By Guest Writer Hamir Thapar
It is difficult to contest the claim that the 2024 Lok Sabha election was not the vote of confidence many expected. Narendra Modi may be just the second Indian Prime Minister ever to secure three consecutive terms, but with the National Democratic Alliance securing just 240 out of 545 seats, a jarring 63 seat drop from its 2019 performance1, there’s little denying the claim that Modi is no longer the electoral powerhouse he once was. A trend the Prime Minster arguably detected during his campaign, as was evident in his increasingly unusual conduct. Never mind his questionable assertions regarding Mahatma Gandhi’s supposed lack of international recognition prior to the 1982 film2 (Gandhi was TIME Magazine’s 1930 person of the year)3 or his new founded belief that his birth was not biological4, Narendra Modi’s fuelling of anti-Muslim sentiments – a role he formerly left to his allies and appointees5 – is now more overt than ever. Some have interpreted this change as a show of confidence6, given what used to be his commanding presence within the Lok Sabha, while others view it as an act of desperation.7 What’s clear is that the Prime Minister’s recent tactics, represent a departure from the norm.
In addition to the “explicitly anti-Muslim videos”8 the Bharatiya Janata Party was forced to withdraw from it’s X and Instagram profiles, the Prime Ministers’ campaign speeches propagated the unfounded claim that the Congress Party would, if elected, strip women of their gold, silver and magalasutras (Hindu bridal ornaments) in order to renumerate ‘infiltrators’9 who tend to ‘have more children’10. Despite his refusal to identify said infiltrators, Modi’s subsequent accusations of the Congress encouraging what he dubbed ‘vote jihad’ (voting while Muslim) has left little to the imagination.11
In the name of completion, it must be said that the current opposition has not always been a model of secularism itself. The aftermath of the 2024 election saw Rahul Gandhi brandish a copy of the Indian Constitution in parliament while emphatically praising the various minorities who he believed had come to its aid. And while
India’s workers, farmers and Dalits all received a clear mention, India’s Muslim population did not.12 A glaring omission Saif Khalid considers emblematic of the Congress Parties’ reluctance to publicly mention Muslim voters, due to the BJP’s aforementioned remarks.13 The erroneous linking of secularism to preferential treatment for Muslims has forced the Congress and its allies to largely avoid direct engagement with Islamophobia. A prominent example being the Parties’ relative silence in response to a series of riots in 2020 that killed an estimated 53 people in Delhi.14 However, this reluctance can be considered an attempt by the Congress to immunise itself against the BJP’s verbal attacks rather than a distinct ideological stance. Never in its long and varied history has the Congress Party ever attempted to transform India into a theocratic state, the same cannot be said of the BJP.
Despite the stark contrast between Modi’s current conduct and the quiet complacency that characterised his response to both the 2002 Gujrat Riots15 and recent Citizens Amendment Act, the Prime Minister’s now open Islamophobia is nevertheless in keeping with his parties’ ideological roots. Considered by many as a political arm of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh16, the BJP’s anti-Islamic strain can be traced back to Vinayak Damodar Savarkar’s ‘Who is a Hindu?’. A 1923 pamphlet that defined India as “the land of the Hindus since their ethnicity is Indian and since the Hindu faith originated in India”.17 Other faith’s Savarkar considered to be of Indian origin such as Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism were regarded as Hindu subsets, while Islam and Christianity were not.18 While Savarkar’s failure to specify the place Christians and Muslims were expected to hold in Indian society is of note, the same cannot be said for his veritable successor: M.S. Golwalkar.
During this 30-year stint as head of the R.S.S., Golwalkar’s calls for a Hindu Rashtra were undeniable. The most prominent literary example of this was arguably ‘We or Our Nationhood Defined’, in which Golwalkar reiterated both his insistence that India’s rightful state was that of a Hindu nation as well as his opposition to the events of 1947.19 A movement that was, according to Golwalkar an afront to the concept of independence. August the 15th was to be considered a betrayal of principal rather than a moment of emancipation as it propagated frowned upon notions of ‘territorial nationalism’.20 That is to say, the bestowing of citizenship and its concomitant rights to an entire population. Golwalkar’s claim that people constituted a nation as opposed to the territory was one, he reinforced by referring to the Holocaust as an act of ‘race pride’21 which he viewed as proof of the impossibility of racial assimilation. Add to the equation an insistence that Muslims have played the
part of the ‘infiltrator’ throughout Indian history22 and an ardent rejection of Gandhi’s calls for non-violent protest23 and it’s easy to identify the origins of both the BJP and Modi’s anti-Islamic streak.
Running alongside this, now overt bigotry lies a secondary strain: the need to be seen as an agent of anti-colonialism. Those who doubt the extent to which Narendra Modi wishes to distance himself from the old order of the British ought to examine the international response to his first electoral triumph in 2014. Outlets like the Guardian referred to Modi’s election as ‘another tryst with destiny’24 (a clear reference to a certain Mr. Nehru and his take on Indian independence), and dismiss the outgoing Congress Party as a monied, out of touch “continuation of the British Raj”.25
This image is not one the Prime Minister has obtained on accident. His attempts at ‘decolonisation’ have ranged from flippant acts – like the renaming of cities such as Bangalore and Gurgaon (now Bengaluru and Gurugram)26– to the blatant altering of school textbooks. Secondary school students will no longer learn of Mahatma Gandhi’s aversion to Hindu nationalism, or the intricacies of his assassin: RSS affiliate, Nathuram Godse.27 References to the 2002 Gujrat Riots, over which Modi presided while Chief Minister of Gujrat, have been omitted, while Vedic sage Bhardwaja is now credited as the ‘father of aviation’.28
Historians, journalists and onlookers alike have long since concluded that the inaccuracy of these claims is just as, if not more problematic than their imposition. According to Romila Thapar, Hindu nationalism represents a subsumption of colonial thinking as opposed to a departure from it.29 The underlying notion put forth by the BJP is that the arrival of Muslims in India brought with it a prolonged period of Hindu subjugation, one the present-
day agents of Hindutva wish to rectify via the establishment of a Hindu Rashtra.30 Not only are there numerous historical examples debunking these claims (such as that of Arab traders who had already converted to Islam settling on the West coast of India in the 9th century)31 but these early notions of Hindu-Muslim incompatibility, were exacerbated by the British and predate the writings of Savarkar and Golwalkar.
A prominent example of this is James Mill’s ‘Two-Nation Theory’, first mentioned in his ‘History of British India’, published over a century before Savarkar’s ‘Who is a Hindu?’ in 1817.32 Widely considered to be a biased, personalised account, Mill’s work distils Indian history down to two Hindu and Muslim factions that are described as both incompatible and frequently in conflict.33 Additionally, Mill offers a reductionist account of Indian history that bears several similarities to that of present-day Hindu nationalists. An initial period of Hindu prominence followed by the domination of Islamic rulers and the arrival of the British.34 The ubiquity of the present-day Hindu-Muslim divide is at least partially attributable to James Mill, given his establishment of the two-nation theory. The subsequent spread of this can be traced back to the work and beliefs of Thomas Babington Macaulay.35
Macaulay firmly believed in the installation of both the English language into Indian curricula, as well as the propagation of the British perspective with regards to history. Thapar describes Macaulay’s “insistence on the need to control what is taught in educational institutions”36 as a method through which the ‘colonial mindset’ was spread. A mindset which included the inaccurate, simplified interpretations of Indian history first put forth by Mill and arguably created the historical precedent called upon by the likes of Savarkar and Golwalkar.
Despite its opposition to English medium schools, the BJP has nevertheless elected to impose its beliefs upon the educated population through methods encouraged by Macaulay. As previously stated, Modi’s first two terms have led to a flurry of changes to curricula across the country. With many of the R.S.S’s founding beliefs now featuring heavily. Developments that are in keeping with the mindset and methods put forth by Macaulay and reinforce both the prevailing influence of colonialism on historical discourse in present-day India and the blatant hypocrisy that characterised the very idea of a Hindu Rashtra.
The extent to which this election has hindered Narendra Modi’s legislative influence remains to be seen. However, with certain factions of the international press going so far as to state that he is past his electoral peak,37 the establishment of a Hindu Rashtra has been slowed. As have the flock of authoritarian tendencies and vivid colonial hangovers such a regime is likely to bring.
References
1 “BJP Wins 240 Seats, Congress 99: EC Declares Results for All Lok Sabha Constituencies.” The Economic Times, June 5, 2024. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/elections/lok-sabha/india/bjp-wins-240-seats-congress-99-ec-declares-results-for-all-lok-sabha-constituencies/articleshow/110718185.cms?from=mdr.
2 Coresspondent, HT. “Row after PM Modi Links Mahatma Gandhi Legacy to Film.” Hindustan Times, May 30, 2024. https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/row-after-modi-links-gandhi-legacy-to-film-101717006316023.html.
3 Time. “‘Saint Gandhi’: Man of the Year 1930.” Time, January 5, 1931. https://time.com/archive/6863477/saint-gandhi-man-of-the-year-1930/.
4 “Modi Claims on ‘divine’ Origins: From Not ‘Born Biologically’ to ‘Earn Punya from Good Deeds I Do.’” The Wire, May 23, 2024. https://thewire.in/politics/modi-claims-on-divine-origins-from-not-born-biologically-to-earn-punya-from-good-deeds-i-do.
5 Chatterjee, Garga. “Yogi Adityanath’s Assertions Apart, Co-Existence of Different Cultures Is at the Crux of India’s Formation.” Firstpost, March 23, 2017. https://www.firstpost.com/politics/yogi-adityanaths-assertions-notwithstanding-co-existence-of-different-cultures-is-at-the-crux-of-indias-formation-3348376.html.
6 Ellis-Petersen, Hannah. “BJP Win in India’s 2024 General Election ‘Almost an Inevitability.’” The Guardian, December 31, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/31/bjp-modi-india-general-election-2024.
7 Mukherjee, Andy. “India Elections: Modi’s Campaign May Have Already Peaked.” Bloomberg.com, March 13, 2024. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2024-03-13/india-elections-modi-s-campaign-may-have-already-peaked?embedded-checkout=true.
8 “Narendra Modi Ramps up the Muslim-Baiting.” The Economist, May 16, 2024. https://www.economist.com/asia/2024/05/16/narendra-modi-ramps-up-the-muslim-baiting.
9 “Narendra Modi Ramps up the Muslim-Baiting.” The Economist, May 16, 2024.
10 “Narendra Modi Ramps up the Muslim-Baiting.” The Economist, May 16, 2024.
11 Rahman, Shaikh Azizur. “Modi’s Anti-Muslim ‘vote Jihad’ Rhetoric Faces Severe Criticism.” Voice of America, May 12, 2024. https://www.voanews.com/a/modi-s-anti-muslim-vote-jihad-rhetoric-faces-severe-criticism-/7607779.html.
12 Khalid, Saif. “India Election Results: Did ‘secular’ Parties Let Muslims down, Too?” Al Jazeera, June 10, 2024.
13 Khalid, Saif. Al Jazeera, June 10, 2024.
14 Khalid, S. 2024.
15 “Gujarat Riots: Narendra Modi Criticised over Damage.” BBC News, February 8, 2012. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-16943151.
16 Bhatia, Rahul. “‘Nobody Knows What I Know’: How a Loyal RSS Member Abandoned Hindu Nationalism.” The Guardian, August 1, 2024. https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/01/inside-the-rss-india-hindu-nationalism.
17 Tharoor, Shashi. “Section II: Political Hinduism.” Essay. In Why I Am a Hindu, 143. New Delhi, Delhi: Aleph, 2018.
18 Tharoor, Shashi. “Section II: Political Hinduism.” Essay. In Why I Am a Hindu, 143. New Delhi, Delhi: Aleph, 2018.
19 Tharoor, Shashi. “Section II: Political Hinduism.” Essay. In Why I Am a Hindu, 147. New Delhi, Delhi: Aleph, 2018.
20 Tharoor, Shashi. “Section II: Political Hinduism.” Essay. In Why I Am a Hindu, 147. New Delhi, Delhi: Aleph, 2018
21 Tharoor, Shashi. “Section II: Political Hinduism.” Essay. In Why I Am a Hindu, 149. New Delhi, Delhi: Aleph, 2018.
22 Tharoor, Shashi. “Section II: Political Hinduism.” Essay. In Why I Am a Hindu, 150. New Delhi, Delhi: Aleph, 2018.
23 Tharoor, Shashi. “Section II: Political Hinduism.” Essay. In Why I Am a Hindu, 149. New Delhi, Delhi: Aleph, 2018.
24 Dhingra, Sanya. “How Hindu Nationalists Redefined Decolonization in India.” New Lines Magazine, August 14, 2023. https://newlinesmag.com/argument/how-hindu-nationalists-redefined-decolonization-in-india/.
25 “India: Another Tryst with Destiny | Editorial.” The Guardian, May 19, 2014. https://www.theguardian.com/global/2014/may/18/india-narendra-modi-election-destiny.
26 Newsdesk, India Today. “Relax, Gurugram Isn’t Alone. Karnataka Has Had 12 Cities Renamed.” India Today, April 13, 2016. https://www.indiatoday.in/fyi/story/gurugram-gurgaon-india-cities-that-got-their-names-changed-in-the-last-decade-317763-2016-04-13.
27 Ellis-Petersenn, Hannah. “Indian Government Accused of Rewriting History after Edits to Schoolbooks.” The Guardian, April 6, 2023. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/06/indian-government-accused-of-rewriting-history-after-edits-to-schoolbooks.
28 Bhattacharya, Snigdhendu. “How RSS Textbooks Are Reshaping Indian History and Science under Modi.” http://www.aljazeera.com, March 7, 2024. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/19/how-rss-textbooks-are-reshaping-indian-history-and-science-under-modi.
29 Thapar, Romila. “Introduction: The Public Intellectual in India.” Essay. In The Public Intellectual in India, xi–xxxiv. New Delhi, Delhi: Aleph, 2015.
30 Thapar, Romila. “Introduction: The Public Intellectual in India.” Essay. In The Public Intellectual in India, xxi. New Delhi, Delhi: Aleph, 2015.
31 Thapar, Romila. “Introduction: The Public Intellectual in India.” Essay. In The Public Intellectual in India, xvii. New Delhi, Delhi: Aleph, 2015.
32 Thapar, Romila. “‘We Are No Longer Subjects, We Are Citizens’: India News – Times of India.” The Times of India, January 10, 2021. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/we-are-no-longer-subjects-we-are-citizens/articleshow/80196223.cms.
33 Thapar, Romila. “‘We Are No Longer Subjects, We Are Citizens’: India News – Times of India.” The Times of India, January 10, 2021.
34 Mahaprashasta, Ajoy Ashirwad. “The Colonial Projection of India as Hindu and Muslim Nations Is Succeeding: Romila Thapar.” The Wire, January 16, 2023. https://thewire.in/history/romila-thapar-on-popular-and-professional-historians-new-thrust-on-correct-history#.
35 Thapar, Romila. “Introduction: The Public Intellectual in India.” Essay. In The Public Intellectual in India, xx. New Delhi, Delhi: Aleph, 2015.
36 Thapar, Romila. “Introduction: The Public Intellectual in India.” Essay. In The Public Intellectual in India, xx. New Delhi, Delhi: Aleph, 2015.
37 Kapur, Devesh. “Modi’s Power Has Peaked.” Foreign Policy, June 4, 2024. https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/06/04/india-election-results-modi-bjp-nda-lok-sabha/.
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