Dystopian secularism

Indian secularism has been buried under the facade of saffron politics with the consecration of Ram Temple in Ayodhya and the contentious Citizenship Law, striking a huge blow to its so-called secular credentials. The site of the glitzy consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple has a contentious past as it was previously occupied by Babari Mosque, demolished by the frantic Hindutva mobs in December 1992. Hindus dismantled the mosque with the desire to build a temple there as it was claimed to be the birthplace of Ram, a venerated Hindu deity. The ensuing communal riots culminated in numerous fatalities as the mobs breached the security cordon. The case went to the court and remained undecided for years but eventually the court (2019) permitted to build a temple on the site.

The historical peregrination tells the tale that the concept of Hindutva was first enunciated by Hindu politician, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, whose ideology (Savarkar ideology 1923) bolstered the cultural and religious significance of India as a Hindu Rashtra. During the 1980s, several developments took place in India for further solidifying religious consciousness, including the Ekatmata Yatra movement and the broadcasting of the Ramayana TV series, which led to the resurgence of communal tensions. The resurrection of Hindutva became alive with the rise of Modi under the RSS-led BJP government. He vowed to continue the struggle to explore all possibilities for the reconstruction of the Ram Temple and he kept his promise.

In a close follow-up, the Modi government has recently announced the required guidelines for implementing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), passed in 2019, which enables the fast-tracking of Indian citizenship to the minorities (excluding Muslims) from Muslims majority countries of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. This sacrilegious act manifests BJP’s majoritarian policies and undercuts the secular credentials of India as the law clearly disenfranchised the Muslims. This law triggered a flurry of protests within India and outside for discriminating against two hundred million Muslims living within India. The US State Department voiced the concern that respecting religious freedom and treating all populace on equal grounds before law are the significant democratic tenets. The international organisations including the Amnesty India and UN also condemned the law as exclusionary to international human rights canons as citizenship should not be contingent upon one’s faith/religion.

The rising trend of majoritarianism in India has stifled the minorities especially the Muslims as they are mired into one crisis after another. The extravagant national event of Ram Temple and the controversial Citizenship Law are the political stratagems under the tutelage of BJP-led Modi government to consolidate Hindu nation beneath the credo of Hindutva. Consequently, under the thumb of belligerent state, Hindu nationalism is flourishing as state prejudice or an overt display of nationalist symbols is squeezing the religious space. These acts are subverting the so-called secular fabric of Indian society, which underpin that saffron politics has prevailed in India despite the false rhetoric for a secular republic. The on-ground possibilities show that India’s secularist principles are fading into a myth which has cast a doubt that India is the world’s largest democratic secular republic. Ipso facto, if the BJP government under Modi gets the upper hand once again with the forthcoming parliamentary elections, the next stage would be to replace secularism with Hindu Rashtra in the Constitution.

India is experiencing a widening religious schism at the hands of state-sponsored extremism as the minorities, especially the Muslims, are in the throes of quagmire. Hindu supremacy is further established by the extolment of Hindu symbols and doctrines. These turbulent episodes have exposed the fragility of India’s secular ideals signaling the ascendancy of Hindutva politics. There is no denying that decline in India’s secular values is coterminous with the rise of Hindutva. While secularism protects against religious discrimination, in India it has no leg to stand on.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 20^th, 2024.

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