The resurgence of Christian Nationalism in the USA has, amongst other things, fostered the rise of Donald Trump, and culminated in the attack on the capital by Neo-confederate terrorists on January 6. But this kind of propaganda based lunacy is not limited to white America. A similar wave of fanaticism has also been sweeping across the worlds largest democracy in India. Only this time, it’s in the name of Hinduism.
HISTORICAL FACTORS
Hinduism has been practiced for 1000’s of years and around 80% of India’s population are members. However, In the more recent centuries they have been under the control of Non-Hindu imperialists. Commencing in 1526, the Muslim based Mughal Empire, from modern day Uzbekistan, ruled India and the surrounding regions until 1720 (It was they who built the Taj Mahal).
This period produced a lot of economic prosperity and modernisation throughout India, but it was still a collection of independent provinces rather than one united nation.
This textile rich part of the world inevitably attracted the attention of the Europeans, with the cunning British East India Company eventually outmanoeuvring its Dutch, French and Portuguese rivals, and successfully colonising the Indian territories around 1757.
They started with Bengal and then gradually acquired the rest one piece at a time, by keeping the various ethnic groups seperate (divide and conquer), and growing its security forces into a private army of 200,000 troops (twice the size of the regular British Army).
But like all super-rich multinational corporations, the British East India Company was brought down by greed – pure unadulterated greed. When the resources had all been plundered and millions of people starved to death, a massive rebellion occurred in 1857.
Although it was suppressed, it did lead to the termination of the East India Company, and in 1858, the governance of India became the responsibility of the British Government, right up until the conclusion of the second world war.
RESPONSE TO COLONIALISM
During this period, 3 major political movements took shape. The most famous is of course the Anti-colonial secularist movement of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru (India’s 1st Prime Minister). Their goal was for an independent India which was inclusive of all its different faiths and ethnicities.
They soon became friends with the second of these movements, which had a goal of Muslim separatism. Their leader, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, felt that the islamic contingent of India’s massive population of 1 billion people, would be safer and happier if they were able to carve out their own independent, muslim homeland.
Both of these groups would end up getting, more or less, exactly what they wanted. India, and the newly created Pakistan, finally achieved independence in 1950.
Which brings us to the third and final movement, the Hindu Nationalists. This group despised the new India that Gandhi had given them. They disapproved of his pluralistic approach and were furious that a piece of the country was sliced off and turned into a muslim homeland.
It was for this reason that Hindu fundamentalist Nathuram Godse would hunt down and assassinate Gandhi in 1948. Godse had once been a member of the far right Hindu Nationalist paramilitary organisation known as the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh – which translates as “National Volunteer Organisation”).
Founded in 1925, the RSS is well known for promoting bigotry and conspiracy theories, and proudly subscribes to the controversial ideology of “Hindutva”.
HINDUTVA UNLEASHED
“Hindutva” basically means that in the eyes of the fundamentalists, India is, both culturally and spiritually, an exclusively Hindu country. Therefore, any Non-Hindus living in India should be viewed as invaders, and therefore, must be treated as 2nd class citizens. The influence of the RSS grew significantly in the 1960’s. By the end of the 20th century they had started destroying Islamic places of worship (such as the Barbri Mosque in 1992) and attacking Muslim citizens. This lead to retaliatory attacks from Muslims on Hindu sites in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
In addition, the current ruling party in New Delhi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is a product of the RSS, as is the current Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, who has been involved with the movement for decades. Since his first election victory in 2014, one of his more egregious policies has involved rewriting history in Indian schoolbooks, in order to exclude all Non-Hindu’s.
Another churlish move took place in 2019, when he stripped the Muslim majority state of Kashmir of its autonomy, and forcibly put it into lockdown. This lead to a lack of internet access for several months, and cost the local economy about $2.4 billion USD.
His premiership has also seen Hindu extremist mobs allowed to run amok, with many incidents of what’s called Cow Vigilantism. This involves lynching people who slaughter cows and consume red meat.
IN CONCLUSION
At the time of writing, Modi continues to turn a blind eye to such terror, just like he did when he was in charge of the Indian state of Gujarat in 2002, when similar acts of senseless violence were occurring on a regular basis.
Despite all this, his Government remains very popular. Because just like in any other country on Earth, the right wing nationalist movement in India is not about helping the poor, healing the sick or improving society in general. It is all about identity, and the hegemony of one group over another.
