India is changing. The face of a tolerant India is submerging in a sea of the rise of an intolerant right. Hindu society as a whole has had an immense ability to respect diverse religions, diverse spiritual experiences. However, in the past years, something in India has gone wrong. More than the stance of the extreme rightists, who feel Hindutva ideology, is equal to negation of the non-followers of Hindu religion, the silence of those who do not subscribe to this thinking- are responsible for contorting the image of secular India.
R.S.S and BJP has a history of closeness. Many of R.S.S members became candidates of the BJP- including Modi and Advani before their joining politics. Mohan Bhagwat in 2012 referred to R.S.S as the party “ideological fountainhead.”
BJP had been in power before. In 2014 however, its rise was meteoric with BJP forming a government in center without having to lean on a coalition force to do so. BJP was successful in collectively amalgamating different fragmented caste groups. This was not the only reason for BJP success. It focused also on looking ‘economically inwards.’ Modi’s thrust was on manufacturing and attracting investment that greatly appealed to industrialists and professional working class. People of India believed him. He had Gujrat to prove that with the economy growth at 10% a year when other states were way behind.
Somewhere along the line, Hindutva ideology interpreted by many of India’s leaders as cutting through pan-Indian-Nationalism and thereby replacing it, has emerged. This politically religious ideology has its roots in the entity that gave birth to it. R.S.S (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) brainchild of Keshav Hedgewar was formed in mid-1920. Keshav Hedgewar was very much influenced by V. D. Savarkar who in book on Hindutva discussed the origins of a Hindu. As a further discussion, as per his understanding the Muslims and Christians living in India did not belong there. Both had their holy lands in the Middle East. Only the Hindu was the “true son of the soil” (so to speak). If one recalls the 2002 Gujrat riots the law enforcing forces had not made efforts to control the killings as the houses and businesses of Muslims were razed to the ground and killed mercilessly.
The steps taken in the recent years by Modi government is hurting the image of India internationally. One example is of physically attacking other religious communities for protection of the cow. The failure of state to react timely coveys a partisan feeling to the world; hurting India’s secular face.
In 2016, as per a news report, 7 of a Dalit family were beaten up for skinning a dead cow. ‘A purported video of the victims being attacked with iron rods and sticks was circulated on social media. In the video, some of the victims are seen tied to a car, while the accused are beating them up.’ (July 20th)
‘The BJP stoutly insists that the beef ban was not intended to harm Muslims, but at the core of RSS metaphysics is an understanding of India in which Muslims are strangers.’ (Foreign Policy)
According to another report by ‘The Hindu’, “In Dadri’s Bishara village on September 28, a 50-year-old Mohammad Akhlaq was lynched and his son Danish (22) was brutally beaten up as punishment for allegedly eating beef on Eid and ‘storing it’ for later consumption….. A riot-like situation gripped the sleepy village, a little over 40 km from the bustling sub-city of Noida, near Delhi, on September 29, when their relatives were barred from participating in the funeral procession…… As the rumor spread, villagers blocked a highway in Bisrakh area on September 29, demanding death penalty for those involved in the slaughter.”(October 3, 2015)
The rise of BJP, supporting more of right policies than an all nationalistic ones has done damage to the social fabric of India herself. According to one report, “Police stopped a church event attended by more than 150 people, including 10 American tourists, here after the right-wing Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV) alleged that religious conversion was being carried out.” (April 8, 2017)
Worse is the forced effort to re-convert Muslims and Christians into Hinduism. Discrimination against minorities on multidimensional levels and attacks on their homes, businesses and religious places cannot lead to a progressive society. It cannot lead to a cohesive society joined together as one on path of progress and development. No society attacking its members belonging to minority groups can claim to be either secular or progressive.
If one reads the citations above and all what the reader can amass from other sources, it keeps boiling down to V. D. Savarkar expounding of the theory that the Muslims and Christians living in India did not belong there.
According to Kennedy School Review (July 27, 2016) by Shahnoor Seervai, “What’s frightening about Modi’s silence is that it could be read as tacit approval of the mobs leading the charge against minorities, writers, and activists. It is no secret that Modi relies heavily upon the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu nationalist organisation, for ideological support and manpower during elections. The RSS is a grassroots movement with thousands of local branches. Millions of volunteers across India serve its mission to create a militant Hindu state.”
The rise of intolerance has already left wounds on India’s secular image- let it not be destroyed.