 Summary of this article
- The communal fissures in India and politics of Hindu Rashtra have intensified over decades of narrative and power consolidation.
- The Hindutva tidal power shaped India’s idea away from secular socialism toward majority-religion nationalism.
- Outlook’s historical tracing highlights how us vs them politics has deepened democratic erosion and societal divides
The communal fissures in India go beyond Partition, beyond Anand Math, almost beyond history, as Manu Pillai’s recent book Guns, Gods and Missionaries points out. But they took clear political colours in the last few years, since the Shah Bano case, the Rath Yatra, and the Babri Masjid demolition, to name a few milestones in the narrative. The last 30 years certainly consolidated the Hindu Rashtra building, first with a full-term Bharatiya Janata Party government led by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee from 1999 to 2004 and then in a far more robust form in the last decade under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The idea of India, from a socialist and secular country, has morphed into a majority-religion nation in these years. As one state election after another proves, this juggernaut is showing no sign of losing steam. If anything, the future may see only more strident nationalism, with the central Opposition as well as the strong regional parties scratching their heads to find ways to derail it. But all waves have ebb and flow and it will be interesting to observe the Hindutva tidal power in the near future. |
