EDITORIAL: During the recent decades, especially since India’s far-right Hindu nationalist leader Narendra Modi became prime minister in 2014, inter-faith harmony preached by Mohandas Gandhi, the country’s independence hero and widely revered for his non-violence movement, has been replaced by hatred, intolerance and violence against Muslims.
In an interview a few days before the 75th anniversary of Gandhi’s assassination his great-grandson Tushar Gandhi expressed his indignation over the rising tide of Hindu nationalism, calling it an affront to his great grandfather’s legacy.
“That whole philosophy,” he said, “has now captured India and Indian hearts: the ideology of hate, the ideology of polarisation, the ideology of divisions,” adding that “for them it’s very natural that Godse would be their iconic patriot, their idol.”
It may be recalled that Gandhi was shot dead by Nathuram Godse, an activist of the Hindu extremist organisation, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) while he was at an interfaith prayer meeting, organised to reassure Muslim minority of security in the aftermath of communal riots that accompanied the Partition.
Godse, executed the following year, was a widely reviled figure in India until Modi, who pays allegiance to the RSS, took office as prime minister. A year later, i.e., in 2015, a temple dedicated to Gandhi’s assassin was built in Meerut, not far from Delhi.
Its custodian, Ashok Sharma, who under previous governments was briefly jailed and had his property seized for trying to lionise Godse, now happily tells anyone who cares to listen that “there is wind of change in the country and people have understood that Godse was the real patriot and Gandhi a traitor.”
As a matter of fact, given its large ethno-religious diversity the country’s founding fathers realised that secularism was the best bet for holding it together. But the ‘wind of change’ started blowing with the waning of Congress party’s popularity and the BJP leaders exploiting religious sentiments to mobilise public support in their favour, mainly by targeting the Muslim community.
Modi, in fact, rose to prominence when as chief minister of Gujarat state he presided over the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom. Under him, the BJP has managed to effectively redefine Indian nationalism as Hindu nationalism aided by propaganda aired by big businesses-owned media.
The declared aim of his Hindutva politics to turn India into a Hindu Rashtra (Hindu state) resonates with the large swathes of Hindu population. Tushar Gandhi noted that “there is no denying that in his heart, he also knows what he is doing is lighting a fire that will one day consume India itself.”
As an RSS acolyte Modi may actually think he needs to settle scores with history and establish Hindu supremacy. In any case what matters is the success the hate rhetoric brings him. It has helped him win 56 percent of the seats in the lower house of parliament while his party rules in 16 of the 28 states.
Tushar Gandhi, of course, is not alone in worrying about the erosion of his great-grand father’s legacy and the future of his country. But reviving secular liberalism amidst the ‘wind of change’ is a very difficult challenge though not insurmountable.
It calls for an alternative narrative, backed by socio-economic policies, which is persuasive enough for the Hindu majority to take pride in India’s ethno-religious diversity rather than Hindu identity.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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