A desi dictionary: A is for Appeasement

October 31, 2017 15:50

The conversion of words into political bad words through slanted repetition is a feature of majoritarian discourse. The derogatory sense is sometimes derived from Western usage. Take, for example, appeasement.

The infamy earned by Neville Chamberlain after making concessions to Hitler in 1939 is transferred, in a rhetorical stroke, to Indian politicians, public intellectuals and political parties whose concern for the rights of minorities, especially Muslims, is seen as the cowardly and self-interested propitiation of an aggressive community.

Appeasement n. Polit. A policy of making concessions to a potential aggressor in order to preserve peace; spec. such a policy pursued by Britain towards Nazi Germany prior to the outbreak of war in 1939. Often derog.

Read Mukul Kesavan's column in the Telegraph.

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