A political rally organised by the Bharatiya Janata Party / Photograph by Flickr.com
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India’s departure from secular democracy: Contemporary or historical?
India is a country with unity in diversity because of the different religions, communities and cultures co-existing peacefully in various proximities. However, it also has a history of massive communal clashes and public unrest that compels us to understand their contemporary relevance under the current political regime.
India is the second-most populous country globally, with a massive population of 1.3 billion people. In the last few years, India’s democracy rankings have downgraded significantly. In 2021, the US-based non-profit organisation Freedom House downgraded India’s democracy rankings from a “free democracy” to a “partially free” one. On 4 May, 2022, the France-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in its World Press Freedom Index ranked India at 150 out of 180 countries citing “violence against journalists” as a major reason.
These developments are attributed to the current Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. All these reports indicate that Hindu Nationalism in India is on the rise. Incidents of cow vigilantism and hooliganism by the Hindutva outfits are proof of the same. Data suggest that crimes against minorities have increased manifold. Riots and communal clashes have increased significantly around every major religious festival in the last few years. On 10 April 2022, on the occasion of Ram Navami, India reported numerous incidents of communal violence in states like Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Gujarat.
These facts may suggest that the recent series of violence could be a result of the polarisation reflected in the politics and policies of the current Indian government. However, if we dig into history, we realise that this polarisation has been pervasive in the Indian society, and the Indian state has observed numerous episodes of communal divide even in the past.
"Majoritarian Tendency"
Professor Tanweer Fazal teaches Sociology at the School of Social Sciences, University of Hyderabad. We discussed the position of the Indian state on matters of religious nationalism and communal violence and the history of India’s communal divide. He states that the Indian state is a secular nation, with sufficient provisions for all the communities and religions to exist peacefully. However, there has always been a “majoritarian tendency” with the past Indian governments.
“There have always been moments of the high tide of polarisation in the Indian state. However, the post-2014 era and the rise of right-wing politics and Hindutva politics clearly departed the Indian state from a secular state to a majoritarian one,” says Prof. Fazal.
The first instances of communal clashes occurred around the period of independence (1945-50). Post that period, the next few decades were majorly riot-free. The decades of the 80s and 90s again witnessed the rise of communal violence. The Assam violence of 1983, the Sikh riots of 1984, and the Babri demolition of 1991 marked unprecedented communal clashes in India. All these factors point toward one direction: the seeds of polarisation were always present in the Indian state, which resulted in riots and episodes involving religious violence.
"There have always been moments of the high tide of polarisation in the Indian state. However, the post-2014 era and the rise of right-wing politics and Hindutva politics clearly departed the Indian state from a secular state to a majoritarian one."
Role of the present government
While talking to Prof. Fazal about the role of the current government in aggravating the religious polarisation, he stated that before 2014, there had been episodes of communal violence in India. However, these incidents were “episodic”, and there was always a reversal from these incidents. The current government has pronouncedly taken a majoritarian position that seems “non-reversible.”
The policies of the current Indian government such as revoking Article 370 and changing the name of Indian cities are a reflection of its position regarding the minorities of the Indian state. While one can always blame contemporary politics and events for the religious polarisation of the Indian state, it would not be right to discount that these tendencies have always existed in Indian society. The current government has just benefitted from the already pervasive religious polarisation.
The only difference between the communal incidents of the past and under the ruling dispensation of today is the position of the state machinery. The politics of polarisation and religious nationalism is now mainstream, actively facilitated by the Indian state and its machinery. The current regime has just encashed on the already existing fault-lines that were ever pervasive in the Indian state.
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