Daily Times

India claims to be the world’s largest ‘democracy’. However, only having a big population and vast territory do not justify this title. Like Pakistan, India became independent in August 1947 after massive communal violence. At the time of partition, United India had around 400 million populations, out of which India and Pakistan received 330 and 70 million citizens respectively.

Historically speaking, true democracy and the values of Indian “non-violence” were murdered with the brutal assassination of Mahatma Gandhi on January 30, 1948. In India, the political elite is exploiting the concept of democracy. Consequently, India is going into social decline, resulting in numerous secessionist movements.

Comparatively, since 1947 Pakistan has undergone four authoritarian military regimes while India has remained democratic. Despite this, India has not been able to become a true democracy yet. This can be attributed to strife between India’s different religions. Post-independence, Indian minorities became vulnerable to the majority Hindu community.

Hindus and the Muslims form 80 and 15 percent of India’s population respectively. The other five percent consists of other minorities like Sikhs, Christians, Jains and Buddhists. India claims to be a secular state without any official religion, but Hindus as a majority have maintained dominance over other communities and minorities. Even Hindus, the followers and worshipers of more than 230 million gods and goddesses have been historically divided because of a stern caste system and various ranks in society. Indian Muslims have faced much hatred since the British left the Subcontinent.

Through anti-Muslim and British colonial schemes, the Indian National Congress (INC) provokes the socio-political and economic emotions of the native Hindu majority against the Muslim population and colonial rulers. Both Hindus and Muslims were also not ready to accept each other on socio-political and religious grounds. These conflicts gave birth to ferocity and the world’s largest exodus; the partition of India. As a result, India and its majority population has certain gripes against the Muslim community.

The BJP’s use of nationalism and militarism to win elections shows how badly Indian democracy has failed

Since 1947, aggressive Hindu organisations and assemblages like Shiv Sena, the RSS have divided India. Such organisations are meant to uphold the notion of “Hindutva” for the consolidation and purification of Hinduism and society, but religious supremacy has no space in modern democracies.

The incumbent Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) and its eminent leadership, particularly Narendra Modi were found to be involved in the 2002 Gujrat Hindu-Muslim riots. Using the religion card to multiply its vote bank is also an old BJP tactic.

Even in 1992, the mainstream leadership of the BJP including LK Advani were also involved in instigating Hindu extremists to tear down the historical Babri Mosque. Such incidents in a so-called secular and democratic state infused restlessness in minorities. Moreover, the slaughtering of cows is a major issue behind the frequent Hindu-Muslim riots of the Indian society.

Kashmir has been a bone of contention between India and Pakistan since 1947. The majority of the population in Kashmir is Muslim and has demanded independence from India since 1947. The India-led Kashmiri puppet governments have no support from the Kashmiri Muslim majority. A true democratic state cannot snub the people’s demands, socio-political rights and virtual desires of certain people for long time. The massive Indian army has failed to control the freedom movement in Kashmir. Since 1989 about 50,000 to 70,000 Kashmiris have been killed, only in 2018, 400 Kashmiris were killed. Moreover, from 1989 to 2008, 1,05,657 homes and shops were burnt, 1,07,208 children were orphaned and 22,670 women were widowed by Indian armed forces in Kashmir. Furthermore, Kashmiri students in various colleges and universities of India are also facing discrimination and violence.

India proved herself a secular-cum-fanatic Hindu State. The entities like, Raj Thakrey, , Ajit Doval, Rajnath Singh and Modi can demolish the political and social structure of India for their aggressive and radicalized objectives. BJP is considered as the political wing of the immoderate RSS. It was established in 1925 and has ruthlessly been involved in Muslims’ genocide during the partition riots. Now under the influence of political regimes like BJP, RSS they intend to make India a ‘Hindu’ State challenging the pro-democratic and sophisticated stratums in Indian society.

There are about 30 separatist movements in India which demonstrates the failure of Indian democracy. After Kashmir, the Khalistan movement in Punjab is gaining ground. Sikhs are unhappy and are therefore vying to create their own country. To snub the Sikhs and the Khalistan Movement in 1984, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi launched the military operation “Blue Star” in Amritsar. The operation proved successful but only galvanised Sikh greviences.

Despite very high poverty levels in India, New Delhi is the world’s fifth largest defence spender with a budget of over $65 billion. Clearly, India wants supremacy in South Asia. This makes nuclear powered Pakistan a challenge. India’s premier intelligence agency the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) is operating in offices in Afghanistan to destabilise neighbouring countries and Pakistan in particular. RAW has been found to be directly involved in insurgencies in Balochistan and Sindh. This was made clear with the arrest of Kulbushan Yadhav.

The recent invasions of India on Pakistan and the horrible killings of Pakistanis on LOC are replicating the hegemonic intentions of India in South Asia. Indian media in which the pro-Modi business classes have invested heavily, superfluously supported New Delhi’s aggression. The head of the world’s largest democracy is pushing the world towards another world war. The BJP’s use of nationalism and militarism to win elections shows how badly Indian democracy has failed.

The writer can be reached at busharathistorian@gmail.com

Published in Daily Times, March 7^th 2019.