Region 
 

New Delhi

Deafening Silence

The political resurgence of Hindu nationalism, based on
Hindutva, constitutes an ideology of political supremacy
achievable through maximization of power.

By Shahrukh Mehboob | August 2020

“Achey din aane wale hain” was the Hindi slogan of the Bharatiya Janata Party for the 2014 Indian general election. The slogan was coined by the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi to convey that a prosperous future was in store for India if the BJP came into power. Narendra Modi, then running for prime minister, had come forward in 2014 promising liberation. But five years later, with Mr. Modi seeking re-election, villagers looked at him with a mix of disgust and resignation. The prime minister has drawn praise for paring India’s legendary bureaucracy. He has altered perceptions that his country was hostile to business. But he has failed to spur significant economic growth, in part because of his disappointing record in reviving stalled infrastructure projects. The prime minister has championed rail, road and electrical links as a means of furthering development across a country of 1.3 billion people.

Although road-building has proceeded aggressively, infrastructure overall has fallen short. During 2018, investments in new projects slumped to their lowest level during Modi’s tenure, according to the Center for Monitoring Indian Economy, an independent research organization in Mumbai. For starters, India is experiencing its most severe economic slowdown in three decades. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, India’s commerce minister assured global economic influencers that India’s economy was “poised to take off.” This rings true only because the vaunted Indian economy appears to be bottoming out, with no place to go but up. But there is a second, more worrisome reason for the lack of buzz. Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has long propagated two core ambitions: building a culturally Hindu-centric nation and aggressively advancing India’s economic development.

India’s present economic woes are multifaceted. The country’s gross domestic product may grow at 5 percent in the current fiscal year. It’s the most sluggish pace in 11 years. Growth has slowed to such an extent that the International Monetary Fund has slashed its estimate for global growth based on India’s subpar performance. India’s investment cycle remains moribund, with the number of stalled capital investment projects nearly at a record high. Inflation has spiked to nearly 7.5 percent, fueling concerns of “stagflation” and scuttling hopes that India’s central bank will cut interest rates. Layered on top of this financial crisis is a consumption slowdown, partially precipitated by an overly complicated new nationwide goods and services tax that has snarled small businesses, resulting in severe revenue shortfalls. The ill-advised 2016 gambit to “demonetize” the economy by invalidating high-denomination currency notes in a quixotic attempt to curb “black money”, wreaked further havoc on India’s outsized informal sector. Together, these measures are partly responsible for a decline in household consumption for the first time in 40 years, according to government data.

Under the slogan of “Good Days” (Achey din) the political resurgence of Hindu nationalism, based on Hindutva, constitutes a potential ideology of “Politics of supremacy through maximization and the manifestation of power”. Hindutva followers believe in Chanakya’s philosophy and practical application of ‘Offensive Realism’. It strives for the construction of an exclusive society through religious political and socioeconomic polarization. The violent ideology of Hindutva symbolizes Indian colonialism and manifests the Indian ideology of Hindu supremacy. The 2015 “Ghar Wapsi Program” of the RSS during Modi’s first tenure exposes the evil intentions of the RSS and BJP of violating the fundamental right to freedom of religion.

In just one year, under the said program, more than 33,000 persons were reconverted to Hinduism and about 48,000 were stopped from abandoning Hinduism. At the time of independence in 1947, the RSS had about 60,000 volunteers but the party did not have much impact on public life and remained out of politics.

Anti-Pakistan propaganda and the establishment of Akhand Bharat are integral parts of the training of BJP members. The current focus of RSS and BJP is on the victimization of Kashmiris, cow vigilantism allegiance to Hindu symbols, Ghar Wapsi Program, CAB (Citizenship Amendment Bill) and stigmatization of Muslim heritage in India. Today’s Modi-fied India has opted for the implementation of Chanakya’s philosophy and Machiavellian politics. India wants to make Pakistan as well as the Kashmiris a bad dream. It also wants to instill in the Kashmiris a feeling that nobody is ready to listen to their voice at the international level and that Pakistan is not in a position to help them. Modi’s India aspires to achieve territorial and demographic dominance over Kashmir to change the thinking of Pakistanis and Kashmiris, through inhuman and brutal activities.

Today, the valley of Kashmir is on fire. It has become a manifestation of Hindutva’s coercive power and symbolizes a dream of Akhand Bharat. In fact, Kashmir has become a complex issue of ‘religious nationalism’. Hundreds of thousands of Kashmiris have been subjected to victimization and their persecution goes on unabated. India consistently refuses to honour the commitments it made to the Kashmiris and the world at large in the form of UN resolutions. On the international level, it is a failure of the global system to redress the injustices the Kashmiri people are suffering from and to check illegitimate Indian moves, including gross human rights violations.

In the post-August ’19 situation, only some voices in the parliaments of Britain, the European Union and the United States have been heard for Kashmir. The deafening silence, rather unfriendly role, of the rulers of the Muslim world, is perplexing. Due to persistent persecution, the Kashmiris suffer from psychological, emotional, political, and economic complexes. India’s recent actions have further complicated the situation. A continued curfew has converted Kashmir into the largest open prison in the world. International Humanitarian Law is obstinately violated. Women, children, and old people are the most vulnerable in Kashmir. Police stations in Srinagar and other cities are packed with weapons like guns, swords, knives, and other killing instruments. Utter humiliation is inflicted on a huge population. Islamophobia is used as a strategic weapon by the BJP to not only push forward ultra-nationalist policies but also to delegitimize the Kashmiris’ struggle for freedom by equating it with the rhetoric of “Islamic terrorism”. The policies of the Modi regime are in exact opposition to the secular image of India.

The 21st century’s worst fascism is in full swing in India and hyper-nationalism, which has already led the world to several bloody wars, including the Second World War, is fast gaining ground in India. School textbooks hail Hitler and Nazism in Gujarat, UP and many other states. The Government of fascist Modi is supported covertly for targeting the minorities in individual and collective capacities. Anti-Pakistan and anti-Islam propaganda on the national and global levels is also an integral part of Modi’s government.

Read More