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Uttarakhand: A Model Hindu State in the Making?

Soni Mishra

On August 20, just the second day and what turned out to be the last day of an abruptly curtailed monsoon session of the Uttarakhand Vidhan Sabha, the Assembly descended into complete chaos. Demanding a discussion on the alleged rigging of the zila panchayat election in Nainital, Congress MLAs in the opposition stormed into the well of the House, raised slogans non-stop, tore documents, and flung the pieces in the air.

In the middle of the commotion, just before the session ended two days early, nine Bills were rushed through. They were passed in a matter of minutes by voice vote and without any discussion. Three of these Bills are contentious and are seen as a part of the Pushkar Singh Dhami government’s aggressive Hindutva push. The Bills in question are the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) (Amendment) Bill, 2025; the Freedom of Religion and Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion (Amendment) Bill, 2025; and the Minority Educational Institutions Bill, 2025.

The UCC (Amendment) Bill increases the quantum of punishment for unregistered live-in relationships. The changes include imprisonment of up to seven years and a fine for forcing individuals into relationships by pressure or fraud. The amendment also empowers the Registrar General to cancel any registration related to marriage, divorce, live-in relationships, or inheritance.

The amendment in the anti-conversion law seeks to enhance the punishment for “forced conversions” from a maximum of 10 years to life term. It defines “allurement” as “any gift, gratification, easy money, or material benefit, whether in cash or kind, employment, or by invoking divine displeasure”. Making a false promise of marriage and hiding one’s religion with the intention of getting married will be punishable by a jail term of 3 to 10 years and a fine of Rs.3 lakh. Also, speaking ill of one religion and praising another or spreading propaganda on social and digital media will come under the ambit of participation in religious conversion.

Both the UCC, with the regulations it imposes on live-in arrangements, and the anti-conversion law are seen as a deterrent to interfaith relationships. The official line of ruling party members, including Dhami himself, is that steps need to be taken against “love jihad”, a term used by right-wing groups to allege that Muslim men are conspiring to convert non-Muslim women to Islam.

A more aggressive push

Perhaps the most controversial of the three laws is the one dealing with minority educational institutions. On the one hand, it seeks to extend the minority status to institutions of the Sikh, Jain, Christian, Parsi, and Buddhist communities; on the other, the legislation will also make it mandatory for all madrasas in the State to seek affiliation from the Uttarakhand Education Board and apply for minority status to the Uttarakhand State Authority for Minority Education. Unrecognised madrasas will be shut down.

The BJP government in Uttarakhand, in its second consecutive term, is seen as aggressively fulfilling the Sangh’s Hindutva agenda. The UCC is, in fact, the centrepiece of the BJP’s larger effort to project Uttarakhand as an ideal Hindu State. Legislative measures, a crackdown on “illegal” madrasas and “illegal” mazaars (mausoleums), the routine slamming of love jihad, “land jihad”, and “thook [spit] jihad” by members of the ruling dispensation, including the Chief Minister himself, are seen not merely as instances of polarising politics but as part of a larger, systematic effort to turn the small hill State into a microcosm of Hindutva’s political project.

Chief Minister Dhami uses the term land jihad to attack what he describes as encroachment of government land by people belonging to the Muslim community. Thook jihad refers to accusations by Hindu leaders that Muslim vendors spit in the food they serve to non-Muslims.

The UCC law, amended in the monsoon session, was passed by the Uttarakhand Assembly on February 7, 2024, while BJP MLAs chanted of slogans of “Jai Shri Ram”, “Vande Mataram”, and “Bharat Mata Ki Jai”. It is believed that the enactment of the UCC in BJP-ruled Uttarakhand, the only other State apart from Goa to have a common system of family laws, is a test case for the BJP. Implementation of the UCC is among the topmost priorities of the saffron party and has been a part of its manifesto at the national level. For the RSS-BJP, the UCC, which is a part of the Constitution’s Directive Principles, is believed to be more of a Hindutva project, boiling down to a negation of Muslim personal laws.

Targeted harassment

“The UCC is not a plain and simple common civil code. It is clearly targeted at Muslims. The anti-conversion law is aimed at creating a perception that large-scale conversion is taking place, by force or by offering inducements. And now, the new legislation on minority education will have the effect of taking away the rights of the minorities to run their own educational institutions,” said Prof. Mohammed Saleem Engineer, vice president of the Jamaat-e-Islami-Hind.

The legislative measures are coupled with the State government’s actions, such as closure of “illegal” madrasas and demolition of “illegal” mazaars, all of which are being viewed as aimed at conveying to the majority community that the State’s BJP regime is dealing with Muslims with an iron hand.

Among the first announcements made by Dhami after he became Chief Minister the second time was action against “illegal” mazaars. The State government has so far demolished over 500 “illegal” mazaars, claiming that almost 9,000 acres of government land had been freed from encroachment. Over 200 “illegal” madrasas have been sealed so far in the State since Dhami announced action against such institutions in March this year. The main reason cited is that these madrasas had unauthorised construction, and some were not registered with the Uttarakhand Madrasa Board.

Dhami has, while warning of action against “illegal” mazaars, said his government would not allow land jihad in the State. “The people who are occupying land in the name of these illegal mazaars should remove these structures on their own or the administration will demolish them,” he said in April 2023. In March this year, Dhami said in reference to the government’s action against “illegal” madrasas that tampering with the culture, tradition, and geography of Uttarakhand would not be tolerated.

Dhami has said on more than one occasion that he will not allow love jihad, land jihad, or thook jihad to alter the State’s original form. “The original existence of Dev Bhoomi should be saved. This is my resolution, the resolution of Dev Bhoomi,” he said at the inauguration of Sadhvi Ritambara’s ashram in Kankhal on June 1.

“Every two to three months, we see that the ruling dispensation comes up with an issue that has communal overtones. Sometimes, Dhami talks about love jihad, and on other occasions he rakes up the issue of land jihad or even thook jihad,” said the Dehradun-based political analyst S.M.A Kazmi.

Dhami raised the issue of thook jihad in October 2024; then his government announced a fine of Rs.1 lakh for spitting in food. Kazmi said: “The monsoon session was held in the midst of rain havoc. It was expected that the Assembly would discuss the damage caused by the unprecedented rains. But what happened instead was the passage of the three controversial laws.”

Deliberate exclusion

Critics of the government, especially members of the Muslim community, feel that a deliberate effort is being made to project Uttarakhand as a State where Muslims do not belong. The State’s population comprises 86 per cent Hindus and 14 per cent Muslims. The majority of the Muslims are settled in the plains, in the districts of Dehradun, Haridwar, and Uddham Singh Nagar. Small numbers of Muslims have traditionally been living in certain pockets in the hills too.

If the laws and certain steps taken by the government over the past couple of years have had an overtly communal tone, the many instances of Hindu-Muslim violence in the same period have led to the Muslims feeling targeted, alienated, and insecure.

Purola village in Uttarkashi erupted in communal violence in May 2023 after an attempt was allegedly made by two men, one of them Muslim, to abduct a Hindu girl. The protests resulted in the economic boycott of Muslims. Over 20 Muslim families fled Purola then, returning only when normalcy was restored a couple of months later.

Just a day after the UCC Bill was passed in the State Assembly, on February 8, 2024, six people were killed in violence that erupted over the demolition of a mosque and a madrasa in Haldwani. In September 2024, protesters in Nandprayag town of Chamoli district vandalised shops belonging to members of the Muslim community after a barber was accused of misbehaving with a minor girl.

In Uttarkashi, on October 26, 2024, Hindu right-wing organisations held a “Jan Aakrosh [public outrage]” rally to protest against a mosque that they claimed was illegally constructed. The clash between the protesters and the police left more than 20 people injured.

According to the historian and cultural expert Pushpesh Pant, while the State was referred to as “Dev Bhoomi” in ancient scriptures, the term is now defined by the politics of the day.

“The term was used in a purely religious context. Now, it is used more in the context of pilgrimage tourism. But it is not as if local people are benefiting from it, apart from the damage it is doing to the environment. The term is also being used for political purposes,” he said.

More loyal than the king

Dhami, 49, was handpicked by the BJP leadership to helm the State government seven months before the election in 2021 and was brought back as Chief Minister when the party won, although he himself lost his seat. Experts say he knew his political survival depended on how well he ticked items off the Hindutva to-do list in the State and got down to the task at hand without any delay.

“When Dhami took oath as Chief Minister, he swore allegiance to the Constitution. He took the pledge that he would treat everyone equally in accordance with the Constitution and the law. He has forgotten that oath,” said the Dehradun-based political analyst Jay Singh Rawat.

“Dhami is competing with the Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to be regarded as the biggest Hindutva hero,” added Rawat.

According to Pant, the Dhami government is attempting to combine Hindutva with the issue of security and nationalism since Uttarakhand has a border with China and almost every family in the State has somebody either in the armed forces or in the paramilitary forces.

“They talk about Dev Bhoomi and stress upon developing pilgrimage tourism. They talk about the need to build broad, all-weather roads that will make the Char Dham more accessible while also improving the road infrastructure in the border areas. We are witnessing a mix of the Hindutva agenda with the securitisation of the border in Uttarakhand,” Pant said.

Experts say it is deeply concerning that the Dhami government appears to be in sync with the increased aggression of right-wing groups and the calls allegedly made by them for the ouster of Muslims from the State, or their economic boycott, or even violence against them.

“Hate speeches have been made at events organised by right-wing organisations. We have fake sadhus calling for violence against Muslims. There has been an involvement of such groups and people in recent incidents of communal violence in the State. But no action has been taken against them,” said Rawat.

According to Prof. Engineer, an Uttarakhand model that threatens to destroy the syncretic social fabric is taking shape, sending out a clear warning to the rest of the country.

“Earlier, we had a Gujarat model. It was supposedly about development, but it actually referred to the subjugation of Muslims. Now, we have the Uttarakhand model. They are forcing Muslims to leave the State. They are demolishing the very idea of India by doing this,” he said.

(Soni Mishra is Deputy Editor at Frontline magazine. Courtesy: Frontline magazine, a fortnightly English language magazine published by The Hindu Group of publications headquartered in Chennai, India.)

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Dehradun After Dark: No Beats, No Bhajans, Just One Controlling Dal

Palash Krishna Mehrotra

Dehradun used to be a sleepy town of boarding schools and retired folk. It had one respectable watering hole – the Polo Bar, in the basement of Hotel President, and a ragtag bunch of dim-lit dives.

Things began to change post-liberalisation, with the arrival of malls and coffee shops and MNC pizza chains. Several private universities and institutes set up shop, creating a cohort of young people who were all dressed up and had nowhere to go.

Enterprising locals got into the act, opening pubs and bars, which also doubled as venues for live music. Sensing an opportunity, Indian chains like Social, Raasta and Pyramid entered the market. The metros were getting saturated; there were avenues for growth in so-called tier 2 cities.

DJs and indie bands from around the country began turning up for shows: Madboy/Mink, Purple Cassette, Disco Puppet and Seedhe Maut. The trickle never became a flood but it marked a beginning.

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There was another shift taking place, a political one. Uttarakhand – celebrating its 25th year of statehood this year – became a BJP stronghold, a laboratory for Hindutva, a guinea pig of sorts, where radical saffron ideas could be tested before being applied nationwide.

This January, it became the first state to implement the Uniform Civil Code. One of its more contentious pieces of legislation involves mandatory registration for live-in couples, raising the spectre of a nanny state, especially for mixed-faith partners.

The saffronisation of Uttarakhand has been accompanied by the proliferation of Hindutva outfits, the most prominent being Bajrang Dal (the youth wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, and a member of the Sangh Parivar, led by the RSS) which pursue an agenda of cultural “purification”, achieved through the brute power of vigilantism.

Lying dormant earlier, they’ve become increasingly assertive and disruptive under the current regime. When the odd indie band turns up, so does the Bajrang Dal, with alarming frequency; the two are on a collision course. The fledgling local entertainment scene is being nipped in the bud for, as we shall see, no good reason except imagined slights.

The latest casualty was a concert by the duo, Seedhe Maut, slated for November 15 at the Himalayan Cultural Centre. In a viral video, the leader of the Bajrang Dal mob can be heard saying that they don’t approve of the “concept” of SM’s “vulgar” lyrics, that they will not allow any artiste to disturb and corrupt the “maryada” of “Devbhoomi”, the abode of the gods.

Seedhe Maut issued a statement: “Our team and partners worked endlessly over the last few days to try (sic) find a solution, however, all their efforts met with a brick wall.”

The show was cancelled.

I was there the last time the Delhi rap duo performed in Dehradun; it was a high energy gig, a blend of angst, rebellion (“Gharwaalo ko pata tha chathi [Standard 6] se, ladka ye mandir me maatha nahi tekega.”) and unadulterated mischief, delivered in Delhi street Hindi, with not a hint of frippery. The 4,000-strong audience was a refreshing mix of the working- and middle classes.

The numbers speak for themselves: The hit single Raat ki Raani has over 3.8 crore streams, while their album Lunch Break boasts of over 21.9 crore streams on Spotify, where they have 28.5 lakh monthly listeners. Their YouTube channel has 921K subscribers, with another 891K followers on Instagram. They attract huge crowds everywhere, from Lucknow to Bhopal, Bangalore to Mumbai, and, of course, their hometown, New Delhi.

Earlier this year, they were a part of the official line-up at Glastonbury Festival, going on to do gigs in Manchester, Birmingham, London and Dublin. At most, one can say their lyrics are laddish – not a crime: “Haan, Khora ke launde hai street smart/ Gharoli ke launde hai desi/ Haan, Kondli ke launde hai kaandi,/ Nahin sehte hai Noida ke bezzati/ Kabhi Majnu ke tille pe momos/ Kabhi Shahdara ke station pe pastries.”

Delhi is a protagonist in many songs: “Tu ban chuki hai dharam aur raajneeti ki jageer/ Vaha pe chalti ni mohabbat jaha pe chalti hai laathi/ Marte Hindu, martе Musalman, marti teri santaan hi/ Par terko pade ni fark tu khaati namak hai sarkari.” They certainly don’t promote guns or drinking as claimed by the Bajrang Dal. And even if they did: so what? As for vulgarity, one half of the band, Siddhant Sharma a.k.a. Calm, put it bluntly in an old podcast: “Hip-hop cannot be sanitised.”

One can raise the point that it’s not only the Hindu Right; in Hyderabad, the Congress government asked Diljit Dosanjh to remove references to alcohol in his live concert; he replaced “daaru ‘ch lemonade” with “Coke ‘ch lemonade.” Ridiculous, no doubt, except that the Congress doesn’t have any ideology as to what constitutes pure Hindu culture, nor a bunch of affiliated outfits to push a covert agenda, unlike Hindutva, which, to use the Russian Matryoshka Doll analogy, has doll within doll within doll. The Congress’ cultural conservatism comes more from moribundity and stupidity.

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Okay, so if Seedhe Maut is destroying our culture, how about fusion bands that sample Indian elements in their music? In August, Kochi group Thaikkudam Bridge performed in Doon Valley for the first time. They’ve performed over 600 shows in more than 25 countries around the globe, including major venues in the US, Singapore, Canada and the Middle East.

The day after the gig, a Hindu Right outfit gathered outside the venue to protest. Someone had seen an Instagram Reel and tipped them off. The crime: the use of a well-known shloka in one of the songs. The protesters argued that shlokas should not be used with western instruments, and should never be uttered in a bar setting, where people are imbibing alcohol and smoking. By that logic, kanwariyas should stop playing bass-heavy techno beats and stick to bhajans.

We have a situation where you cannot use colloquial Hindi gaalis in a song (as Seedhe Maut discovered), nor can you use shlokas in a fusion band. What are the kids supposed to do? Latch on to the trend of fake wedding parties that were all the rage among Gen-Z’ers of big Indian cities during the monsoon season. These parties mimic the grandeur of the big fat Indian wedding, without the emotional and social baggage of a real wedding. No pandit, rituals, bride, groom and relatives; only DJs, drinking and the dance floor.

Alas, this too ran into trouble. The TOI reported: “Police stopped an event that sought to celebrate a ‘wedding without a bride and groom’ at a mall in Dehradun after protests by right-wing groups” that it ‘denigrated Hindu culture and tradition’.”

The mother goddess of all ironies is that the kids who turn up for these events and concerts are mostly pro-Modi/BJP. In their heads, there is no link between Modi and the rise of fringe obstructionist Hindu Right outfits. They profess their love and loyalty for Modi, while at the same time lamenting the lack of freedom. As a local Gen Z DJ, a committed BJP supporter, told me: “How are we supposed to create our own scene in this town, Palash sir?”

This festive season, a new trend took off: Bhajan clubbing. News18 reports, “Across social media, clips show groups of Gen Z and millennials gathering in halls, sitting cross-legged on the floor, swaying and clapping to devotional songs. The special thing about these gatherings is that they are not quiet prayer meetings. They look and feel like music gigs – with bhajans replacing electronic beats.”

While this hasn’t reached Dehradun yet, saffron activists are already making their displeasure felt online: How dare the audience not take off their shoes and chappals while participating in bhajan jams at Backstage Siblings’ gigs, the Siblings being pioneers of the bhajan clubbing scene.

It’s clear that it’s not clear what these self-styled custodians of Indian, read Hindutva, culture expect of us. When a scholar like Francesca Orsini dedicates a lifetime to studying Hindi literary culture in the heartland, the general tenor of criticism from the Right is that we don’t need someone coming from “outside” and teaching us our own language and culture.

When Indian kids draw on their own tradition of shlokas, weddings, bhajans and colloquialisms, that too is a problem. Which is why I tell my young friends to only consume western culture, from British punk (the Lambrini Girls) to American hardcore (Turnstile). At most, you will be criticised for being polluted by foreign cultural forces, but at least you won’t be accused of mauling your own culture. Hinduism has become Hindutva, a joyless, culture-less fossilised artefact. The only culture that remains is the culture of not allowing culture to flourish. The seeds of parasitic plants sown by the saffron brigade keep flowering in the oddest of places.

One is reminded of the great Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, whose stories and plays were often censored by the Soviet government. Speaking of those times, she said in a Paris Review interview, “I lived in a prison! Nothing was allowed. It didn’t matter what I actually wrote – the people who stood in my way were using ideology as an excuse to advance their own careers. I was banned.”

While Seedhe Maut fans on Instagram called the Bajrang Dal men “unemployed” good-for-nothings, fact is that the rise of Hindutva has, in a manner, created employment for them, given them an identity and something to do: basically, throw a saffron spanner in the art works. The machinery of the state backs them. Meanwhile, Dehradun’s nightlife, after a brief flirtation with the cutting edge, has returned to the safe sounds of bands singing Eagles covers and evergreen Bollywood hits.

[The writer is the author of The Butterfly Generation: A Personal Journey into the Passions and Follies of India’s Technicolor Youth; editor, House Spirit: Drinking in India; and former Contributing Editor, Rolling Stone. Courtesy: The Wire, an Indian nonprofit news and opinion website. It was founded in 2015 by Siddharth Varadarajan, Sidharth Bhatia and M. K. Venu.]