Routine humiliation

There are moments when the conduct of those in power strips away all pretence and reveals the republic as it is, not as it claims to be. What unfolded on a public stage in Patna this week was a disturbing reflection of exactly that. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar pulling down a Muslim woman doctor's hijab at a graduation ceremony was an act of public humiliation that laid bare a political culture where Muslim identity is increasingly treated as something to be policed or stripped away, even in moments meant to celebrate merit and achievement.

The hijab was not obstructing the ceremony, nor was it a security concern. Its attempted removal served no purpose other than asserting power. That this was done by a chief minister, in full public view, only goes to show how normalised such behaviour has become. Predictably, the debate has veered towards Nitish Kumar's age and mental health, with opposition parties questioning his fitness for office. That line of argument, however, risks missing the larger scheme of things.

Hindutva has long seeped into the centre of Indian statecraft. Under the political ascendancy of the Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) and its ideological affiliates, this creed has been increasingly normalised in governance and cultural rhetoric. Across several Indian states, policies and administrative actions have disproportionately targeted Muslim livelihoods and cultural spaces: restrictions on cattle trade and beef consumption; selective enforcement of laws leading to demolition of homes and places of worship; legislative changes increasing government oversight over Muslim religious endowments. What Hindutva has effectively done is to recast Muslim identity as a political liability.

India can continue to call itself the world's largest democracy. But democracies are not defined by population size or electoral cycles. They are defined by how power behaves in unscripted moments. On that stage in Patna, power behaved exactly as it had been taught to.