness-to-change is low. So when populists start placing majority’s comfort above elite policies, well, the common people feel they have more power in society. This is in direct contrast to Identity Politics, where marginalized groups feel they are in power.In India, Demonetization 2016 Indian banknote demonetisation - Wikipedia which has been told to be a failed move by most experts was loved by most Indians at that time and is still loved even now. Most of us have personal anecdotes of our black money grabbing corrupt government servant or businessmen relatives who had to sweat hard to save their money and might have lost a lot of it. These were the same people who had used the system to their advantage. Majority doen’t really know how RBI says most of currency came back, but we do remember these “elite” rich evil people getting troubled and this amused them, despite the fact they had to face hardships too. Now these people of silent majority don’t come out and interview on television and write editorials on newspapers and so they are hard to find online, but go ask your neighbor from lower middle and lower class and there are stories you would have not heard.The problem with will of majority is, it is emotional and often sub optimal. Probably because the majority is facing life everyday, they don’t get the context or time to gain the bigger picture. Occam’s Razor is very good, but when you don’t have enough facts, you can often choose a very simple narrative that actually doesn’t even explain the situation but just sounds right to you (Occam’s Razor is for scientific competing hypothesis, but when a simpler non-scientific hypothesis like “Jews are evil” comes into play, it just gets stupid). Unfortunately, that has what has happened with populism in the past.Populism has been around for a long time, I feel communism is populism in some way and so is Fascism. For example, look at the communist poster here:It is basically hating everyone as an elite except the common working class. Bourgeoisie - Wikipedia was basically everyone who did not want what the will of the people was.If you think this was just communism that was against the elite, check out the other star of the show, the nazis :So if you have ever wondered why “People’s Republic of China” has People’s in its name or why Nazi Party’s full name was National Socialist Germans Workers Party. These were populist governments. Populist governments haven’t had the best of reputation:Mass killings under communist regimes - WikipediaThe Holocaust - WikipediaSo the fear of populism is somewhat justified given what has happened in the past. However, in recent times, we have seen some populist governments functional and not just killing people all the time (with some flaws of their own no doubt) which has slowly started changing the trend.There are things now majority in most countries (at least for sure in India) understands, hence they don’t want a communist style grassroot level populism:A. There will be inequality, there will be elites without whom the country won’t be able to function. These elites will have more powerB. You need economic growth in the country to create a larger and richer middle class who can live a more comfortable lifeC. Businesses are important and are brutally hard to run, people now support businesses that have come up using opportunity, but hate the ones that use the system.D. Meritocratic selection of elite is better than nepotism.And that brings us to the new form of populism we see these days (at least in Asia) :Neoliberal Populism is a recent phenomenon and has been somewhat of a lesser mass murderer than Communism or National Socialism. This was basically invented in Singapore by Lee Kuan Yew, the guru of Asia’s economic rise.Lee Kuan Yew eulogised as a 'leader, not a populist politician'Does that description of leader sound familiar in India ? That’s exactly how Narendra Modi is being projected too.This populism combines a political capitalist system :https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/cato-journal/2015/2/cj-v35n1-2.pdfand a meritocratic political+executive elite:https://lkyspp.nus.edu.sg/gia/article/resisting-authoritarian-populism-lessons-from-for-singaporeThis system has in last few years lifted millions out of poverty. Takes just few decades to turn countries from low income to high income:If you are reading my answer from top till now, look at the Gujarat model article I had shared. Get the similarity ?There are the usual drawbacks of Populism like no way for dissent which have been present in all three countries above (not just China but also South Korea and Singapore) . There are also additional risks of persecution of minorities and shifting the focus of country from the neoliberal track to a more nationalist one like in Russia.In India, Modi is trying to get a neoliberal populist subsystem in place in conformation with Indian Constitution. While there is an meritocratic executive elite in India ( Union Public Service Commission - Wikipedia )The political elite is not at all meritocratic as I have described earlier. It is very dynastic and that is why they do not like the concept. Many people accuse Congress of nepotism, a lot of them blame our cinema industry for the same too. Populism requires this to change and you will see constant efforts by Modi to put such changes in place.For example, judges in India are appointed by recommendations. Modi’s introduction of a judge appointment commission was met with a lot of criticism and was later struck down by the Supreme Court. However, Supreme Court has introduced new methods to make the appointments more transparent.National Judicial Appointments Commission - WikipediaWhen an Indian Liberal is accusing Modi of changing the idea of India, they are against this type of populism. Just an example of a latest populist speech here:3. Control of Morality: By this I mean who decides what is wrong and what is right. For example if there is a question “If a person comes to your house at night asking for help and looks shady, should one help them or not ?”, majority might think very differently to it than what elites think. They both live in very different localities, meet very different people and hence one might feel that the other is pushing their views on other.Look at the narative on Diwali (biggest hindu festival) coverage from different sides of the spectrum:Truth is Diwali adds pollution into atmosphere for one day, but the pollution in/around Delhi is prevalent throughout the season and peaks weeks after Diwali. Given that, is it OK to boycott traditional practice of crackers ? That is what control of morality means and that is what fight is about.So I hope I have been able to somewhat explain what Indian Liberals don’t like about the populist terms of Modi government.The other issue of contention between Indian Liberals and Modi-ism isHindutva:This is a very hot button issue. Probably what the BJP and its allies are hated for the most by Indian Liberals. While Indian Liberals refer to it as “the philosophy of hate”, while for the cultural right wing, its a philosophy to make Hinduism more resistant to the flaws it had during muslim invasions and British raj as a society.When Savarkar (the proponent of Hindutva) met Mr. Gandhi (a very conservative Hindu), he was trying to prove to him that Hinduism needs to change to become less prone to division, while Mr. Gandhi wanted the old practices of Hinduism to stay.When Mahatma Gandhi met Veer Savarkar | India News - Times of IndiaOne of the ways to become less prone to division is to become more cohesive and defensive. That is not something a lot of people will like as it reduces the openness to new ideas like socialism or secularism or different religions.Indian liberals and Indian right is very very strongly divided over this issue. Politicians from Modi’s party who give useless inflammatory speeches against others time-to-time further give rise to the doubt that maybe political Hindutva is not a defensive philosophy but a hate philosophy.So in a nutshell, if you believe in many of the following:Socialism as a means to redistribute wealthNeoliberalismMinorities getting power through identity politicsA government more influenced by intellectuals and less by what the majority would think.Don’t believe that Hinduism as a culture needs to be more cohesive/defensive or think Hinduism is obsolete and needs to go away.You can say you are an “Indian Liberal”An Indian Right Wing guy (also called RW on social media) is one who has a good number from the following beliefs:Populist, that is believes majority sentiment should be considered important.Doesn’t want nepotism but a meritocratic elite/intellectuals.Believes Hinduism needs to be more united to save the local cultures/beliefs.Neoliberal economicsSocialism as a means to keep the nation together.Based on the above discussion, you should make a choice about what political group you belong to rather than just thinking that “being liberal is a supposedly good, so I should be a liberal” or an otherwise equivalent statement like “Being Populist seems like a good option”.Classical Liberalism or Liberalism (not Indian Liberalism) is basically the policy of Laissez Faire capitalism, freedom in all regards to people and progressiveness. This philosophy has absolutely no political base in India. A lot of people who believe government should let the religions alone and think only in terms of economy belong to this school of thought, but if you think about the ramifications of such a government, it might not be really possible to have such a government.The other part is Why are liberals criticized so much ?Anyone who takes a stance is criticized by the other side. People have different belief systems so one needs to open to criticism when one proposes subjective ideas.The best way for an elite to run the show is to not be distinguishable from the crowd. But many elites become “Let them have cake” level disconnected from the majority and speak/do things the majority doesn’t like. That begets criticism.Many people are “Indian liberal” because this has social brownie points in some circles. These people to show themselves as more distinguished start an arms race which gets them to become more and more fringe.Going with the saying “enemy of enemy is friend”, Indian Liberals have sometimes taken support from people who have taken refuge in far left or many alternative -isms. Communism wants the nation state to be obsolete and hence these people sometimes say things against the country as a whole instead of a political party. That rubs many people the wrong way. Also nothing is without consequences, you dilute your ideology when you mix it with anyone. Also the global trend of moving far left for center left politics supports this.Indian Liberals like any other political group are hypocritical in highlighting problems when they seem fit and staying shut when needed. Hypocrisy is guaranteed to get criticism. For example, an Indian Actress who criticizes Diwali festival for fireworks had lot of fireworks in their movie release party.