Unbridled Hindutva

With India’s general elections underway, incumbent PM Narendra Modi has a warning for Indian voters who might be thinking of voting him out. The opposition, PM Modi claims, will give their wealth to “infiltrators”. Specifically, he says, the opposition Congress party wants to redistribute wealth among “those who have many children”. “Should your hard-earned money be given to infiltrators?” asked the incumbent PM to a cheering crowd during a rally in Rajasthan. Is there any point in sticking to a dog-whistle when the whole world knows whom you are referring to and what you are really trying to say? Would not keeping up the obvious pretence involve crossing some red line that has not already been crossed? And this is the real lesson here. The BJP’s anti-Muslim rhetoric has become so commonplace and is so frequently backed by anti-Muslim violence and discrimination, that most have arguably become numb to this sort of talk.

Outside of those in NGOs, parties, activist organizations and others whose job includes responding to and calling out hateful rhetoric, this latest anti-Muslim diatribe will not turn many heads. And why should it? The man uttering it allegedly helped facilitate an anti-Muslim pogrom that left over a thousand dead back when he was chief minister of Gujarat in 2002. He will likely cruise to a third run as prime minister despite or even because of such comments once these elections are over. Why is the man not in jail, one may ask. And this is the rub. CM Modi got off scot-free and became PM and other alleged partners in crime have been exonerated or been bailed. Once in power, IIOJK (the only Muslim-majority area under Indian control) was illegally annexed and attempts made to make its Muslims a minority, a Citizenship Amendments Act was passed in 2019 that favours Hindus while excluding Muslims, discriminatory anti-conversion laws were made and cow vigilantes ran amok targeting and lynching innocent Muslims. Throughout it all, the courts and much of the rest of official Indian society have either been spectators at best or facilitators at worst. Apart from a steady stream of condemnations, delivered in an almost ritual fashion, Hindutva’s time in power has been spent in cruise-control.

This is not to say that all Indian Hindus support what is being done in their name, many even hate it. However, Hindutva does not need great numbers to stay in power. The BJP-led NDA coalition has never won more than 40 per cent of the vote, and only won around 31 per cent in the 2014 elections. This is good enough in a country that is very diverse but where Hindus form the majority in most regions. Win even a plurality of them in each constituency and you are in power. Once in power, the only things stopping you are the courts and the media. Sadly, in India’s case, these obstacles were not as formidable as one would have hoped. While the courts have watched as the BJP government makes a mockery of basic, constitutional rights, the media has often been a cheerleader. Hindutva is well and truly unleashed.