writer: Anshu N. Chatterjee
In its latest post-2019 manifestation, as a party of the majority, the BJP has finally engaged in full-fledged implementation of its Hindu nationalist agenda. I for one am grateful to it for revealing its true objectives. In this gratitude lies the hope that now civil society will actually do something about the creeping Hindu nationalism in Indian institutions.
Many of us are waiting for sanity to kick in. Like many others, I was raised with the idea of a multicultural India. My world was led by a peace-promoting narratives by democratic leadership of the developing world, one of the founders of the non-aligned movement, India that resisted testing of nuclear weapons until two and half decades after their initial development. Some may argue that this was an illusion, created by our own economic isolation.
Others argue that systems are dynamic, competitive, and that the competing nationalisms are having their day. But in this moment of despair, expanded by the riots and the death of 49, many injured, numbers yet to be revealed, I would like to offer some hope for future change that will follow. This future will need to integrate the previous multi-cultural world we knew, due to the numerous actions of civil societies and governments: the rebelling state governments, protests and riots since the BJP started to implement its Hindu agenda after 2019 elections.
Media is finally asking the right questions, even India Today, that one hopes was silent only due to fear caused by targeting of journalists by the state or fear of being labeled as a foreign entity, a common weapon for xenophobes.
The democratic institutions, balanced under the previous regimes that produced modern India are rearing their head. From various regions and forms, civil society, students, and states, including West Bengal, Punjab, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Delhi. Maharashtra, Kerala, Andhra, and even Rajasthan, one of the bastions of the BJP-style conservatism. As for activities at the INC’s central headquarter, as an addict needs to hit the bottom before they can reform, INC may have hit its lowest point and maybe can be useful to the country again.
Prior to the overt implementation of the Hindu nationalism agenda since 2019, the slow swing to the right in the past twenty years, has allowed the competing ideas of a Hindu nationalism to come into play without any serious opposition. The so-called opposition also contributed to this creeping non-secularism, to give people a leaders who understands their gods, allowed democracy to be redefined by the social right, who I refuse to believe is the majority in the country built upon diversity of opinion.
Let’s be clear, in 2019, the BJP did not win on the message of a Hindu agenda. Its 2019 campaign did not promise new citizenship restrictions, nor did it promise removal of Article 370, although such promises are integral parts of Hindu nationalism agenda for decades.
Borrowed from The Economic Times.
The insidious silence in the civil society that ensued under the various BJP-led coalitions that attempted to shift the country towards Hindu nationalism’s 1920 vision was troubling: reconstruction of temples on mosque sites, transferring of judges, promises of Hindi everywhere, etc. The deliberately delayed responses by the PM on cow vigilantism or to comments made by Hindu leaders who incite fear among minorities has been replaced by the obvious anti-Muslim agenda. The exclusionary targeting of Muslims was more subtle in its social rhetoric of invaded India by external forces that had corrupted Bharat. The subtly of Hindu nationalism, of desecularization, lay hidden in the promises of toilets, swachh Bharat, and the party’s global ambitions.
The CAA and NRC, arrests of Kashmiri politicians, etc., is much clearer; only Muslims are target. Other constructed symbols of historical imperialism are to remain safe. Biases so apparent; please, folks, get some reading glasses. The resulting protests and riots are also very clear, not hidden in discomfort or defensiveness of some. Modiji ka zamana!
Meeting President Trump twice, hugs and hand holding, since the 2019 election is to ensure that the powerful in the West supports these moves. India who promises to purchase weapons from the U.S. can get away with these things as global powers do, without accountability.
The appeal of the BJP for its supporters lies in globally powerful, wealthy and swachhIndia, which ironically may be undermined by the blatant domestic Hindu agenda. My rose-colored biases, no doubt, but Kejriwal kisweeping election victory has to indicate something. The riots that follower are either a sign to stop the disruption of India’s diversity balance or the BJP’s attempts to implement President’s rule in the reaction to Kejriwal’s refusal to implement the NRC.
Hope remains that India, a democratic beast, at least for the majority of the people, will fight back this strain of authoritarianism. Or will the BJP’s greatest legacy be irreversible damage to minority relations in India? It is definitely not economic growth which is now clear.
Borrowed from The Outlook.