It’s hard to imagine Donald Trump as a “half-naked fakir” – wearing nothing but a loincloth and walking with a stick. For many, the very thought of such a visual may seem repulsive. Even the suggestion of such an appellation to characterise Trump, the epitome of materialism, seems plain wrong. It would be dismissed as nothing but spurious adumbration, the remit of deep fake videos.
In the tomes of history, that moniker – “the half-naked fakir” – is reserved for Gandhi, who shed his suit for a loincloth, ostensibly as an expression of solidarity with the millions of poor in India. By rejecting the suit, Gandhi rejected the reality – of him being an English educated lawyer with the financial means to afford a suit – and crafted an alternate reality as a champion of the masses.
It was an astute move, political symbolism at its best. By adopting homespun loincloth as his attire, Gandhi transformed himself into an icon of Indian independence. The image of Gandhi – sitting on the floor, wearing nothing but a loincloth, spinning the Charkha (the spinning wheel) – endures decades after his death as a symbol of Swarajya (self-rule).
Indeed, symbolism is an essential ingredient in realpolitik. It has the power to transform political hustlers into everlasting legends. Symbols serve as the most effective vehicles of propaganda. They create an alternate reality, codify an aspect of personality and manufacture meaning that helps construct narratives.
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