Daily Times

Majoritarian State: How Hindu Nationalism is changing India was launched in New Delhi on 26 April 2019. Edited by Angana P. Chatterji, Thomas Blom Hansen and Christophe Jaffrelot, the book comprises contributions from leading scholars of Indian politics and highlights that RSS is violently tearing apart Indian communities and institutions systematically. Terms like “Hindu Raj”, “Ethnic Democracy” and “Deep State” reveal the true face of India.

Majoritarian State traces the ascendance of Hindu nationalism in contemporary India. Led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP administration had established an ethno-religious and populist style of rule since 2014. Its agenda also pursued beyond the formal branches of government, as the new dispensation portrays conventional social hierarchies as intrinsic to Indian culture while condoning communal and caste-and-gender-based violence. With the return of Narendra Modi in the 2019 elections, the majoritarian agenda will be pursued with a vengeance.

The book is timely as it comes on the eve of the second term of BJP led by Narendra Modi. The contributors explore how Hindutva ideology has permeated the state apparatus and formal institutions, and how Hindutva activists exert control over civil society via vigilante groups, cultural policing and violence. Groups and regions portrayed as ‘enemies’ of the Indian state are the losers in a new order promoting the interests of the urban middle class and business elites. As this majoritarian ideology pervades the media and public discourse, it also affects the judiciary, educational and cultural institutions, increasingly captured by Hindu nationalists. Dissent and difference silenced, and debate increasingly sidelined as the press is muzzled or intimidated in the courts. Internationally, the BJP government has emphasized hard power and a fast- expanding security state.

This collection of essays offers rich empirical analysis and documentation to investigate the causes and consequences of the illiberal turn taken by the so-called world’s largest democracy. Partha Chatterjee, Professor of Anthropology and Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies at Columbia University, states that “When a majority claims sovereign authority to impose its will on the rest of society, democracy is threatened. The present volume, consisting of contributions from leading scholars of Indian politics, offers a comprehensive view of how the recent mobilization of Hindus as victims of minority appeasement is violently tearing apart communities and institutions.”

Having well assimilated the lesson that future wars would be fought not just for territory but for the minds of the people, Hindutva is operating through a well thought out plan to project itself and its propaganda campaign

Romila Thapar, Emeritus Professor of History at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi comments that “Implicit in these comprehensive and well-documented essays are questions crucial to the perception of contemporary India and they reach out to current debates. Attempts to imprint a Hindu majoritarian identity on the state and on various aspects of the lives of citizens, bring about some contestations. These are analyzed. The high-quality discussion of these provides a diagnosis, which in turn could suggest a prognosis for the India of post 2019.”

The book Rising Hindutva & its Impact on the Region authored by this scribe was launched on 22 February 2019, in which BJP’s ascent to power in 2014, with Narendra Modi, a known fanatic Pracharak at the helm of affairs has been chronicled. The oppressive traits of Hindutva and its implementation by the radical adherents have evoked profound anxiety in the saner elements in India and the rest of the world. An endeavour has been made to fathom the true nature of Hindutva’s majoritarian fascist ideology, its impact on the Indian Socio-Cultural environment and internal dynamics, which caused irreparable damage in Modi’s previous rule (2014-19) and spells gloom and doom in the next one too since the same demagogue has been voted to power.

With the veneer of Gandhian non-violence and Nehru’s secularist façade cast aside, New Delhi’s belligerent quest for regional hegemony and global power ambitions, in this extremist ideological frame, have ominous geo-political implications, particularly for South Asia. It is ironic that the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi, Nathuram Godse a member of the fanatical group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to which Modi too owes allegiance, is now being revered as a hero by the Majoritarian protagonists of Hindutva. After ascending to power in 2014, BJP created a documentary film Desh Bhakt Nathuram Godse (Patriot Nathuram Godse) for release on the death anniversary of Gandhi on 30 January 2015. There were attempts to build a temple for Godse and to celebrate 30 January as a Shaurya Diwas (“Bravery Day”).

Having well assimilated the lesson that future wars would be fought not just for territory but for the minds of the people, Hindutva is operating through a well thought out plan to project itself and its propaganda campaign. Indian media strategy presents a formidable presence in Asia with 872 private satellite television channels and 34 Doordarshan (public broadcaster) channels on 10 satellites with over 70 transponders and DTH facility, besides using digital network. The wide broadcast network projecting Hindutva and majoritarianism in a leger than life image, distorting facts and history, the victory of Modi in the 2019 polls became a foregone conclusion.

The writer is a retired Group Captain of PAF. He is a columnist, analyst and TV talk show host