In 2014, a country that had prided itself on its secularism and on being the largest democracy in the world elected an unvarnished Hindu supremacist as its leader, and brought in power a party that served as the political wing of the quasi-fascist Hindutva movement. At the time, many who should have known better said occupying the office of prime minister would somehow moderate Modi and that he would concentrate on the economy rather than on sectarian or religious politics. They were wrong. Modi’s India has been even worse than one imagined, and eight years on things are more hopeless than ever.
India has become a nightmare in particular for Muslims, who are at the mercy of right-wing Hindu mobs, inspired no doubt by RSS ideology and the way the BJP government has handled the situation. On April 10, as a Hindu procession marked Ram Navami, an important Hindu festival marking the birth of one of the most important deities in the Hindu religion, Lord Rama, a peaceful procession initially marched through areas of Delhi. But then men clad in saffron, some apparently carrying swords staged their own procession, threatening Muslims and desecrating or breaking down mosques.
In some cases, the saffron Hindu flag was placed outside or atop mosques. In other places Hindus broke into houses, as in the Khargone district of Madhya Pradesh. Incidents of a similar nature have been reported from across India, including the states of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, West Bengal, and other locations over the past two weeks. These were followed by demolition drives, especially in Jahangirpuri, a residential area in Delhi that is home to scores of low-income Muslim families, that have left behind a trail of despair among Indian Muslims.
All this comes against a backdrop in which there have been calls to boycott Muslim businesses. The violence has reached Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, where a clash took place between hardline vegetarian Hindus and other groups including both Hindus and Muslims, over the cooking of non-vegetarian food in one of the hostels. In keeping with women’s bodies becoming sites of conflict, a leading Hindu priest in his sermon has called for Muslim women to be raped. India is drowning in violence, hatred and fear. With 70 million Muslims in the country all facing growing hatred, it is disturbing how easily the country has disintegrated into rule-by-mob and religious violence.
The BJP has overseen a project of intense polarization in the country, fanning religious divisiveness and allowing vigilante mobs impunity to target Indian Muslims. If these fires of communal hatred are not put out soon, it is quite likely that India will never shine again.