"Indian nationalism is not like European nationalism. The West doesn’t get this."

A few decades ago, when globalisation theories like ‘the Golden Arches theory’ and ‘the world is flat’ were fashionable, S. Gurumurthy, nationalist ideologue, journalist, magazine editor, and chartered accountant, argued differently.

He saw that national culture and its idiosyncrasies could not be forcefully wiped out by the power of trade and finance especially since globalisation does not only have winners, it also has people who lose. Today when economic nationalism, supply chain resilience and guardrailing critical technologies is making headlines, Gurumurthy’s ideas seem to have won the debate. His role as the chairman of India’s most important nationalist think tank the Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) gives him an advisory role to the Narendra Modi government.

In this conversation with Hindol Sengupta, Gurumurthy discusses,