Professional Documents
Culture Documents
India's Democracy at 70 Toward A Hindu State
India's Democracy at 70 Toward A Hindu State
Christophe Jaffrelot
Journal of Democracy, Volume 28, Number 3, July 2017, pp. 52-63 (Article)
Access provided at 6 Jan 2020 17:21 GMT from Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico
created by BK on 6/9/17.
India’s Democracy at 70
Cultural Vigilantism
The Hindu-nationalist movement uses more than words. Since the
1980s, the RSS has formed vigilante groups to enforce its understanding
of Hindu traditions. The most widely known among these militias is the
Bajrang Dal. Founded in Uttar Pradesh in 1984, it has more than two-
thousand local branches and deploys youthful cadres who mostly target
“deviant” artists. In 2006, it forced the world-renowned painter M.F.
Husain, then aged 90, into exile.10
Since 2014, hardly a month has gone by without the launch of some
56 Journal of Democracy
it; 3) the shift toward Hindu nationalism as the center of gravity in In-
dian politics has been so rapid and far-reaching that even Modi is having
trouble adjusting to it.
The BJP’s sweeping state-level election victories in Assam in 2016
and Uttar Pradesh in 2017 have made this shift obvious. Assam in the
far northeast “hosts” a large number of illegal migrants from Bangla-
desh. In 2016, the BJP received support from openly xenophobic region-
al parties and drove the Indian National Congress from office. Fear of
Muslims (who now form more than a third of Assam’s population) and
nostalgia for an idealized Hindu past played large roles in the BJP cam-
paign. Modi paid homage to a fifteenth-century Hindu saint while visit-
ing Jorhat, Assam, which was once the capital of the Ahom Kingdom,
a Hindu polity that centuries ago successfully fought off the Muslim-
ruled Mughal Empire. His interior minister also came to promise that the
263-kilometer border barrier between Assam and Bangladesh would be
finished that year (as of 2017, this has not yet happened.)
In Uttar Pradesh early in 2017, the BJP ran another campaign laced
with Hindu-nationalist appeals. Amit Shah, the party’s national presi-
dent, said that until the BJP’s three rival parties in the state were “laid to
rest,” Uttar Pradesh would never develop. As a jibe at them, he coined
the acronym “KASAB,” which he said stood for Congress, the Sama-
jwadi Party, and the Bahujan Samaj Party.22 Kasab is also the surname
of Ajmal Kasab, the Pakistani terrorist who was the only one of the ten
November 2008 Mumbai attackers to be taken alive (he was hanged
in 2012).23 Similarly, Modi claimed obliquely that Muslims were being
favored over Hindus: “If a village receives funds for a graveyard, then
it should also get funds for a cremation ground. If you provide uninter-
rupted power supply for Eid, then you should also do it for Holi. There
should not be any discrimination.”24
Such statements might be construed as illegal under Section 123(3A) of
the 1951 Representation of the People Act, which bans any election-related
“attempt to promote, feelings of enmity or hatred between different classes
of the citizens of India on grounds of religion, race, caste, community, or
language.”25 Yet no complaint filed with the Election Commission on these
grounds has borne fruit. The BJP leaders mostly stuck to economic-policy
messages during the campaign anyway, waiting until after they had won a
huge majority to loudly trumpet Hindu-nationalist themes.
Even so, the naming of Yogi Adityanath to be chief minister of this
heavily populated state—were it a country, it would be the world’s
sixth-largest—came as a shock to many. This Hindu-nationalist leader
was born Ajay Singh Bisht into a higher-caste (Rajput) family in 1972.26
At 26, he became the Lok Sabha’s youngest member. At 30, he founded
his own youth militia, the Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV). In 2007, HYV
members were implicated in a Gorakhpur communal riot that caused
two deaths and required the imposition of a curfew.27 Adityanath was ar-
Christophe Jaffrelot 59
rested but only briefly detained.28 In 2006, an RSS member named Sunil
Joshi was part of a conspiracy to bomb a Sufi saint’s shrine in Ajmer,
Rajasthan. Joshi met with Adityanath to seek his aid in the plot. The
scheme resulted in an October 2007 blast outside the shrine that killed
three. Adityanath reportedly had refused to help the plotters, but he had
failed to tell police about the contact.29
In 2014, while electioneering for the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, Aditya-
nath complained about the supposed “love jihad.” He said that Hindus
should “take” a hundred Muslim women for every Hindu woman “tak-
en” by a Muslim, drawing a reprimand from the Election Commission.30
Immediately after the BJP’s national leadership named Adityanath
chief minister, “anti-Romeo squads” fanned out across the state to hunt
for “love jihadis.”31 Around the same time, butcher shops were attacked,
even when they were not selling beef, and scores of Muslim families
were harassed and impoverished.32
2. In 1992, Hindu activists tore down the Ayodhya mosque. The site remains the sub-
ject of legal wrangling over who owns title to the land. I dealt with the history of the
Hindu-nationalist movement in great detail in The Hindu Nationalist Movement in India
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1996).
3. For an analysis of the Sangh Parivar, including its student union and labor union, see
Christophe Jaffrelot, ed., The Sangh Parivar: A Reader (New Delhi: Oxford University
Press, 2005).
4. Ramesh Yeshwant Prabhoo v. Shri Prabhakar Kashinath Kunte and Others (1995),
AIR 1996 SC 1113.
5. “Sushma Pushes for Declaring Bhagavad Gita as National Scripture,” The Hindu,
7 December 2014, www.thehindu.com/news/national/sushma-pushes-for-declaring-bhag-
wad-gita-as-national-scripture/article6670252.ece.
6. “Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma Speaks: Despite Being a Muslim, APJ Abdul Ka-
lam Was a Nationalist,” Indian Express, 18 September 2015, http://indianexpress.com/article/
india/india-others/culture-minister-speaks-despite-being-a-muslim-kalam-was-a-nationalist.
7. “Bar Muslims from Voting, Writes Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut,” Times of India,
13 April 2015, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Bar-Muslims-from-voting-writes-
Shiv-Sena-MP-Sanjay-Raut/articleshow/46901031.cms.
9. Nakul Singh Sawhney, “Watch: Kairana, After the Headlines,” The Wire, 28 Septem-
ber 2016; Lalmani Verma, “Kairana Row: Hukum Singh—Lawyer, MP, and Now Author of
‘Exodus’ in UP,” Indian Express, 15 June 2016; Zoya Hasan, “Kairana and the Politics of
Exclusion,” The Hindu, 17 October 2016; and Rohan Venkataramakrishnan, “BJP Refuses to
Let Facts Get in the Way of the ‘Hindu Exodus’ Story in Kairana,” Scroll.in, 17 June 2016.
11. Smita Nair, “Refrain in Sangh Turf: Cards Will Give Us Power,” Indian Express, 23
August 2016, http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/maharashtra-gov-
ernment-beef-ban-gau-rakshak-id-cards-animal-husbandry-modi-sangh-turf-2991489.
12. Ishan Marvel, “In the Name of the Mother: How the State Nurtures the Gau Rak-
shaks of Haryana,” Caravan, 1 September 2016.
15. “Lion Killed Cow, Not Dalit Men Flogged by Gau Rakshaks: Gujarat CID,” Dec-
can Chronicle, 27 July 2016, www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/270716/
lion-killed-cow-not-dalit-men-flogged-by-gau-rakshaks-gujarat-cid.html.
16. Indian Express Online, “Video of 7 Dalits Being Assaulted for Skinning a Dead
Cow,” www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLgIQYbsNGU.
17. “Punjab: Crackdown on ‘Cow Vigilantes,’ Gau Raksha Dal Chief Booked,” Indian
Express, 8 August 2016.
18. Pavan Dahat, “‘Gau Rakshaks’ Are Good: RSS Chief,” The Hindu, 12 October
2016, www.thehindu.com/news/national/%E2%80%98Gau-rakshaks%E2%80%99-are-
good-RSS-chief/article15465091.ece#!.
19. Anusha Soni, “Beef Ban: Plea Challenges Centre Order in SC, Says It Would
Lead to Increase in Cow Vigilantism,” India Today, 7 June 2017, http://indiatoday.in-
today.in/story/beef-ban-supreme-court-to-hear-plea-challenging-centre-decision-on-
june-15/1/972627.html.
20. “There’s Extreme Intolerance in India: Shah Rukh Khan on 50th Birthday,” Indian
Express, 3 November 2015; Julio Ribeiro, “As a Christian, Suddenly I Am a Stranger in
My Own Country,” Indian Express, 17 March 2015; “Vice President Mohammad Hamid
Ansari Calls for ‘More Complete’ Separation of Religion, Politics,” Indian Express, 2
April 2016; “Muslims in India Have No Inclination to Resort to Violence: VP Hamid
Ansari,” Indian Express, 1 June 2016.
21. “Will Ensure Complete Freedom of Faith: Full Text of PM Modi’s Speech at Chris-
tian Conference,” Firstpost, 17 February 2015, www.firstpost.com/india/will-ensure-com-
plete-freedom-of-faith-full-text-of-pm-modis-speech-at-christian-conference-2103923.html.
23. “Amit Shah Faces Fury for ‘Kasab’ Remark,” The Hindu, 23 February 2017, www.
thehindu.com/elections/uttar-pradesh-2017/Amit-Shah-faces-fury-for-‘Kasab’-remark/
article17356100.ece.
24. “Modi’s ‘Kabristan’ Remark Draws Ire, Congress to File EC Complaint,” The
Quint, 19 February 2017, www.thequint.com/uttar-pradesh-elections-2017/2017/02/20/
modi-kabristan-remark-congress-to-file-an-election-commission-complaint.
25. For the relevant portion of the Representation of the People Act, a law first passed
in 1951, see http://lawmin.nic.in/legislative/election/volume%201/representation%20
of%20the%20people%20act,%201951.pdf.
Christophe Jaffrelot 63
26. Yogi Adityanath’s upper-caste background is not unimportant. In 2017, the BJP
sent a record number of upper-caste candidates to the Uttar Pradesh state assembly. See
Gilles Verniers, “Upper Hand for Upper Castes in House,” Indian Express, 20 March
2017, http://indianexpress.com/article/explained/bjp-narendra-modi-rajnath-singh-adi-
tyanath-devendra-fadnavis-upper-hand-for-upper-castes-in-house-4576599. Adityanath
has praised the caste system on several occasions, saying, for instance, that like furrows
in a farmer’s field, castes in society keep things in order. See Abhimanyu Chandra, “What
the Hindu Yuva Vahini’s Constitution Tells Us About Yogi Adityanath’s Regime in Ut-
tar Pradesh,” Caravan, 27 March 2017, www.caravanmagazine.in/vantage/hindu-yuva-
vahinis-constitution-tells-us-yogi-adityanaths-regime-uttar-pradesh.
27. On Adityanath and communal rioting, see “Who Is Yogi Adityanath? A Factfile,”
Sabrang India, 27 March 2017, https://sabrangindia.in/article/who-yogi-adityanath-factfile.
28. On the many cases against Yogi Adityanath which are still pending, see Dhirendra
K. Jha, “Yogi Adityanath as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister: What Happens to the Cases
Against Him?” Scroll.in, 21 March 2017, https://scroll.in/article/832327.
29. Charu Kartikeya, “Why Didn’t Yogi Adityanath Inform Police About Hindutva Ter-
rorist Sunil Joshi?” Catch News, 25 March 2017, www.catchnews.com/politics-news/why-
didn-t-yogi-adityanath-inform-police-about-hindutva-terrorist-sunil-joshi-55693.html.
30. Christophe Jaffrelot, “The Other Saffron,” Indian Express, 6 October 2014, http://
indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/the-other-saffron.
31. “With Yogi as CM, Anti-Romeo Squads out in Full Force in Meerut,” Huffington
Post India, 22 March 2017, www.huffingtonpost.in/2017/03/21/anti-romeo-squads-now-
out-in-full-force-in-meerut-turn-out-to_a_21905028.
32. “‘You May as Well Kill Us’: Human Cost of India’s Meat ‘Ban,’” BBC, 30 March
2017, www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-39427552?ocid=socialflow_twitter.
33. Deeptiman Tiwary, “Over 55 per Cent of Undertrials Muslim, Dalit or Tribal:
NCRB,” Indian Express, 1 November 2016, http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-
news-india/over-55-per-cent-of-undertrials-muslim-dalit-or-tribal-ncrb-3731633.
34. Deeptiman Tiwary, “Share of Muslims in Jail Bigger than in the Population, Show
NCRB Data,” Indian Express, 3 November 2016, http://indianexpress.com/article/ex-
plained/muslims-daliots-undertrials-in-prison-ncrb-3734362.
35. “SC Declines To Go into Hindutva Verdict,” The Hindu, 2 December 2016, www.
thehindu.com/news/national/SC-declines-to-go-into-Hindutva-verdict/article16081556.ece.
36. “Declare Cow as National Animal: Rajasthan High Court to Centre,” Indian Ex-
press, 31 May 2017, http://indianexpress.com/article/india/rajasthan-high-court-asks-
centre-to-declare-cow-as-national-animal.
37. Sammy Smooha, “The Model of Ethnic Democracy: Israel as a Jewish and Demo-
cratic State,” Nations and Nationalism 8 (October 2002): 475–503; and “The Model of
Ethnic Democracy,” in Sammy Smooha and Priit Järve, eds., The Fate of Ethnic Democ-
racy in Post-Communist Europe (Budapest: Open Society Institute, 2005), 4–59.
39. Christophe Jaffrelot, “Refining the Moderation Thesis. Two Religious Parties and
Indian Democracy: The Jana Sangh and the BJP Between Hindutva Radicalism and Coali-
tion Politics,” Democratization 20, no. 5 (2013): 876–94.