In India, fascism is reinventing itself. It has crept through Hindu nationalism – Hindutva –
and now poses a serious threat to Indian democracy
Amit Singh
Nationalism a formidable force in Modi’s India. Prime Minister Modi an active member of RSS, is notorious for his complicity in the post-Godhra riots. Modi claimed that the fire on the train which killed 59 Hindus in 2002 was an act of Islamist terrorism rather than an outbreak of communal violence, after that violence staged in Gujarat resulting in killing hundreds of Muslims.
Modi always portrays India as once a glorious Hindu civilization eroded first by Mughals and then by British empire. For BJP, Hindus were forcibly converted in other religions without their will and it is the responsibility of their leadership to revert back those conversions by all means under the guidance of Modi known as ‘Butcher of Gujrat’.
Over the decades, politicians frequently have violated the secularism mantra, often cynically and out of calculated political compulsion. The leadership of the Indian National Congress, which ruled India for much of the post-independence period, traditionally has championed its commitment to secular nationalism. But in reality the Congress Party has invoked religious sentiments in India to suit its changing political interests followed by BJP. According to political scientist Ashutosh Varshney, “three competing themes have fought for political dominance in India. First, there is the territorial notion of India, the land between the Indus River to the west, the Himalaya Mountains, and the seas to the south and east comprise India’s “sacred geography.” A second conception, the cultural notion, is the idea that Indian society is defined by the values of tolerance, pluralism, and syncretism. The final theme stresses religion, the land known as India is originally the homeland of the Hindu community. While different religious communities may call India home, proponents of this third viewpoint see India as fundamentally belonging to the Hindu majority” and this concept gained momentum under the leadership of Modi to further polarized the already divided society of India.
The Hindutva ideology haunting India since the time of independence, the founder of India ‘Gandhi’ became its first victim. Not only Gandhi but all those communities favored secularism met with dire consequences. Since then, the Hindutva ideology became the very foundation of every right wing political organization in India namely, RSS, Shiv Sena, Hindu Mahasbha, with the latest one being BJP, under the leadership of the most ignorant, fascist, cruel, and extremist person in the South-Asian region, Narendra Modi who is ruling India.
The cult of Modi in India has daunting everyone, promotes anti-intellectualism by attacking religious seminaries, universities and educational systems that might challenge its ideas. It is a nightmare for the press and media in fact anyone who is against the idea of Modi. Academics and scholars are fired, attacked for criticizing Hindutva or the policies of Modi. Government institutions, security and financial agencies, intimidate and harass opposition parties in fact anyone who dares to voice dissent. From the destruction of Babri Majid to the communal riots of 2022, Modi found everywhere in one way or the other. Muslims have been the prime target of Hindutva fascism in India, but unfortunately, they aren’t the only one. After Muslims, Christians and Sikhs have been suffering at the hands of Hindu vigilantes. They are punished with pogroms, lynchings, targeted murders, custodial killings, love jihad, fake police “encounters” and imprisonment under false pretexts. Bulldozing their homes and businesses a tactic recently adopted by BJP following Israel, before the bulldozer era, punishment for Muslims was meted out by Hindu vigilante mobs under the supervision of Police.
The Hindu regime with the help of media tycoons made up of about 400 TV channels, numerous websites and newspapers to keep a continuous drumbeat of hatred and bigotry against minorities. On social media, it is now routine to encounter open calls for the genocide of Muslims. In 2021, Mohan Bhagwat, the head of RSS, in his speech warned Hindus about the enforced religious conversions and demographic changes in India’s Northeastern states which consist of large Christian population. Three days after the speech, Rameshwar Sharma, a BJP member called the Hindutva masses for a “India free of veil-wearing Muslims and Christian priests”. Similarly, the Sikh Community has also been on the Hit-list of Hindutva ideology since independence. Their rising voice for a separate state, Khalistan have turned the edge of Hindutva swords against the Sikhs. Sikhs genocide in 1984 which left thousands of Sikh families homeless and most recently, on May 29, 2022, the most iconic Punjabi singer, Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu, was assassinated by unknown killers who shot him 24 times in a broad day light.
Today India is not a secular state but a Hindutva dominated society further polarized the already divided society. The annexation and expansion policy of BJP is not only threatening
minorities living within India but it is also worrisome for the neighboring countries. The concept is also problematic for small South Asian states who tries to maintain a strong and balancing relation with India for their strategic calculations. BJP regime has left the British far behind in terms of atrocities and cruelty on minorities, the rule of BJP always been upholding its extremist Hindutva ideology. The military wing ‘RSS and Shiv Sena’ are more powerful than ever before but world powers are not taking any action against them because of strong bond of economic and military interests. Today the world’s largest democracy is in turmoil and it is burning itself on a much faster pace.
