How Hindu nationalism will disintegrate India

“Over the last five years, India has distinguished itself as a lynching nation. Muslims and Dalits have been publicly flogged and beaten to death by vigilante Hindu mobs in broad-daylight, and the ‘lynch videos’ then gleefully uploaded to YouTube.”

— Booker Prize-winning author and essayist Arundhati Roy

In an interview with Karan Thapar for The Wire, Arundhati Roy warned that if India continues to follow the road to fascism by imposing its ideology of Hindu majoritarian state, there is no way her country will not disintegrate but the people of India will not let it happen. She further lamented, “Amidst the confusion, chaos, and cacophony of Indian politics, what sort of country are we becoming? This vision of a Hindu nation — one language, one religion, one country — is like trying to distil an ocean and fit it into a bottle of Bisleri. It is a process of extreme violence. Hindu nationalism could lead to a disintegration of India à la Yugoslavia and Russia”. Recent events in the south Indian state of Karnataka where a hijab-wearing Muslim student was harassed by Hindu nationalist goons and periodic lynching of Muslims by Hindu mobs is transforming India into a fascist state. However, Roy remains optimistic and holds faith in the ability of the Indian people to withstand the tide of fascism in their country.

On 23^rd December, Hindu religious fanatics held a meeting in Haridwar, in northern Uttarakhand, calling for genocide of the Muslim minority of India. During the meeting, a female speaker said, “Even if just a hundred of us become soldiers and kill two million of them, we will be victorious… If you stand with this attitude only then will you be able to protect ‘Sanatana dharma’ [an absolute form of Hinduism].” No action was taken by the police against those who delivered provocative hate speeches against Muslims in that country. According to a recent report, Gregory Stanton who established Genocide Watch Group warned of the possibility of the genocide of Muslims in India. Hindutva ideology was “contrary to the history of India and the Indian constitution” and referred to Modi as an “extremist who has taken over the government”. To reinforce his argument for a possible genocide in India against Muslims, he warned that genocide was not an event but a process and drew parallels between the policies pursued by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the discriminatory policies of Myanmar’s government against Rohingya Muslims in 2017.

Alarming and dangerous scenarios depicted by Roy and Stanton cannot be ruled out as mere speculations because India today is drifted into the web of extremism, violence and religious fascism. The world’s so-called largest democracy has made a mockery of religious tolerance and secularism by giving power to BJP and other Hindu fascist organisations like RSS, Shiv Sena and Bajrang Dal and allowed them to persecute minorities like Muslims, Christians and Dalits. When state organs like judiciary, bureaucracy, police and security services are not neutral and act as surrogates of Hindu nationalists like the BJP and Narendra Modi’s fascist agenda, one can fear genocide in India. But as Roy said, in a country like India, which is home to several religions and diverse cultures, and where more than 700 languages are spoken, Hindu majoritarian rule cannot be established. If this trend is not reversed then India will also disintegrate like the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.

The surge of Hindu nationalism under state patronage and the possibility of the disintegration of India need to be analysed from three angles.

First, institutional bias and tilt in favour of those elements that propagate Hindu nationalism and the persecution of religious minorities. Had this not been the case the Indian Supreme Court would have taken notice of the genocide of Muslims in occupied Kashmir and northeast India, as well as the open threat by Hindu fascists in their meeting held in northern Uttarakhand last year. Likewise, the high court in Karnataka gave relief to those who had imposed a ban on the hijab in educational institutions of the state. Indian courts failed to take notice of the lynching of Muslims by Hindu mobs under allegations of cow slaughter and those who were protesting the Citizenship Amendment Act. Along with the Indian judiciary, the bureaucracy, police and security forces have also lost their neutrality, and have been accused of compliance with Hindu nationalists targeting Muslims and other religious minorities. When state organs are partisan and biased, the very existence of the Indian state may be in jeopardy.

Second, Roy may be optimistic that Indian people will resist the tide of fascism, but the failure of Indian political parties and civil society groups reflect degeneration of secularism and democracy. The surge of Hindu nationalism is a reality because in the December 1984 general elections in India, held after the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, BJP had only won four seats. However, in 2019, it secured 303 seats. Systematically, BJP and its allies Shiv Sena, RSS and Bajrang Dal have permeated deep inside state organs and Indian society. Resultantly, whenever there is violence against Muslims, police look the other way, and courts act in a partisan manner. Common people also fail to stop those who take pride in openly calling for the genocide of Muslims and are involved in the brutal killing of Muslims and looting their properties.

Third, there is a stark reality that 250 million Indian Muslims lack unity and cohesion to combat the rising tide of Hindu fascism. There is no political party that can effectively represent Indian Muslims since they are dispersed all over India, unlike the Sikhs who are concentrated in the Indian Punjab and are a majority in that state. Muslims in India lack the advantage enjoyed by the Sikh community. Even then, in some districts in Uttar Pradesh and other Indian states, Muslim vote bank is substantial, which can be used to protect their rights. According to one school of thought, it may be wishful thinking that India will disintegrate because of its domestic upheavals. Indian economy is robust and if the opposition plays its cards well then in the 2024 general elections, BJP can be booted out of power. Despite the erosion of secularism and the partiality of state organs in favour of Hindu nationalists, India is still a democracy and the last chance to salvage the unity of India is the electoral defeat of the BJP during the 2024 general elections.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 20^th, 2022.

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