Brig Muhammad Asif (R)
THE South Asian region rightly boasts of having been the home of all major global religions for centuries.
Besides being the birthplace of Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, Buddhism, it has been the home of the big chunks of the followers of other global religions (born in other regions of the planet) since the beginning of the 1st millennium. Currently, all major global religions are invariably present in the South Asian region. In addition to Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism and Buddhism that are indigenous to the region, South Asia is the home of more than half of the Muslim population all over the world. A huge Christian community living in South Asia is represented by nearly all denominations of Christianity as well as the major local ethnic and racial groups. Relatively, a small Jewish population is scattered across the region, especially in India. A small Zoroastrian community is mostly concentrated in Mumbai, a metropolitan centre of India. Unlike the Abrahamic monotheistic religions, namely Judaism, Christianity and Islam, most of the religions with roots in South Asia are believed to be relatively pluralistic. Hinduism is considered naturally pluralistic. A well-known Vedic hymn says: “Truth is one, though the sages know it variously.” The Hindu religion has no theological difficulties in accepting degrees of truth in other religions. It emphasizes that everyone worships the same God, whether one knows it or not.
Prior to the emergence of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a radical Hindu nationalist movement, in the mid 1920s, the major pre-partition political parties i.e., National Congress (INC) and All-India Muslim League (AIML), that came into existence in 1885 and 1906, respectively, were known for their commitment to pluralistic democratic culture. When asked about the chances of the success of secular democracy in a society sharply divided on religious lines, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru reportedly expressed the confidence that with the progress of modernity and democratic practices religious extremism would disappear from Indian society. However, secular democratic ideology championed by INC, were fiercely contested by RSS that aimed to base Indian political system on the ideology of “majoritarianism,” to establish the hegemony of the Hindu majority over other religious communities. Immediately after coming into existence RSS subscribed to the ideology of Hindutva, (derived from the title of the book by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar [1883–1966]), which translates as ‘Hinduness’ or ‘Being Hindu,’ According to Savarkar, a Hindu is an inhabitant of Bharatwarsha, the Hindu Rashtra, the kingdom of the mythical Emperor Bharata. Being Hindu is much more than a religious identity. This way, Hindutva challenges the pluralistic and secular India: affirming the original homogeneity of Indians to be enhanced and promoted.
After the partition of India in 1947, Indian dynastic political leadership miserably failed to guard the political culture based on ‘Pluralism and Tolerance’, nurtured by the Indian National Congress, against the Hindu majoritarianism. ‘Unity in Diversity’, remained the ‘India Ideal’ until the mid 1980s, when the Nehru Dynasty, renamed as Gandhi Dynasty, after the crowning of Indra Gandhi as the political heir of her father Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in May 1966, was reckoned as the sole political force that served to hold the diversified Indian society together. After the assassination of Indra Gandhi, the ‘Iron Lady of India’, on October 31, 1984, her son Rajiv Gandhi, managed to partially fill the vacuum created by the death of his mother till his own assassination in 1991. After the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, Congress chose Sonia Gandhi, an Italian-born Roman Catholic widow of Rajiv Gandhi, as its leader apparently due to its failure to find a dynamic leader of the local origin in the most populous country of the world to lead the party and the nation in battling the challenge of the worst form of fascism.
Under Narendra Modi’s leadership India’s ideological degeneration has deepened. His 2024 electoral campaign frequently used hate speech against Muslims and other minorities, inciting discrimination, hostility and violence. Amid a decade of attacks and discrimination against minorities under the Modi administration, abuses have normalized against Muslims, Christians and others. Human Rights Watch reported that BJP leaders repeatedly made statements inciting animosity against marginalized groups during Modi’s campaign for a third consecutive term. Several BJP state governments have demolished Muslims’ homes, businesses and places of worship without due process and carried out other unlawful practices as collective punishment following communal clashes or dissent.
The populist rise of Hindu nationalism under Modi threatens India’s pluralistic foundations and the democratic principles enshrined in its constitution. RSS’s ideological influence has altered India’s political and social fabric. Once envisioned as a secular, tolerant and inclusive democracy, India now witnesses the erosion of its core values. The state’s tacit approval of violence and exclusionary policies against minorities underscores the ideological degeneration that has taken root in the name of nationalism.
In a recent interview with the European Centre for Populism Studies (ECPS), Professor Christophe Jaffrelot, a CERI-CNRS Senior Research Fellow at Sciences Po, examined patterns of “ethnic democracies” exemplified by India and Israel. He argued that while Israel’s ethnic democracy is de jure, India’s manifests de facto, where minorities—especially Muslims—experience systemic exclusion from equal opportunities in employment, housing and other spheres. He observed that this discrimination forms an active part of governmental policy and narrative and traced its ideological roots to Hindutva, the political doctrine espoused by RSS which defines the nation in terms of Hindu heritage and culture, accepting only Hindus as the rightful sons of the soil.
—The writer regularly contributes to the national press.
