In 2014, the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party won an outright majority of seats in the Indian parliament. India has a highly fragmented multi-party system with multiple regional and national parties fielding candidates for election, this meant the BJP could achieve this majority with only 31% of the votes cast. The election brought Narendra Modi to power as Prime Minister, he was previously CM for the western state of Gujarat. Modi was notoriously prevented from visiting the US by the state department based on his government's suspected complicity in the 2002 Gujarat riots which led to the death of over a thousand people, most of them Muslim. The restriction was lifted as it became clear Modi's party was headed towards electoral victory. Modi visited the US last month, addressed Indian-American crowds and made highly-visible visits to Facebook, Google, Tesla and Apple.
Back home in India, Mr. Modi and his party are engaged in more prosaic efforts, including appeasing their right wing, Hindu-nationalist base. One such measure involves a nationwide campaign to ban the slaughter of cows and consumption of beef. This has been a pet project of some in India for decades, and been the source of sectarian strife for longer. The cattle trade is run mostly by Muslim traders and though cows are considered sacred by most Hindus, India is the largest exporter of beef and a major consumer since it has the largest cattle herd in the world. The ban on cow slaughter has threatened the livelihood of farmers who rely on proceeds from the sale of older bulls to fund the purchase of younger farm animals. Muslim, Christian and certain Hindu communities eat beef, and some Hindu sects sacrifice cows. Hinduism is such a heterodox collection of beliefs and cultural practices that some hesitate to call it a religion. Numerous observers have noted that Hindus at various time in the past ate beef and some Hindu scriptures sanction it. Detailed historical analysis, interesting though it may be, has never stopped a mob.
On September 30th, a Hindu mob killed a Muslim blacksmith in a village 30 miles outside of the capital, New Delhi. His son was seriously injured in the attack. The mob descended on Mohammed Akhlaq's house following a rumor that the family was eating beef. The Akhlaq family insist the meat in their fridge is mutton, which local authorities confirmed with forensic analysis. The exact contents of Mr. Akhlaq's refrigerator are significant to the state government which is led by the regional Samajwadi party which occasionally allies with the left of center Congress party in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA). If Mr. Akhlaq did not have beef in his fridge, it becomes much easier for the BJP's opponents to claim the campaign against beef is endangering public order and even those "completely innocent" of eating cows. Within the warped Indian context, the incident becomes far less potent if it turns out Mr. Akhlaq did eat beef. Uttar Pradesh, the state this incident occurred in, bans cow slaughter and has a population over 200 million. As if things weren't murky enough, the village of Dadri is meant to form one end of India's first high-speed rail link between Delhi and Mumbai, and is the scene of rampant land speculation.
More below the orange plough.
Though particularly sensational, this incident should be seen in the context of a broader effort by the BJP and its more militant allies to further its Hindu-nationalist ambitions. The Hindutva movement aims to reclaim Indian culture and society from what it considers to be alien western and leftist influences, some elements wish to "re-convert" Indian Muslims and Christians to Hinduism. In a very real sense, this is a battle over whether India continues to maintain a separation between church and state and treat all religions equally. The Indian version of this separation has unique characteristics, the constitution proclaims the government's secular character, but in matters of civil law (inheritance, marriage etc.) religious laws are applied by the state.
Secular authors and activists have been threatened and a number murdered for writing or campaigning against religious superstitions and sectarian politics. Secular academics have been purged from national educational institutions and replaced with individuals aligned with the BJP's hindutva movement. Factions within the BJP are attempting to diminish the legacy of India's early secular leaders. In December, India Today reported on a ceremony honoring Gandhi's assassin:
Amid reports of a controversial ceremony organised by the right-wing groups in Maharashtra on Thursday to honour Mahatma Gandhi's killer, Nathuram Godse, BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj said, "Godse was a nationalist. Gandhiji also did a lot for the nation."
Godse was a member of the
RSS, a volunteer organization with a paramilitary wing called the Bajrang Dal. The RSS runs a number of schools and offers social services, but it is best known as the genesis of a network of Hindu-nationalist political organizations including the BJP. Local RSS chapters are often suspected of participating in communal riots, incitement via social media or other
acts of intimidation and violence. Mr. Modi has been associated with the RSS since he was a young boy.
The NY Times is running an Op-Ed on the murders of secular bloggers, authors and activists: India's attack on Free Speech
While there have always been episodic attacks on free speech in India, this time feels different. The harassment is front-page news, but the government refuses to acknowledge it. Indeed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s silence is being interpreted by many people as tacit approval, given that the attacks have gained momentum since he took office in 2014 and are linked to Hindutva groups whose far-right ideology he shares.
Earlier this month, a leader of the Sri Ram Sene, a Hindu extremist group with a history of violence including raiding pubs and beating women they find inside, ratcheted up the tensions. He warned that writers who insulted Hindu gods were in danger of having their tongues sliced off. For those who don’t support the ultimate goal of these extremists — a Hindu nation — Mr. Modi’s silence is ominous.
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The murders in India share striking similarities with the killings of four Bangladeshi bloggers this year. But while there was a global outcry over what happened in Bangladesh, India is hiding behind its patina of legitimacy granted by being the world’s largest democracy.
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The goal of transforming India from a secular state to a Hindu nation, which seems to be behind the murders, is abetted not just by the silence of politicians, but also by the Hindu nationalist policies of the ruling B.J.P.
When I lived in India, its secular tradition was largely beyond question. I find the current debate remarkable in that you hear numerous voices proclaiming themselves "anti-secular" and arguing for the state to privilege Hinduism in different ways.