Dr Nishant A.Irudayadason
Professor of Philosophy and Ethics, Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth, Pune.

Unlike the founding fathers who, taking note of Indian plurality, adapted the idea of nation accordingly, Hindutva ideologues are gripped by the obsession with uniformity and homogeneity. The diversity and fragmentation inherent in the Hindu universe constitute, for them, a serious weakness and would explain the recurrent – and traumatic – historical episodes of invasions and subjugations of the subcontinent by foreign forces, Muslim and British in particular.
Hindu nationalism is therefore fundamentally reformist. Its ambition is to shape a new Hindu social body, better able to defend itself, therefore more homogeneous and united, on the one hand, and more aware and prouder of its identity, on the other hand. To do this, Hindutva militants propagate a Reformed – and largely invented – Hinduism, because it has been stripped of its innumerable particularisms (in sectarian, territorial or linguistic terms) in favour of a corpus of “standardized” rites and practices presented as universal for the faithful. Finally, because they want to unify Hindus, Hindutva ideologues identify scapegoats, whom they portray as irreducibly threatening. In doing so, they demonize minorities whose faith is considered “non-Indian” because they were born outside the subcontinent. In this case, it is Christianity and Islam that are thus stigmatized.
The eight years of Modi government have been marked by intense Hindu nationalist activism. Freedom of opinion and propensity for debate, so dear to India’s intellectual tradition, have borne the brunt of a pro-Hindu cultural chauvinism, as blinkered as it is intolerant. Those who wanted to denounce the government or the ideology of Hindutva were intimidated or even retaliated. Some have even been accused of peddling anti-national ideas and threatened with indictment for seditious behaviour. The transformation of educational and cultural institutions has always been a priority objective of Hindutva. Some institutions considered close to the Congress Party and among the most prestigious in the country, such as Jawaharlal-Nehru University, have seen their leadership entrusted to cadres of the Hindu nationalist movement and/or their budgets be reduced substantially.
The Modi government has above all led to a weakening of the situation of minorities. Taking advantage of the BJP’s return to power, extremist groups in the Sangh Parivar have stepped up hate campaigns against Christians and Muslims. Similarly, cow protection militias have intensified their abuses against Muslims and Dalits suspected – often wrongly – of consuming or trafficking meat from this animal sacred to Hindus. In BJP-controlled states, they have committed multiple lynching, either with impunity or with the active support of the authorities. At the top of the state apparatus, some ministers have publicly celebrated the protectors of the cow. Narendra Modi, for his part, condemned the abuses on an ad hoc basis. At the same time, he did not hesitate to stigmatize the Muslim community in a thinly veiled way since it could contribute to his party’s victory in important state elections.
Hindutva activists instilled in people’s minds the idea that Hindus were the majority group and therefore it was up to them to define the nation and shape the institutions on their terms. This “majoritarianism”, endorsing the supremacy of the majority, threatens to return confessional minorities, such as Muslims, to the status of second-rate citizens and to make India an ethnic democracy.
Moreover, the ideology of Hindu nationalism seems to have spread so much in the social and political fabric that even the Congress Party is deploys what observers call “soft Hindutva” as opposed to the “hard Hindutva” of the Sangh Parivar, to counter the BJP’s accusation that the Congress Party was only concerned with the fate of minorities. Clearly, taking the side of minorities, especially Muslims, is now akin to an electoral posture with no future in India. The secularism and multiculturalism favoured by the founding fathers are weakened as never before.