India: Secular Democracy or Hindu Rashtra

The secular-democratic polity of India has been besieged with challenges ever since its birth on 15 August 1947. It was born as an independent nation in the midst of unprecedented communal violence, mayhem and destruction of life and property. The communal polarisation had ravaged the subcontinent even before the birth of an independent Indian nation. The independence of India after many centuries of repressive colonial rule should have been an occasion of great jubilation. Unfortunately, the partition of the country following the Two-nation theory propagated by the Muslim League turned the birth of a secular-democratic India into a dreadful nightmare. Interestingly, this was done in the name of nationalism. However, the people of India, despite the creation of Pakistan on the eastern and western sides of the country on the basis of religion, had a significant reason to celebrate Independence as India chose to be a non-theocratic state and declared its commitment to a secular-democratic polity. Undeniably, there were serious theoretical as well as practical weaknesses in this claim; nevertheless, it was a brave, historic and revolutionary commitment. In a situation where the Muslim League, under the leadership of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, had succeeded in dismembering India ruled by the British, thus legitimizing the thesis that each religious community constituted a separate nation too, the commitment to a secular India was indeed praiseworthy. The partition of a united India was the tragic culmination of a long and ferocious struggle between organizations like the Indian National Congress (hereafter referred to as Congress) and the Muslim League, with the British rulers playing the game of favouring Two-nation theory. The choice of a non-theocratic state by the Congress leadership immediately after Independence was not the result of appeasement of religious minority groups, but rather a continuation of the anti-colonial legacy of the Congress which stood for a secular-democratic India. Congress’s “inclusionary nationalism” challenged the Muslim League’s “exclusionary communalism” believing that nations were not constituted merely out of religious identities. The predominantly Hindu leadership of the Congress, rising above emotional and communal feelings, arrived at a consensus that a theocratic state would be inherently antithetical to democracy and could not guarantee the stability and progress of a nation. There were hard facts available in abundance to prove the veracity of the Congress’ thesis, or that of those who opposed the Two-nation theory. For example, despite the creation of Pakistan in the name of Islam, a majority of Muslims chose to remain in India on the eve of partition. Thus, India became the country with the second largest Muslim population in the world after Indonesia, a reality that has not changed even today. On the other hand, Nepal ruled by a Hindu King with a population of more than 90% Hindus remained a separate nation. No one claimed that since the populations of both Nepal and India were predominantly Hindus, they should have formed one nation. It is true that the Muslim League’s juggernaut was successful in achieving its objective of dividing India on communal lines but it is also true that all Muslims did not subscribe to its philosophy. There were popular Muslim leaders like Allah Baksh, having a large following among common Muslims all over India, who vocally opposed the Two-nation theory and challenged the very basis of Muslim communal politics. However, the crucial reality should not be overlooked that it was not only the Muslim League which believed in the Two-nation theory. There had been a highly vocal and aggressive section amongst Hindus, long before the Independence of the country, which believed that India was primordially a Hindu nation and only Hindus could be the natural inhabitants of this holy land. The RSS and Hindu Mahasabha were two such prominent organizations. These forces continue to present a serious threat to secular-democratic polity of India. Their game-plan is discussed in details here.

Religion, State and Society, 2021

This contribution, in answer to the question posed in this collection 'right-wing nationalism, populism, and religion: what are the connections and why?', attempts to account for the development of Hindu nationalism in India as articulated by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Hindu nationalism represents a fusion of conservative right-wing nationalism and religion, which has proved highly successful at the ballot box. It aims at the establishment of a Hindu Rashtra or state. Central to Hindu nationalism is the idea of Hindutva, which interpellates all Indians as belonging to a Hindu civilisation based on a common pan-Indian Hindu national identity. Muslims occupy the position of a 'constitutive outside' enabling the construction of a Hindu Rashtra; they remain 'enemies' to be either excluded or assimilated to a Hindu national culture. Consequently, they remain targets of government legislation. This will be illustrated with reference to the recent abrogation of Article 370 in Kashmir, the building of a temple to the Hindu God Ram in Ayodhya, the Citizen Amendment Act, and the government of India's responses to COVID-19. India under Modi, it concludes, is on the way to becoming a Hindu Rashtra.

ASIA Network Conference Paper, 2024

This paper is an attempt to explore whether or not India has become a Hindu Rashtra. I will argue that the effort to transform India from a secular, inclusive, and liberal democracy into an electoral democracy with a dominant Hindu nationalist ideology, a century-old goal of the RSS, was in the making for over three decades. The project began with L.K. Advani’s Rath Yatra from Somnath to Ayodhya in September-October 1990 in which several hundred people died in violent clashes between Hindus and Muslims along the route. It reached a crescendo in the inauguration of the Ram temple on January 22, 2024, fulfilling a major ideological platform of the BJP. The Rath Yatra was the beginning of a nationalist state-building project, an attempt to construct a homogenous national identity. It was the upper-caste response to the rise of the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) that demanded, based on the recommendation of the Mandal Commission, a quota for the 52 percent educationally and socially backward castes. The BJP’s Hindutva was the antidote to the quota politics. The weekly magazine of the RSS, Organizer, called it the “Shudra revolution.” However, the BJP under Modi has made assiduous efforts to bolster its presence among disadvantaged castes, especially in the Hindi heartland and tribal areas.

2017

Over the past 30 years, Hindu nationalism has risen to a position of dominance in Indian politics. Although the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the party political wing of the ‘family’ of Hindu nationalist organisations, does not win electoral majorities all over the country, Hindu nationalist ideas – what we term ‘banal Hindutva’ – are now firmly part of everyday politics. This chapter traces the growth since the early twentieth century of organizations and movements that reject liberalism and secular understandings of the nation, through to the establishment of political dominance by the BJP under Narendra Modi. Thanks largely to Modi’s inspiration, the BJP has effectively projected the idea of a ‘new India’ that is a land of hope and opportunity, downplaying the welfare state upon which most people’s well-being depends. Our examination of the relationship between Hindutva, demonstrative religiosity and incidents of communal violence, mainly against Muslims, finds that there are man...

Third World Quarterly, 2005

Forthcoming in Making Sense of the Secular: Critical Perspectives from Europe to Asia, edited by Ranjan Ghosh (London and New York: Routledge, 2012).

Religions

This article examines the impact of the gradual Hindutvaization of Indian culture and politics on Indian Muslims. The article contrasts the status of Muslims in the still secular, pluralistic, and democratic constitution of India with the rather marginalized reality of Muslims since the rise of Hindu nationalism. The article argues that successive electoral victories by Hindu nationalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, has precipitated political events, generated policies, and passed new laws that are eroding the democratic nature of India and undermining its religious freedoms. The article documents recent changes that are expediting the emergence of the Hindu state in India and consequently exposes the world’s largest religious minority to an intolerant form of majoritarian governance.

One of the most ancient religions in the world is a force to reckon with when it comes to Indian politics. Hinduism forms the philosophical bedrock of the Bhartiya Janata Party and is also the religion of 80 % of 1.3 billion Indians making it the third largest religion worldwide after Christianity and Islam. In spite of Hinduism being the religion followed and professed by the majority population of India, it never became the state religion. India as enshrined in its constitution and as wished by Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru became a secular democratic republic. However, beginning in the early 1980's and more so in recent months, a surging wave of Hindu nationalism has challenged this philosophy which is undoubtedly the bedrock of India's political identity. According to its more hard line supporters, Hinduism should replace secularism as the guiding principle of Indian society. While examining and analysing debates on secularism in this era of Hindu nationalism, it is first incumbent for us to understand the Hindutva ideology and trace its origins.

Dengan mengucapkan puji dan syukur kepada Tuhan Yang Maha Esa yang melimpahkan segala rahmat dan hidayahNya, sehingga penulis dapat menyelesaikan proposal penelitian yang merupakan salah satu persyaratan untuk menyelesaikan tugas mandiri pada mata kuliah Metodologi Penelitian Program Studi Teknik Informatika di Universitas Putra Batam.

1999

... Lingüista Boris Fridman Mintz Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia ... La intención comunicativa es lo primordial, y para establecer los primeros puentes sin sacrificar la identidad y la dignidad del sordo se requiere de la Lengua de Señas Mexicana. ...