Daily Times

The Indian Supreme Court’s verdict in Ayodhya case will shape the political and social landscape of India in the coming months and years as it boosts BJP’s ambitions to turn the country into a Hindu nation.

In one of the most important and most anticipated judgments in India’s history, when Pakistan was opening the Kartarpur corridor to facilitate millions of Indian Sikhs, New Delhi decided to dismiss sentiments of millions of Muslims by allowing the construction of a Ram Temple at the disputed site of Babri Mosque. Comparably, on November 10, in India’s occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Muslims were not allowed to celebrate the birth of Prophet Muhammad as a ban remained in place in the valley.

BJP’s drive to promote ultra-Hindu nationalism at the cost of minorities has already made India one of the worst countries in terms of religious intolerance. Consider this: According to the Pew Research Center forecasts, by 2050, India’s Muslim population will grow to 311 million; making it not only the largest Muslim population in the world, but also the most suppressed religious minority anywhere globally.

On the other side of the border, it’s uncertain whether Pakistan’s decision to open the corridor was a candid effort to promote religious pluralism or a move to use the corridor to reach out to India’s Sikh community, which shares a border with Pakistan, and can undermine Modi’s domestic political agenda. Arguably, by opening the corridor, Pakistan fundamentally integrated (politically and morally) India’s Punjab region into Pakistan by winning over millions of Sikhs living in the province. Still, solemn doubts remain about Islamabad’s discerning efforts as several religious minorities continue to face systemic subjugation in the country.

Nonetheless, it is India, which is producing a new generation of hawkism at the policy level to not only promote populist practices at the expense of religious pluralism but to start another phase of the conflict with Pakistan, which will be far messier and harder to contain. For instance, in the wake of the recent decision in Babri mosque’s case, several activists have been arrested in India on accusations of expressing their opinion against the judgement. What is more concerning is that right wing elements including Modi’s party have called the judgement historic as it is the only way to protect India’s secular credentials.

“It is a historic judgment,” said Varun Kumar Sinha, a lawyer for Hindu Mahasabha, a rightwing party that advocated for the rebuilding of the Ram temple at Ayodhya. “With this judgment, the supreme court has given the message of unity in diversity. Moreover, PM Modi in his statement said that the verdict emphasis the need for co-existence in the country. It’s comical that Modi called a decision impartial which his party has threatened to implement for decades. The case’s outcome has been one of the core agendas of the BJP’s electoral manifesto. So, for BJP’s ultra-nationalist voter base, Modi just delivered on one of his key promises – another step to undermine religious inclusiveness in the country by giving more space to groups like RSS. In such an environment, it is only logical minorities within the country would at some point start resisting the forced co-existence which only favours the Hindu community. About two weeks ago, political leaders from Manipur declared an independent state in India. While the state may not mean anything in terms of domestic and international support, it surely reflects growing anger within India among minorities. Moreover, if one is to survey India’s Punjab province, Modi’s last four months’ efforts to undermine (annexation of Jammu and Kashmir and other efforts elsewhere) the Kartarpur corridor will come out as the greatest threat to Sikh community’s efforts to open the corridor with Pakistan.

Over the past few years, BJP has centralised the idea of Hindu identity as a symbol of accepted citizenship and conflict with Pakistan (and Muslim identity) as a stalwart of its domestic politics. Going forward, any conflict between India and Pakistan will face serious obstacles on domestic fronts as both states have developed narratives that only endorse conflict between the two countries. Via its divisive politics, BJP has only built pressure on moderate segments in Pakistan’s policymaking circles as they face pressure from conservative elements within the power corridors.

The writer is a freelance