On January 22, 2024, Prime Minister Modi, leader of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), consecrated a Hindu shrine in Ayodhya: a quaint town in the Northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is considered the birthplace of Ram, the avatar of Lord Vishnu in the Ramayana, one of the two important epics of Hinduism. The land where a Hindu shrine currently stands used to be occupied by a small, historically obscure mosque known as the Babri Masjid. Since the late 1900s, this land has been under dispute between Hindus and Muslims. In 2019, the Supreme Court of India ruled in favor of the Hindu majority and granted the government permission to build a temple on that land. This ruling is the latest in the BJP’s abuse of executive and judicial power to achieve their ultimate goal of converting India into a Hindu-dominated theocratic state.
To begin, it is important to understand that religious affiliation is the salient identity feature for most Indians. The subcontinent is the birthplace of four of the world’s major faiths: Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism. With 83% of the country identifying with these Indic religions, they are the primary criteria for societal organization, manifesting in distinct population strata divided along religious lines. Combined with rampant illiteracy and a fixation on cultural preservation, this segregation extends to the political sphere. Entwining national and religious identities has profound consequences in a country where more than 75% of the people follow a single religion: Hinduism. Leaders use the dominant religious identity to manipulate the populace and garner support. The effectiveness of this method further incentivizes these elected officials to enact inequitable policies, laying the foundations for a vicious cycle of appeasement politics.
As a result, more than three in four Hindus believe it is necessary to be Hindu to be truly Indian. The Hindutva ideology resembles this cultural nationalism and emphasizes the supremacy of the Hindu religion. At its core, it is an ethnocentric philosophy that rejects cultural diversity and is intolerant to dissenting views. While Hindutva followers assert that a homogenous identity is pivotal to the stability of a nation, constitutionally-enshrined secularism promotes religious pluralism and cultural harmony. The struggle between these schools of thought dates back to India’s 19th century colonial history.
The Hindutva movement first enteredthe Indian political sphere through Vinayak Damodar Savarkar’s publication of his “Essentials of Hindutva” manifesto in 1923. However, the seeds of this ideology were sown centuries ago. By the late 1800s, extensive migration and trade had assimilated Islam, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism into the Indic religions, resulting in Indian cultural identity transcending religious boundaries. The British overlooked this, creating a census in 1871 that forced citizens to indicate a single, exclusive religious affiliation. In a desperate bid to preserve their multicultural identity, Indians resorted to ideological and academic means. In this process, the umbrella term “Hindutva” was born to refer to people of the Indic religions.
74 years later, India celebrated its independence from colonial rule, attributing this victory to Mahatma Gandhi and his nonviolent freedom movement. As a result, they adopted his vision of a secular and tolerant India. On the other hand, Hindutva followers, fearing the perception of Hinduism as a pacifist tradition, condemned Gandhi as naive. They attribute Indian victory to Subhas Chandra Bose, the elected leader of the Indian National Congress (INC) party and his Indian National Army (INA), a militant organization originally formed to fight the British in World War II. They claimed that the threat the INA posed to the British Government forced the colonists out. Their disapproval of Gandhi’s means, combined with their view of Hindus as the architects of the nation, led them to reject the secularist ideology and adopt one of cultural nationalism.
Hence, secularists view the division of India and Pakistan as one of a secular democracy and a theocratic state, whereas Hindutva followers interpret Pakistan as an exile for Muslims and India as an exclusive motherland for Hindus. As the original inhabitants of the land, enduring 800 years of oppression from the Muslim Mughals and Christian colonialists, they believe Hindu political dominance over post-independent India is long overdue.
Hindutva followers’ growing resentment of “outside” cultures and desire for supremacy is supported by a vague constitution that has allowed Hindu nationalism to thrive under the guise of secularism. The 42nd amendment, passed in 1976, categorically declared India as a nation for all religions by adding the word “secular” to the preamble. However, Article 25 of Clause 2 maintains that the state holds the authority to make any new laws “regulating or restricting economic, financial, or political activity which may be associated with religious practice” for the broader public interest. Policymakers have opportunistically interpreted this clause to promote religious dominance, encroaching on civil liberties in the name of socioeconomic reform.
The present-day face of the Hindutva movement is the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Founded in 1980 as a partisan outfit representing a fringe section of right-wing socially conservative Hindus, the BJP has dominated the world’s largest democracy for the past decade. BJP leaders have a history of implementing Hindutva ideology within the political and social spheres of the state. For instance, in 2002, the BJP played a pivotal role in both the provocation and subsequent cover-up of deadly Hindu-Muslim riots in the state of Gujarat.
Over the years, the BJP has expanded and normalized religious polarization, propagating Hindutva as the accepted form of governance. The government has promoted Hindu supremacy in various realms of everyday life with subtle, yet potent, symbols. For example, the inauguration of the new Parliament House in 2023 was conducted using Hindu ritualism. Additionally, the BJP has prohibited public schools from teaching courses on secularism and citizenship. Compounding this flagrant affront to constitutional liberties, a report published by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom in 2023 observed that authorities within India have harassed, detained, and prosecuted countless lawyers, journalists, and activists advocating for religious freedom.
On a larger scale, the Hindutva movement is shaping national policy. In 2019, the BJP passed the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The new law grants citizenship to illegal immigrants fleeing religious persecution from neighboring countries who conform to Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, or Christianity. However, it exempts Muslim communities, such as the Rohingya and Hazara communities of Myanmar and Afghanistan, respectively. This law directly violates Article 14 of the constitution, which guarantees equal legal protection to everyone.
Similar religious discrimination has also impacted Jammu and Kashmir, a Muslim-majority state in Northern India which has been the subject of a dispute between India, Pakistan, and China since 1947. In 2019, the BJP government revoked Article 370 of the Indian constitution, stripping the protections Kashmiri Muslims had in government, employment, and property rights. Without institutional support, they have lost representation in the legislature, resulting in the propagation of inequitable policies across the region.
One year later, the government of Uttar Pradesh, the largest state in India and the birthplace of the Hindu religion, implemented the Prohibition of the Unlawful Conversion of Religious Ordinance. As a result of this bill, the legitimacy of interfaith marriages has become subject to familial and judicial approval on a case-by-case basis. BJP officials provided the absurd rationale that this change would prevent Muslim jihadists from forcefully converting Hindu women, an outright incorrect and unfounded claim. Not only does this disseminate false and provocative propaganda, it infringes on Article 21 of the constitution that guarantees every citizen freedom of choice in marriage.
The impact of the Hindutva movement extends to foreign policy as well. Its propagation of a common religion and language has led to the misguided perception of a common enemy. Exasperated by the need to distract the masses from domestic economic problems, tensions with Pakistan have risen over the past decade. As a result, ludicrous amounts of funding have been appropriated to the Defence Department, side-tracking valuable economic and social programs. Further, the discord between the two powerhouses has rendered South Asia’s only regional organization, the South Asian Association for Regional Organization, dysfunctional.
India’s relationship with the Middle East has also been strained over the past year due to anti-Muslim hate speech disseminated by Hindutva followers. In May 2024, BJP spokeswoman Nupur Sharma made insulting statements against the Prophet Muhammed, sparking formal protests in New Delhi when Iran, Kuwait, and Qatar all recalled their ambassadors. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation issued harsh condemnatory statements. As a consequence of this rhetoric, various Muslim countries’ have threatened to boycott Indian goods at a time when annual trade with the GCC countries is upwards of $90 billion. In addition, remittances sent from the Gulf States amount to nearly $40 billion a year: 65% of India’s annual total. Given the risks to its commerce, energy imports, and remittances, a feud with the oil-rich Arab governments resulting from the adoption of Hindutva ideology is a luxury the country cannot afford.
The lethal Hindutva ideology, aided by a weak constitution and uneducated populace, has wreaked havoc on Indian democratic ideals and economic progress. Its manifestation of public demonization, social marginalization and ethnic violence transgresses from the true Hindu ideals of Ahimsa (non-violence) and acceptance. In an attempt to blend religion and government, the Hindutva movement desecrates the foundations of both, resulting in fanatic leaders rupturing the social and institutional fabric of the largest democracy in the world.
Husain Master ‘27 studies in the College of Arts & Sciences. He can be reached at h.a.master@wustl.edu.