Gen G: When Centuries of Gujarati Commerce, Decades of BJP Rule and a Low Bar of Comparison Are Mistaken for the Greatest Development Story India Has Ever Seen

There is Gen Z, and then there is Gen G: Generation Gujarat.

This is honestly the feeling I got when I visited Gujarat. There seems to be a whole generation that still genuinely believes Modi is a good person and that he is doing a great job for them. It almost feels like this Gen G is not screwed enough yet to question the system. But then again, perhaps the bar for comparison is so low when you compare Gujarat with states like UP, Bihar or MP that anything remotely functional starts looking like spectacular development.

And this is not limited to one generation. Gujaratis, whatever generation they belong to, often seem remarkably unobjective when it comes to Modi. It is almost like the mother of a criminal who keeps saying, “Mera beta aisa nahi kar sakta.”
Go to business circles in Gujarat or Gujarati business circles in Mumbai and saying “Modiji saras kaam kare che” is almost de rigueur. If you express a contrary opinion, they look at you as if you have arrived from Mars.

They genuinely believe Modi somehow rescued the country from Covid, despite the many ridiculous things he said and did during the pandemic. They genuinely believe that before Modi, India was experiencing riots and Pakistan sponsored bomb blasts every few months. And even when a business setback can be directly connected to a Modi government policy, the reaction is often not to question the government. It is to blame themselves. It is treated almost like a rough patch or punishment from God. You do not abandon God and start worshipping the Devil. You pray harder.
Maybe it will take another two generations for some people to finally question this loyalty.

Then comes the favourite argument: “Look at Gujarat. Decades of BJP rule developed Gujarat.”
Really?

Gujarat was not some economically barren piece of land that suddenly became prosperous because the BJP arrived.

Gujarat had a long history of trade, commerce, ports, textiles, banking and entrepreneurship. Cities such as Surat, Ahmedabad, Bharuch and others were part of major Indian and Indian Ocean trading networks long before Narendra Modi or the BJP existed. Under the Bombay Presidency, Ahmedabad and other parts of Gujarat already had significant commercial and industrial activity. By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Ahmedabad had become an important textile centre, while Gujarati trading communities had established extensive commercial networks across India and overseas. Large steam mills had already emerged in Ahmedabad, Bombay and other parts of the Bombay Presidency by the early 20th century.

Yes, Gujarat grew, but economic growth is not the same as social development, and nearly one in two Gujaratis, approximately 45.55% or 3.38 crore people, rely on free or heavily subsidised food grains.

That does not mean they are all starving, but it certainly challenges the idea that Gujarat represents some model of universal prosperity.
After decades of BJP rule and given Gujarat’s strong starting advantages, the bar should be much higher than highways, factories, GDP and billionaires; development also means education, nutrition, healthcare, employment and living standards.

Perhaps the biggest problem with Gen G is that the comparison is always downward: as long as Gujarat looks better than UP, Bihar or MP, it is called development, instead of asking why Gujarat is not already comparable to genuinely prosperous societies.