Politics and the enemy

Am presently reading The concept of the political by Carl Schmitt.  Not that I've suddenly grown an interest in politics but as part of the requirement of doing a paper in Political philosophy, I chose to do it on Schmitt.

One of the central themes of this book is the notion of friend-enemy dichotomy that makes anything political.  It makes perfect sense as one author states that the mother's milk of politics is conflict (some say it is money).  And if conflict is so fundamental to politics there also needs to be this 'enemy' with whom one enters into a conflict.

So much so, that in the absence of an enemy, one creates one in order to ensure the survival of politics. The Indian political scenario is a perfect example for this (so is any national politics).  When Pakistan is not the enemy, then the Muslim is. When he isn't then the Dalit is made the enemy.  If not, there is the non-patriotic student.  When there is no one, then Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party is always available.

For once, reading something political is interesting and engaging!