Following the annexation of Kashmir with abolishment of articles 370 and 35A, most analysts and experts around the world in right wing politics have reached the conclusion that the secular Indian constitution will not survive. This would be an extremely important development that would affect not only the regional countries but especially around 30 crore minorities residing in India. It has already been pointed out over the years by Indian journalists and secularists that the Indian government and state are moving towards the direction of Hindutva ideology.
As it is, Hindutva is the ideology of Hindu nationalism that was coined before the Partition in 1947. It was introduced by V D Sarkar in 1923 in an essay titled "Hindutva: Who is a Hindu?" While he claimed that Hindutva and Hinduism were two separate things, today Hindutva has become the ideology of the dreaded Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the terrorist organisation that is out to eliminate the minorities in the so-called democratic country. The political front of the RSS is known as Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP that has wholly adopted the concept, trying to turn India into an extremist Hindu state where the minorities would have little or no rights. In short, both the BJP and RSS seek a new India minus democratic ideals and tolerance but full of militant, bigoted, brutal and aggressive Hindu nationalism.
Savarkar, the man who coined the ugly term, implies that only Hindus and those following Sikhism, Jainism and Buddhism can be true citizens of the country while Zoroastrian, Christianity, Islam and Judaism originated outside the Subcontinent and thus their followers have no rights. They are aliens and will remain so. Now Sikhs are also included in the list.
Among other issues, Ghar Wapsi, "Back to Home", is a series of religious conversion activities that target non-Hindus in India. It is facilitated by two terrorist Hindu organisations, Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which facilitate conversion of minority non-Hindus into the fold of Hinduism.
The Ghar Wapsi movement is based on getting back Sikhs into the folds of Hindutva and also aimed at converting Christians and Muslims into the fold of their 'original religion'. The movement has gained momentum during the current Modi regime. Prime Minister Modi, a well-known RSS representative in the BJP government and a flag-bearer of the Hindutva ideology, is behind the intimidating plot, rendering full governmental support and protection to its perpetrators.
In her book, 'This Unquiet Land: Stories from India's Fault Lines', Barkha Dutt raises serious questions about the nature of power politics in India and the use of unconstitutional violence by the Indian State against the minorities. She writes about the Gujarat riots and admits that religious Hindus rode the wave of popularity following the destruction of Babri Mosque. The journalist confesses that the Congress government supported the 1984 riots that killed thousands of Sikhs and that the two massacres of 1984 (anti-Sikh) and 2002 (anti-Muslim) were similar in nature. Experts are divided on the time-frame when the Indian constitution would be subverted. It may take three years or four but it will happen during the second tenure of Modi Sarkar.
The threat to religious minorities in India is compounding day by day and as the world watches, the secular outlook and democratic credentials in India are drowned in cacophony and actions of fanatic Hindu fundamentalism as shown by the recent actions in Kashmir.
