In India, we appear to have succumbed to some ultramontane form of Hinduism though in this setting, the Prime Minister is the figurative Pope. What Modi does politically must be supported by “good” Hindus – apparently. Such is the nature of fascism when combined with obscurantism and lack of dialectics. Such is the India that prevails in 2020. A simultaneous attack on intellectualism and dissent, coupled with a peculiarly Indian hypocrisy – holding up Hinduism as a fundamentally open and liberal and then simultaneously using it to justify disenfranchisement and even violence – these are the hallmarks of India’s descent.
Decent journalists – those who try to practice their profession with some level of integrity – are either mowed down or silenced while the majority of media folk goose-step to the cacophonous sounds of India’s constitution being run roughshod over. Indians abroad for the most part applaud Modi, connecting him to the resurgence of Hinduism they’ve been wanting to see in India and to their position as “good minorities” (in this case, read: Not Muslim) in their adopted homes. Joining them in celebration are a powerful caste who could have a real effect if they wanted to – the network of successful Indian CEOs of some of the most important companies on Earth. They were quick to catch on to the notion that “Black Lives Matter” – only of course after the murder of George Floyd – and largely performatively – but they won’t even mouth those pieties as regards minorities in India. As long as technology and capital flows are healthy then so too must be the polity, or so the logic goes.
Is this state of affairs a fundamental break with the recent Past or simply representative of a devolutionary-though linear- regression? It is at once both and neither.
Independent India was never the Liberal, plural state that many long for and have “memories” of. Ask a Dalit. Ask a poverty-stricken mother. Ask a Muslim scavenger. Ask an Adivasi. For them, that “dawn” was indeed not the one for which they waited. In that sense, the descent was not from an ideal state to a fascist one; nevertheless, rhetoric matters. For as they say, hypocrisy is the price that vice pays virtue. At least the pretense of virtue suggests the realization of what is indeed virtuous. When the pretense is no longer necessary then the descent is quick and final. So be it in post-2014 India.
Indian secularism was also curious. Religiosity imbues the country and its passions. Hindu normativity and tyranny were prevalent earlier and now are ubiquitous. At Independence, the giants of the time create a secular state but they were not willing to or in fact could not convince Indians to embrace religion only privatel. The bricks of Hindutva were laid thus before Independence and were not shattered even as votaries of Hindutva planned and killed the Mahatma.
Non-Resident Indians have shown their worst colors in this matter. Swollen with tech-wealth and chameleons in their adopted societies, they wish to enact a narrow Hinduism in India, though immune from the consequences. They even bay for blood, impervious to its splatter. They build temples in the US and proclaim their deep spirituality – and in doing so curry favor with Liberal Americans who “fascinated by other cultures”—while celebrating the destruction of religious structures in India. They fund “scholars” at dollar-thirsty and meretricious US Academic institutions while insisting on the dismantling of institutions that might attempt to propound pluralism in India. These are the contours of diasporic politics.
India’s judicial temperament is so hot and sensitive that mere tweets can invite massive reprisals. “Liking” a Facebook post can land a scholar in jail. Or worse. Is this a sensible way to think of law and order? Is this what we mean by “Clean India?”
We have a choice before us. Many have made it. They have picked the cage – for others first but soon enough for themselves.
For those who haven’t made the choice yet – choose wisely.
(Romi Mahajan is an author, marketer, investor, and activist)
