tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/narendra-modi-9354/articlesNarendra Modi – The Conversation2024-03-17T19:01:41Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2248682024-03-17T19:01:41Z2024-03-17T19:01:41ZNarendra Modi’s economy isn’t booming for India’s unemployed youth. So, why is his party favoured to win another election?<p>India will soon hold the <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/publications/interactive/india-elects-2024">biggest election ever conducted</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/16/india-to-hold-worlds-biggest-election-in-seven-stages-from-april#:%7E:text=Voting%20will%20be%20staggered%20over,announced%20on%20the%20same%20day.">starting</a> on April 19 and running through early June. Almost 950 million registered voters will be able to cast ballots to elect the 543 members of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament.</p>
<p>The result is not a foregone conclusion, but <a href="https://eastasiaforum.org/2024/01/21/indias-2024-elections-may-bring-a-new-political-epoch/">most analysts expect</a> Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to win another five years in office. After a decade in power, the <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/mood-of-the-nation-2024-lok-sabha-elections-pm-modi-nda-win-likely-india-alliance-congress-important-issues-2499457-2024-02-08">opinion polls suggest</a> Modi is still well regarded by many Indians and the main opposition parties do not command wide support.</p>
<h2>Slow growth, too few jobs</h2>
<p>This situation might strike some as odd. The Modi government’s record is mixed – especially in managing the economy – and has <a href="https://thewire.in/economy/survey-finds-deep-economic-discontent-job-pessimism-52-say-modis-policies-favour-big-business">disappointed many voters</a>. </p>
<p>To be sure, as the <a href="https://www.business-standard.com/india-news/global-buzz-around-high-growth-rate-of-indian-economy-says-pm-modi-124030400884_1.html">prime minister frequently reminds voters</a>, India has grown faster than many competitors in recent years. But the BJP came to office ten years ago promising <a href="https://theasanforum.org/indias-new-leadership-and-east-asia-1/">double-digit growth rates</a> and it has <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/8299d318-7c35-49a0-9a9a-b8e5abeba7be">never achieved that goal</a>. </p>
<p>Worse still, it has <a href="https://eastasiaforum.org/2023/04/10/indias-workforce-woes/">struggled to generate jobs</a> for the millions of young people who need them. </p>
<p>Critics point to errors in BJP economic policy they think have stifled growth and job creation. These include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>the shock inflicted in 2016 by the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-41100610">sudden withdrawal</a> of 85% of India’s paper money, ostensibly to combat corruption</p></li>
<li><p>the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/business-india-new-delhi-narendra-modi-2bfb76c9d3c0246896425461166078b5">bungled introduction</a> of much-needed reforms to the agricultural sector </p></li>
<li><p>and the ongoing protection of India’s <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/518e516a-df00-47fd-b7b3-183599c47485">big industrial conglomerates</a> from domestic and foreign competition.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Taken together, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/india/india-wanted-a-manufacturing-boom-its-workers-are-back-on-the-farm-instead-e94bb940#">critics charge</a>, these mistakes have left too many people in precarious work and held back investment in manufacturing, which could offer more people more jobs.</p>
<h2>Shoring up a Hindu nationalist base</h2>
<p>Why, then, do so many Indians still support the Modi government? </p>
<p>Part of the answer lies in the BJP’s ability to appeal to multiple constituencies with targeted messages. </p>
<p>Ruling India effectively depends on constructing and maintaining coalitions – either coalitions of parties or coalitions of voters. Modi’s BJP does both. It is supported by <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/nda-38-vs-opposition-26-full-lists-of-parties-attending-delhi-bengaluru-meets-101689667153538.html">several smaller parties</a> in parliament, but more important in terms of winning elections, is the <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2019/04/04/bjp-s-electoral-arithmetic-pub-78678">patchwork quilt of different groups of voters</a> it can marshal.</p>
<p>At the centre of this quilt sits a group of convinced Hindu nationalists, motivated by an ideology known as “<a href="https://theconversation.com/indias-prime-minister-modi-pursues-politics-of-hindu-nationalism-what-does-that-mean-117794">Hindutva</a>”. They argue that India’s society and government should reflect what they believe is the will of the Hindu majority, numbering about 80% of the population.</p>
<p>For decades, they have campaigned to end what they perceive as unreasonable special protections given to religious minorities, including for places of worship and faith-based divorce and child custody laws, as well as the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/8/5/kashmir-special-status-explained-what-are-articles-370-and-35a">autonomous status</a> of the Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir.</p>
<p>Step by step, over the past decade, the Modi government has met many of these demands, locking in the Hindu nationalist base for the BJP. </p>
<p>In 2019, it <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-49234708">revoked the constitutional amendments</a> that limited New Delhi’s rights to determine how Kashmir is governed.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, the prime minister also presided over the opening ceremony of a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-23/narendra-modi-opens-ayodhya-temple-on-site-of-babri-mosque/103374836">new Hindu temple</a> at Ayodhya, on the site of mosque demolished by Hindu nationalist activists in 1992. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-a-controversial-hindu-temple-in-india-could-prove-pivotal-to-narendra-modis-party-in-upcoming-elections-219811">Why a controversial Hindu temple in India could prove pivotal to Narendra Modi's party in upcoming elections</a>
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<p>Soon after, the government announced a <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/indias-citizenship-amendment-act-why-is-it-controversial/a-68514701">controversial new law</a> will come into effect that will allow Hindus, Sikhs and others fleeing neighbouring Muslim-majority countries to gain Indian citizenship, but may permit the deportation of Muslims deemed to be illegal immigrants.</p>
<p>And many believe a “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/india/what-is-indias-civil-code-why-does-it-anger-muslims-2024-02-07/">uniform civil code</a>” will be next, imposing common marriage, alimony and custody arrangements on all Indian citizens, regardless of religion.</p>
<h2>Courting women and urban, middle-class voters</h2>
<p>The Hindu nationalist core is powerful, but it is not large enough to give the BJP all the seats it needs to govern.</p>
<p>For that reason, the party has also tried to <a href="https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blink/read/why-the-indian-middle-class-gravitates-towards-modi/article33269351.ece">win over the growing urban middle class</a>. This group is less interested in cultural issues and more concerned with good governance, as well as India’s standing in the world. </p>
<p>In the last two elections, the BJP won their support by promising to crack down on corruption, improve the country’s business environment, build better infrastructure and restore national pride. It is promising to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indias-modi-pledges-15-bln-spending-splurge-elections-near-2024-03-08/">push on with this program</a> so it can hold on to this bloc of voters, and it likely will, in the absence of convincing alternatives. </p>
<p>At the same time, the BJP will continue to seek the support of the rural poor and women, who might back left-wing parties or not vote at all. </p>
<p>To appeal to these groups in recent years, the Modi government has <a href="https://thewire.in/economy/modi-govts-fiscal-policy-on-welfare-trends-so-far-and-what-to-expect">doubled the funding</a> for a rural income guarantee scheme, and launched other programs, including one to provide midday meals to schoolchildren. </p>
<p>It has facilitated the opening of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-28962762">bank accounts</a> for tens of millions, including women. This allows them – in principle, at least – to circumvent corrupt officials and feckless husbands when it comes to receiving welfare payments. </p>
<p>The government has also provided millions of rural homes with <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/modi-speech-bulid-toilets-women-girls-204195-2014-08-15">toilets</a> and <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/Modi-launches-LPG-scheme-for-poor-women/article14295554.ece">cooking gas bottles</a>, arguing both make women safer.</p>
<p>These measures have paid off so far, with more of the <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/India-election/For-clues-to-BJP-s-landslide-win-look-to-Modi-s-rural-support2">rural poor</a> and more <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/elections/story/why-more-women-voted-bjp-2022-elections-analysis-1924821-2022-03-13">women</a> voting for the BJP in recent elections.</p>
<p>This time around, the party is looking to consolidate support among women, in particular. It has shepherded a new gender quota bill through parliament, which will <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2023/09/26/india-s-new-gender-quota-law-is-win-for-women-mostly-pub-90644">require</a> one third of Lok Sabha seats to be reserved for women from 2029, among other measures.</p>
<h2>A divided and weak opposition</h2>
<p>The Modi government’s success in winning over these groups is impressive, but it must be noted the BJP has <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/elections/lok-sabha-2019/analysis-highest-ever-national-vote-share-for-the-bjp/article27218550.ece">never gained more than 40%</a> of the popular vote in a national election. If it faced a united and effective opposition, it might struggle to win office.</p>
<p>Happily for the BJP, India’s opposition parties are divided and weak. If they could join forces and put their support behind a single, strong candidate to challenge the BJP in individual districts, they might win more seats. However, negotiations to do this have <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/elections/india/alliance-blues-for-india-in-several-states-2935890">proved tortuous</a>.</p>
<p>Worse still, the fragile opposition alliance has not yet named a <a href="https://www.businesstoday.in/india/story/lok-sabha-polls-2024-elections-not-beauty-contests-says-congress-on-india-alliances-pm-face-420882-2024-03-11">credible alternative candidate</a> for the prime ministership. </p>
<p>Congress Party leader Rahul Gandhi, the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family that led India after independence, is an obvious choice, but is widely seen as an <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/india/rahul-gandhi-prince-indian-politics-who-lost-his-parliament-seat-2023-03-24/">ineffectual dilettante</a>. Successful regional politicians like West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee have <a href="https://thewire.in/books/book-review-will-mamata-banerjee-be-a-serious-challenger-to-modi-in-2024">limited reach</a> beyond their own states. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Modi’s <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2023/08/29/indians-views-of-modi-and-other-national-leaders/#:%7E:text=Indian%20Prime%20Minister%20Narendra%20Modi,have%20a%20very%20favorable%20view.">personal popularity is high</a>. His modest background and personal charisma still appeal to the young and the aspirational, especially in <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-63884247">caste groups historically excluded</a> from power and wealth. </p>
<p>Defeating such a dominant figure will be hard, if not impossible.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224868/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian Hall is affiliated with the Australia India Institute. </span></em></p>Modi’s party has struggled to generate jobs for young people, but is highly adept at marshalling votes to win elections.Ian Hall, Professor of International Relations, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2210882024-03-05T20:11:23Z2024-03-05T20:11:23ZPlight of migrant laborers killed, held hostage in Middle East exposes Israel’s reliance on overseas workforce<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579960/original/file-20240305-21577-9fmlrl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C143%2C7961%2C4984&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Thai foreign worker tends to an agriculture field in Beersheba, Israel.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.de/detail/nachrichtenfoto/thai-foreign-worker-tends-to-an-agriculture-field-near-nachrichtenfoto/1231752520?adppopup=true">Emmanuel Dunand/AFP via Getty Images)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>An Indian laborer in Israel was killed and several other migrant workers injured on March 4, 2024, in <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/india/indian-killed-injured-anti-tank-missile-attack-israel-north-9195933/">a missile attack launched from Lebanon</a> by Hamas-aligned Hezbollah.</p>
<p>They are not the first migrant workers in Israel to get caught up in the monthslong fighting. Dozens of other farmworkers, agricultural apprentices and caregivers from countries including Thailand, Nepal, Tanzania, Cambodia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Moldova were <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jpeua8qUHmY&ab_channel=DWNews">murdered or taken hostage</a> during the Hamas attack of Oct. 7.</p>
<p>The sizable number of non-Israeli workers affected by the current war has <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/why-so-many-thai-workers-became-hamas-victims/a-67266701">surprised some onlookers</a> while shining a light on Israel’s reliance on temporary migrant workers.</p>
<p>But as researchers who study the <a href="https://cas.uoregon.edu/directory/global/all/jweise">proliferation of migrant workers</a> around the world, we know how labor migration programs have transformed nearly all societies, including <a href="https://hu-berlin.academia.edu/SShoham">Israel’s</a>. The long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict has shaped Israel’s migrant worker history – and has contributed to the globalization of the workforce in the Middle East.</p>
<h2>A global story</h2>
<p>The initial recruitment of overseas workers to Israel, which began as early as the 1970s, followed a <a href="https://www.law.uchicago.edu/bilateral-labor-agreements-dataset">post-World War II trend</a> that saw higher-income countries – such as the U.S., France and West Germany – sign labor migration recruitment agreements with poorer nations. These poorer countries, which at the time included Mexico, Spain and Turkey, among others, overcame an initial reluctance to lose part of their populace and began to see emigration as a strategy for modernization. The idea was that emigrants could learn modern farming or industrial skills overseas, while sending money back to boost development in their home communities.</p>
<p>In the 1970s and 1980s, <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/migrants-for-export">many South and Southeast Asian countries</a> began to promote the export of migrant workers as a key piece of their economic development strategies. At the same time, receiving countries <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1080/0023656032000057010">became hooked</a> on the idea of a flexible, temporary labor force that would not inflame anti-immigrant sentiment as much as more settled migrants seemingly did.</p>
<p>Israel’s relationship with Thai workers came initially by way of the United States’ support for the 1979 peace agreement between Israel and Egypt. The U.S. government <a href="https://usace.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16021coll4/id/353">recruited Thai workers</a> who had once worked on Vietnam War-era U.S. military bases in northeastern Thailand to help build a new air force base in Israel.</p>
<p>The arrival of the Thai migrant workers, along with Portuguese workers, prompted public controversy among Israeli lawmakers, trade unionists and the media about the creation of a split labor market, as research done by <a href="https://hu-berlin.academia.edu/SShoham">one of us</a> has shown. Meanwhile, others worried that the workers’ presence cut against Zionist imperatives to guarantee a Jewish majority.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man in a hat handles crates being loaded onto the back of a tractor." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579954/original/file-20240305-22-j0m1i7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C391%2C7241%2C4436&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579954/original/file-20240305-22-j0m1i7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579954/original/file-20240305-22-j0m1i7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579954/original/file-20240305-22-j0m1i7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579954/original/file-20240305-22-j0m1i7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579954/original/file-20240305-22-j0m1i7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579954/original/file-20240305-22-j0m1i7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Thai worker labors in the field adjacent to the Gaza Strip.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/october-2023-israel-sde-nitzan-a-thai-worker-continues-to-news-photo/1719823925?adppopup=true">Ilia Yefimovich/picture alliance via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Attempting to resolve these contradictions, the Israeli government <a href="https://www.trafflab.org/shahar-shoham">started to experiment</a> with migration policies designed for a new category of workers – neither Jewish nor Palestinian – who were intended to remain separate from Israeli society.</p>
<p>A decade later, in a different political moment, these policy ideas would become concrete in a new category of person in Israel: the “<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/imre.12109">foreign worker</a>.”</p>
<h2>Growing recruitment</h2>
<p>The Israeli-Palestinian conflict drove the “foreign worker” policy forward. Though Israel was founded on the ideology of “avoda ivrit,” or Hebrew labor, Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza since 1967 has led to the recruitment of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian workers, who became an attractive <a href="https://cris.tau.ac.il/en/publications/power-breaking-or-power-entrenching-law-the-regulation-of-palesti">low-wage labor force</a>.</p>
<p>They soon came to <a href="https://cris.tau.ac.il/en/publications/power-breaking-or-power-entrenching-law-the-regulation-of-palesti">compose 7% of the workers</a> in the Israeli labor market as a whole, 24% of workers in the agricultural sector and 60% in the construction sector.</p>
<p>The non-citizen Palestinian workers commuted daily from the West Bank and Gaza, controlled by a <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=25698">regime of permits</a> and regulations.</p>
<p>When the first Palestinian uprising, or intifada, began in 1987, some members of the Israeli public came to see such workers as a <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2547185">security risk</a>. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/oslo-accords-30-years-on-the-dream-of-a-two-state-solution-seems-further-away-than-ever-213003">1993 Oslo Accords</a>, which sought to foment “separation” between Israelis and Palestinians, further pushed Israel to minimize the dependency on non-citizen Palestinian workers.</p>
<p>To make up for the shortfall, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/362022418_On_the_Establishment_of_Agricultural_Migration_Industry_in_Israel%27s_Countryside">Israeli employers</a> convinced the government to vastly expand the recruitment of temporary workers to take their place. In addition to Thailand, countries including China, India, Nepal, the Philippines, Romania and Turkey spotted an opportunity and allowed Israeli employers to recruit within their borders. By 2003, migrant workers <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/remi/2691">made up 10% of the labor force</a> in Israel.</p>
<h2>Creating marginal workers</h2>
<p>Migrant workers in Israel, like their counterparts the world over, have long since been <a href="https://www.trafflab.org/_files/ugd/11e1f0_861945c9ea904d57a359c89d44424869.pdf">vulnerable to exploitation</a>.</p>
<p>Many of their origin countries did not demand a commitment to secure their citizens’ rights in the form of a <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4168983">bilateral labor recruitment agreement</a>. And workers migrating via <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1350463042000227380">private recruitment</a> channels had to pay thousands of dollars in illegal “sign-up” fees, causing them to begin their journeys deep in debt. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Israeli government policies have attempted to <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jols.12366">keep migrants outside of society by confining</a> them to specific industries, obligating them to leave the country upon completion of their labor contract, excluding them from the <a href="https://www.kavlaoved.org.il/en/a-land-devouring-its-workers-neglect-and-violations-of-migrant-agricultural-workers-right-to-health-in-israel/">public health system</a> and <a href="https://academic.oup.com/socpro/article-abstract/63/3/373/2468875?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false">prohibiting</a> them from marrying or engaging in romantic relations while in Israel.</p>
<p>And authorities have paid little attention to labor standards, leaving farmworkers, for example, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/01/21/raw-deal/abuse-thai-workers-israels-agricultural-sector">vulnerable</a> to <a href="https://www.academia.edu/42386415/Giving_them_the_slip_Israeli_employers_strategic_falsification_of_pay_slips_to_disguise_the_violation_of_Thai_farmworkers_right_to_the_minimum_wage">wage theft</a>, terrible housing and exposure to pesticides without proper protection. </p>
<p>Under pressure from the U.S. government and Israeli civil society, over the past decade Israel began to sign <a href="https://www.cimi-eng.org/_files/ugd/5d35de_16d441738d06413184ba6dfa94cb0135.pdf">bilateral agreements</a> with countries sending migrants. These eliminated exorbitant recruitment fees, <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4167016">even if they failed</a> to meaningfully improve labor conditions. </p>
<p>Even so, the number of migrant workers has <a href="https://www.gov.il/BlobFolder/generalpage/foreign_workers_stats/he/zarim2022.pdf">grown slowly</a> but steadily. In 2022, a total of 73,000 migrants in Israel worked as caregivers, in addition to nearly 50,000 in the construction and agriculture sectors combined. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man stands in a bombs shelter." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579974/original/file-20240305-26-efvsos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579974/original/file-20240305-26-efvsos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579974/original/file-20240305-26-efvsos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579974/original/file-20240305-26-efvsos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579974/original/file-20240305-26-efvsos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579974/original/file-20240305-26-efvsos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579974/original/file-20240305-26-efvsos.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Thai worker takes shelter in an underground bunker in Metula, Israel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/thai-workers-take-shelter-in-an-underground-bunker-after-news-photo/1720607203?adppopup=true">Marcus Yam/ LA Times via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet these migrants did not obviate the need to also have <a href="https://kavlaoved.org.il/en/areasofactivity/palestinian-workers/">Palestinian labor</a> in the mix. By Oct. 7, 2023, about 100,000 Palestinian workers crossed the border daily from Gaza and the West Bank.</p>
<h2>In harm’s way</h2>
<p>Since Oct. 7, Israeli authorities have ended those Palestinians’ work permits and tried to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-plans-bring-more-foreign-workers-construction-sector-report-2024-01-01/">recruit thousands of new workers</a> to the fields and construction sites to make up for the shortfall. </p>
<p>Malawi, a country that <a href="https://www.academia.edu/8987110/Independent_Africans_Migration_from_Colonial_Malawi_to_South_Africa_c_1935_1961">came to depend</a> on migrants’ economic remittances decades before Thailand did, has sent 700 farmworkers and <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/malawi-parliament-allows-labor-export-to-israel-/7490863.html">promises</a> another 9,000 on the way – notwithstanding <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLjNqFY4_Dk">criticism</a> from voices within the African nation itself. </p>
<p>In India, which had long sent caregivers to Israel, the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi <a href="https://www.bwint.org/cms/india-unions-denounce-govt-plan-to-send-migrant-construction-workers-to-israel-3017">ignored internal criticism</a> and sent Israel more workers in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack, including <a href="https://www.livemint.com/news/india/who-was-pat-nibin-maxwell-indian-from-kerala-killed-as-hezbollah-launches-airstrikes-in-israel-11709631189269.html">Pat Nibin Maxwell</a>, the man killed in the March 4 Hezbollah attack.</p>
<p>Workers like Maxwell are now being sent to work near the borders of Lebanon and Gaza, laboring in agricultural communities vulnerable to Hamas and Hezbollah attacks that have been <a href="https://www.haaretz.co.il/news/politics/2024-03-04/ty-article/0000018e-09d0-d6be-afff-4dd174310000">depleted by the evacuation</a> of Israeli residents.</p>
<p>Though foreign governments are able to guarantee their citizens few protections in Israel, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/02/17/1229525320/india-israel-hamas-war-jobs-migrant-workers">thousands have queued up</a> in their home countries in search of a contract. </p>
<p>Once in Israel, they join the vast majority of migrant workers who have elected to remain in the country despite the Oct. 7 attack and its aftermath.</p>
<p>Like millions of migrant workers the world over in search of economic progress or survival, they have calculated, for now, that earning higher wages abroad is worth taking significant personal risks. </p>
<p>While helping keep the Israeli economy running during wartime, these migrant workers remain in the path of rockets – as the death of Pat Nibin Maxwell has illustrated.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221088/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shahar Shoham previously worked at Physicians for Human Rights-Israel </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julie Weise does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The contours of the Middle East conflict have long influenced Israel’s migrant worker policy.Julie Weise, Associate Professor of History, University of OregonShahar Shoham, Doctoral Candidate in Global and Area Studies at the Institute for Asian and African Studies, Humboldt University of BerlinLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2219362024-03-01T13:34:06Z2024-03-01T13:34:06ZMy Malaysia ordeal shows how religion can fuse with populist nationalism to silence dissent<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578729/original/file-20240228-16-yogbdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C119%2C5720%2C3673&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Malaysian Islamists rally in favor of sharia law on Nov. 20, 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/malaysia-islamist-party-supporters-held-a-rally-to-protect-news-photo/1793715130?adppopup=true">Zahim Mohd/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I hadn’t expected my book tour in Malaysia to end with a confrontation with men who identified themselves as police in a Kuala Lumpur airport.</p>
<p>I arrived in the Muslim-majority country in early January 2024 to promote <a href="https://bookshop.irfront.net/product/islam-autoritarianisme-dan-kemunduran-bangsa-suatu-perbandingan-global-dan-pensejarahan/">the Malay translation</a> of my book “<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/universitypress/subjects/politics-international-relations/comparative-politics/islam-authoritarianism-and-underdevelopment-global-and-historical-comparison?format=PB">Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment</a>,” an academic analysis of the political and socioeconomic crises facing many Muslim societies today.</p>
<p>But my visit attracted unwarranted <a href="https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/692340">attention</a>. Some conservatives and Islamists labeled me in <a href="https://www.facebook.com/share/p/osCx6x9uHoeziJ7a/?mibextid=I6gGtw">social media</a> a “<a href="https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2024/01/22/im-a-practising-muslim-and-oppose-secularism-says-academic/">liberal</a>” – a term used by <a href="https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2015/01/18/doubting-religious-authorities-part-of-liberalism-jakim-dg-says/821833">Malaysia’s federal agency</a> administering Islamic affairs to denote those against the official religion, Sunni Islam. This was followed by <a href="https://www.themalaysianinsight.com/s/480031">the cancellation</a> of my book launch <a href="https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2024/01/06/book-launch-by-us-academic-cancelled-after-pressure-from-conservatives/">event</a>.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, I continued my program of other talks. Two men who identified themselves as <a href="https://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/693049">police officers came</a> to my last event and questioned my publisher.</p>
<p>The following day, the same men <a href="https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid02qwLXFcVopg33CF879Ri9av8AJ9GvGQzbqZqcBF3Gi9jgZqSsmEM19kewCoUkAD4ul&id=100012201094873">interrogated me and tried to seize my passport</a> in Kuala Lumpur International Airport as I was due to embark on a flight to Pakistan. Concerned over my safety, I canceled a series of talks planned for <a href="https://thefridaytimes.com/11-Jan-2024/thinkfest-2024-set-to-bring-dynamic-lineup-of-academics-and-thought-leaders-to-lahore">Lahore</a> and Islamabad and returned home to the United States.</p>
<p>When the incident became <a href="https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2024/01/11/us-scholar-claims-he-feared-arrest-at-klia/">national news</a>, <a href="https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/malaysia-police-commission-ipcc-misconduct-4050961">Malaysia’s</a> police inspector-general <a href="https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2024/01/11/us-based-academic-not-on-police-radar-says-igp/">denied that officers were sent to confront me</a>. Yet, a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/story.php/?story_fbid=685001657151111&id=100069238491031&paipv=0&eav=AfYy1uNmtR1OBKb9QhQJU0WcL8AMkNYPwJM-g8bNXTmx3MHzysTnZX362yo7MfSNK14&_rdr">human rights group</a> has called for a <a href="https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2024/01/14/ask-igp-to-name-cop-who-approached-scholar-at-klia-ngo-tells-ipcc">more thorough investigation</a> into <a href="https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/693137">my case</a>.</p>
<p>As a scholar of <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/secularism-and-state-policies-toward-religion/10F825409B3B7E7C3B35C443B1B6FF17">religion and politics in comparative perspective</a>, I don’t see my ordeal as an isolated example of religious intolerance in Muslim-majority countries. Instead, it taps into something wider.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw8QL6elUSI&t=17s">My research</a> shows that there is a rising <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0w4DikCK4Y&list=PLtoVEQO2iwNtOymVhfS9pMeP5z7WrYTFz&index=31">global trend</a> against dissenting and minority religious views. Analyzing this trend is crucial to understand why right-wing populist leaders are now ruling diverse countries, such as <a href="https://www.mei.edu/publications/religion-nationalism-and-populism-turkey-under-akp">Turkey</a>, <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/world-report/articles/2023-05-18/putin-appeals-to-russian-church-as-dangers-to-his-regime-grow">Russia</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/28/israelis-benjamin-netanyahu-democracy-protests-donald-trump">Israel</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/30/world/canada/modi-canada-hindu-nationalism.html">India</a>, and how they may come to power in other places, including <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/20/donald-trump-allies-christian-nationalism-00142086">the United States</a>. </p>
<p>All these countries have recently experienced the combination of three movements: religious conservatism, nationalism and populism.</p>
<h2>Religion and nationalism: Old enemies, new allies</h2>
<p>In both Christian and Muslim history, nationalism emerged in reaction to the religious establishment. Scholars of nationalism such as <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/products/1126-imagined-communities">Benedict Anderson</a> explain its origins in Europe after the 16th century by the expansion of vernacular languages, national churches and nation-states at the expense of Latin, the Vatican and divinely ordained dynasties. </p>
<p>Similarly, in many Muslim-majority countries, there was a tension between <a href="https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-secularism-in-the-arab-world.html">Islamists and nationalists</a>. The Islamists pushed for traditional religious education and Islamic law, and emphasized global Islamic identity. Nationalists, however, modernized schools, established secular laws and stressed national identity.</p>
<p>This tension continued throughout the 20th century in <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/kuru15932">Turkey</a>, where nationalists led by <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1ch7679">Mustafa Kemal Ataturk</a> founded a secular republic in the 1920s. There was a similar struggle in Egypt between the Islamist <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-two-islamic-groups-fell-from-power-to-persecution-egypts-muslim-brotherhood-and-turkeys-gulenists-120800">Muslim Brotherhood</a> and the nationalist military officers who built the republic under the leadership of secularist <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvc7728b">Gamal Abdel Nasser</a> in the 1950s.</p>
<p>Today, however, religious and nationalist forces are often political allies. For a decade, such an alliance has existed in Russia between the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/9/far-from-harmless-patriarch-kirill-backs-putins-war-but-at-what-cost">Orthodox Patriarch Kirill and President Vladimir Putin</a>. Laws punishing <a href="https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-prosecuting-insults-to-religious-feelings/28678284.html#">insults to religious feelings</a> have been <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-22090308">expanded</a>, and <a href="https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2017/04/14/patriarch-kirill-from-ambitious-reformer-to-state-hardliner-a57725">Orthodox Christian values</a> returned to school curricula.</p>
<p>Analysts define <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/18/world/europe/ukraine-war-russian-orthodox-church.html">Kirill’s strong support</a> for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as a reflection of <a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2022-03-29/russian-orthodox-patriarch-offers-a-spiritual-defense-of-the-war-in-ukraine">the nationalist ideology they share</a>.</p>
<p>In Turkey, the main religious authority is <a href="https://www.diyanet.gov.tr/en-US/Home/Index/">Diyanet</a>, a government agency that controls mosques and pays the salaries of their imams. Although the Diyanet <a href="https://www.swp-berlin.org/publications/products/arbeitspapiere/CATS_Working_Paper_Nr_2__Guenter_Seufert.pdf">was established by Ataturk</a> to serve secular nationalist policies, it has become <a href="https://360info.org/how-religion-still-means-power-in-secular-turkey/">an important pillar</a> of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government, which mixes Islamism with nationalism. While Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party represents Islamism, its coalition partner for a decade, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/5/16/in-turkeys-elections-nationalism-is-the-real-winner">Nationalist Action Party</a>, has an explicitly nationalist agenda. </p>
<p>In the Arab world, there was a wrangling between Nasser’s secular nationalist Egypt and the Islamic state of Saudi Arabia <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/29/opinion/international/nasr-islamic-comrades-no-more.html">in the 1950s and 1960s</a>. No longer. Egypt, which has moved to Islamism with a constitution referring to sharia <a href="https://blog-iacl-aidc.org/2021-posts/29-6-21-the-egyptian-supreme-constitutional-courts-interpretation-of-the-islamic-sharia-as-a-constitutional-check-mrbng">as the source of law since 1980</a>, and Saudi Arabia, which has recently become <a href="https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/mbs-behind-saudi-nationalist-surge-by-bernard-haykel-2023-09">less Islamist and more nationalist</a> through Crown Prince <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/mec/2020/05/05/the-new-populist-nationalism-in-saudi-arabia-imagined-utopia-by-royal-decree/">Mohammed bin Salman</a>’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1HfRhfHwUc&t=744s">reforms</a>, are now <a href="https://apnews.com/article/egypt-saudi-arabia-sissi-bin-salman-economy-0ae05c6dbe715433015db07ef97519bb">regional allies</a>.</p>
<h2>The age of populist leaders</h2>
<p>What explains this transformation in the relationship between religion and nationalism? I believe that populism is the glue that brings them together.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/22/populism-concept-defines-our-age">Populists</a> often claim that they are defending “the people” against both elites and minorities, especially immigrants.</p>
<p>Recently, populist nationalist leaders have used religious symbols to mobilize their followers. For example, in 2016, <a href="https://unherd.com/2022/02/putins-spiritual-destiny/">Putin</a> established an <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/in-political-move-russian-patriarch-blesses-putin-backed-paris-church/a-36633675">Orthodox Cathedral in Paris</a> on the banks of the Seine River, near the Eiffel Tower. And in 2020, Erdogan declared the <a href="https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/responses/hagia-sophia-islamism-and-secularism-in-turkey">Hagia Sophia a mosque again</a> – it had been a church for over a millennium until the Ottoman conquest of Istanbul in 1453 and a mosque for about 500 years until Ataturk made it a museum.</p>
<p>Most recently, on Jan. 22, 2024, India Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/22/modi-inaugurates-hindu-temple-on-site-of-razed-mosque-in-india">a Hindu temple in Ayodhya</a> on the site of a mosque that had been built in 1528 but <a href="https://thewire.in/communalism/babri-masjid-the-timeline-of-a-demolition">violently destroyed</a> in 1992 by Hindu radicals, after a century of controversies over the land.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man walks in a white robe in front of people dressed in orange and a temple." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579083/original/file-20240301-24-vl5dty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579083/original/file-20240301-24-vl5dty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579083/original/file-20240301-24-vl5dty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579083/original/file-20240301-24-vl5dty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579083/original/file-20240301-24-vl5dty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579083/original/file-20240301-24-vl5dty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579083/original/file-20240301-24-vl5dty.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi opens a Hindu temple in Ayodhya, India.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IndiaElectionTemple/d3dde6bfe9034a4da87c29bfc954b254/photo?Query=Modi%20temple&mediaType=photo&sortBy=creationdatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=424&currentItemNo=46">AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And while former U.S. President Donald Trump did not establish a cathedral, he did give a photo-op holding up <a href="https://slate.com/human-interest/2020/06/the-inconceivable-strangeness-of-trumps-bible-photo-op.html">a Bible at a crucial moment</a> – during the Black Lives Matter protests in June 2020 – as a sign of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/02/us/politics/trump-holds-bible-photo.html">his religious politics against the protesters</a>.</p>
<p>In such acts, populist leaders aim to incorporate religion and nationalism to serve their political agenda. Yet, for religious minorities, this symbolism may imply that they are secondary citizens.</p>
<h2>The future of religious minorities</h2>
<p>In several countries, the alliances between religious forces and populist nationalists have threatened <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYDUnk5RSj4&list=PLtoVEQO2iwNtOymVhfS9pMeP5z7WrYTFz&index=8&t=263s">minority rights</a>.</p>
<p>One such case is <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5bbb229a29f2cc31b47fa99c/t/5c862a2053450a49a40c191d/1552296484138/Malaysia-Freedom-of-religion-brief-Advocacy-Analysis-brief-2019-ENG.pdf">Malaysia</a>, an <a href="https://www.dosm.gov.my/portal-main/release-content/key-findings-population-and-housing-census-of-malaysia-2020-administrative-district">ethnically and religiously diverse</a> country, where Muslim Malays are the majority, while Buddhist, Christian and Hindu communities constitute a third of society.</p>
<p>As I learned during my recent visit, Islam is at the center of political debates about nationalism in Malaysia. For example, on Jan. 13, 2024, Mahathir Mohamad, the once powerful former prime minister, said ethnically Chinese and Indian citizens of Malaysia are not fully “<a href="https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2024/01/1000806/tun-m-believes-malaysian-indians-chinese-not-completely-loyal-country">loyal to the country</a>” and offered <a href="https://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/693114">assimilation</a> as a <a href="https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2024/01/1001858/anwar-dr-mahathir-all-non-malays-are-disloyal-except-his-cronies">solution</a>.</p>
<p>Assimilation of ethnic minorities into the majority may not be limited by language and culture, because the country’s constitution connects Islam and the Malay identity, stating: “<a href="https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Malaysia_2007">Malay means a person who professes the religion of Islam</a>, habitually speaks the Malay language, conforms to Malay custom.” </p>
<p>For Malays and converts, leaving Islam officially is not an option – both <a href="https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2018/02/27/sarawak-shariah-court-can-hear-apostasy-cases-rules-apex-court/">civil courts</a> and <a href="https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2023/07/24/judicial-review-needed-as-shariah-court-dismissal-of-womans-apostasy-bid-irrational-appellate-court-told/81473">sharia courts</a> have rejected that in various cases.</p>
<p>The strong connection between <a href="https://fulcrum.sg/islamisation-in-malaysia-beyond-umno-and-pas/">religion and Malay nationalism</a> has helped Islamic authorities, such as <a href="https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2019/08/27/sis-fails-to-quash-selangor-fatwa/">sharia courts</a> and <a href="https://southeastasiaglobe.com/moral-policing-a-rise-in-state-religious-enforcement-is-shaking-multicultural-malaysia/">sharia police</a>, expand their influence. <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2023/08/the-rise-and-rise-of-malaysias-nationalist-right-wing/">Increasing Islamization</a> of Malaysian government, however, is <a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/malaysia-s-pas-has-tough-task-to-woo-non-muslim-voters-analysts-say">a worry for non-Muslim minorities</a>. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Muslim minorities are worried about their rights in several non-Muslim countries ruled by populist nationalists.</p>
<p>According to democracy watchdog Freedom House, in India, Modi’s government has pursued <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/country/india/freedom-world/2023">discriminatory policies against the Muslim minority</a> of about <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/india-muslims-marginalized-population-bjp-modi">200 million people</a>. These policies have included <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/02/india-authorities-must-immediately-stop-unjust-targeted-demolition-of-muslim-properties/">the destruction</a> of <a href="https://scroll.in/bulletins/340/introducing-the-smart-shopper-get-deals-on-150000-brands-and-support-independent-journalism">Muslim properties</a> to the extent that bulldozers became “<a href="https://time.com/6303571/how-bulldozers-became-a-symbol-of-anti-muslim-sentiment-in-india/">Hindu-nationalist</a>” and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/25/nyregion/bulldozer-indian-parade-new-jersey.html">“anti-Muslim” symbols in India</a>.</p>
<p>In the United States, Trump’s anti-immigrant policies included the so-called “<a href="https://www.amnesty.org.uk/licence-discriminate-trumps-muslim-refugee-ban">Muslim ban</a>” – <a href="https://www.aclu.org/news/immigrants-rights/the-enduring-harms-of-trumps-muslim-ban">an executive order</a> that barred nationals of certain Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States. While campaigning for the upcoming 2024 elections, Trump <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-bring-back-travel-ban-muslim-countries/">vowed to bring back the ban in an expanded manner</a>.</p>
<p>As the experience of many countries around the world shows, the trend of advancing a religious-nationalist agenda restricts minority voices. This trend constitutes a major challenge to the ideals of democracy and equality of citizens worldwide.</p>
<p>These concerns are also personal for me: As a Muslim American, I want to both keep enjoying equal citizenship in the United States and give talks about Islam in Muslim-majority countries without being harassed by the police.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221936/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ahmet T. Kuru does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Religion and nationalism were once ideologies at odds. Now, they are increasingly bedfellows, with populism often the glue.Ahmet T. Kuru, Professor of Political Science, San Diego State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2220922024-02-29T17:37:32Z2024-02-29T17:37:32ZIndians are fleeing their growing economy to work abroad – even in conflict zones. Here’s how to create more jobs at home<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576217/original/file-20240216-18-l70jpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C59%2C7951%2C5237&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/people-workers-standing-line-outside-construction-728813566">Rahul Ramachandram/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Israel <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-68027582">plans</a> to bring in 70,000 workers from abroad, including 10,000 from India, to boost its construction sector. A labour shortage has emerged after 80,000 Palestinian workers were barred from entering the country after the October 7 Hamas-led attacks.</p>
<p>Figures suggest that India is one of the <a href="https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/mi/research-analysis/india-seizes-crown-of-fastest-growing-g20-economy-dec23.html">fastest-growing</a> economies in the world. Between July and September of 2023, it grew at a pace of 7.6%. If it continues along this current growth trajectory, India will become the world’s <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/benjaminlaker/2024/02/23/india-to-become-third-largest-economy-by-2027-implications-for-leaders/">third-largest</a> economy by 2027.</p>
<p>The fact that thousands of Indian workers are nonetheless queuing up to secure a job in a conflict zone abroad is a consequence of a jobs crisis at home. Despite the country’s apparent economic growth, many Indians – even those with a university degree – are struggling to secure stable employment.</p>
<p>Casual work makes up <a href="https://eastasiaforum.org/2023/04/10/indias-workforce-woes/#:%7E:text=About%2052%20per%20cent%20of,cent%20are%20regular%20salaried%20workers.">25% of the workforce</a>, while only 23% of workers are paid a regular salary. The remainder are self-employed, and quite vulnerable to irregular and insecure income too.</p>
<p>But India has a large working-age population (people between 15 and 64 years of age), so the demand for jobs is immense. India needs to create an <a href="https://eastasiaforum.org/2023/04/10/indias-workforce-woes/">estimated</a> 10 million to 12 million jobs each year for the unemployed, new workforce entrants, and surplus agricultural workers to be able to secure non-farm work.</p>
<p>How can India provide jobs for its increasingly educated young? It needs even faster economic growth and for this growth to be labour intensive. This will, in turn, generate demand in the economy from all sections of society (not just the middle class and above).</p>
<h2>Structural change</h2>
<p>Between 2004 and 2014, India’s economy grew at a rate of <a href="https://thewire.in/economy/modi-claims-india-saw-a-lost-decade-between-2004-and-14-is-that-true">nearly 8% per year</a> (despite the global financial crisis in 2008). This rapid growth was accompanied by a hastening of structural change in employment.</p>
<p>During that period, the economy created on average <a href="https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/ijlaec/v64y2021i2d10.1007_s41027-021-00317-x.html">7.5 million</a> new non-farm jobs every year. The number of manufacturing jobs in India rose from 53 million in 2004 to 60 million by 2012.</p>
<p>However, ₹500 (£4.78) and ₹1000 (£9.56) notes were <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.34.1.55">taken out of circulation</a> in 2016, making 86% of India’s currency illegal. The cash recall was intended to accelerate the country’s transition towards a formal economy. But it led to acute shortages of cash, destroying jobs in the construction and manufacturing sectors.</p>
<p>Growth slowed to 2020 when, at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, the Indian government imposed a nationwide lockdown at <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-52081396">four hours’ notice</a>. The lockdown caused India’s gross domestic product (GDP) to <a href="https://www.indiabudget.gov.in/economicsurvey/">contract by 5.8%</a> – more than twice the rate at which the global economy shrank.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Six Indian police officers wearing masks and standing on a city street." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576586/original/file-20240219-22-2qhktj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576586/original/file-20240219-22-2qhktj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576586/original/file-20240219-22-2qhktj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576586/original/file-20240219-22-2qhktj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576586/original/file-20240219-22-2qhktj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576586/original/file-20240219-22-2qhktj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576586/original/file-20240219-22-2qhktj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Police in Gujarat, India, enforcing the COVID lockdown.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/bharuch-gujarat-india-april-05-2020-1702650391">Kunal Mahto/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Employment in manufacturing jobs fell again, especially in labour-intensive manufacturing where employment had already been in decline for five years following the botched implementation of demonetisation. Around <a href="https://thewire.in/economy/what-we-know-about-indias-post-covid-economy-recovery-and-rising-inequality">60 million workers</a> returned to jobs in agriculture, reversing the structural change in employment that had been underway for 15 years.</p>
<p>To take advantage of its bulging working-age population, India needs to create more non-farm jobs. In his new book, “Breaking the Mould”, the former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Raghuram Rajan, <a href="https://www.penguin.co.in/book/breaking-the-mould/">says</a> that India needs to focus on exports of services, drawing on the country’s new digital infrastructure and IT-based services growth for the domestic (and export) market.</p>
<p>But a focus on services alone will not suffice. This “New India” economy currently constitutes <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/indian-economy-gdp-growth-capex-global-market-share-digital-public-infrastructure-9073549/">less than 15%</a> of the country’s economy and a fraction of that in employment. Such a strategy will generate jobs mainly for highly skilled people, rather than the millions of Indian workers that are searching for non-farm jobs.</p>
<p>What India needs is a <a href="https://www.eastasiaforum.org/2022/02/03/make-in-india-a-work-in-progress/">manufacturing strategy</a> akin to China’s that focuses on labour-intensive manufacturing. China has pursued an industrial policy since the 1950s, which has become even more evolved since the 1980s, helping the country establish dominance in global high-tech manufacturing.</p>
<h2>Creating jobs in India</h2>
<p>In India, the demand for jobs will only be met if several different factors come together. Construction activity needs to continue at its current brisk pace. But, for the next year or two, it must be led by public sector investment as private investment remains sluggish. </p>
<p>India’s investment-to-GDP ratio is <a href="https://www.indiabudget.gov.in/economicsurvey/">still below 30%</a>, and has remained below the 31% inherited by the current government when it came to power ten years ago. The potential for a twofold increase in construction employment (a trend that was observed between 2004 and 2012) over the next five years hinges on the revival of private investment.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of workers in hi-vis jackets at a construction site." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576587/original/file-20240219-28-phmg80.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576587/original/file-20240219-28-phmg80.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576587/original/file-20240219-28-phmg80.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576587/original/file-20240219-28-phmg80.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576587/original/file-20240219-28-phmg80.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576587/original/file-20240219-28-phmg80.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576587/original/file-20240219-28-phmg80.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Labour workers building an overhead metro in Bangalore, India.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/bangalore-karnataka-india-january-21-2014-282302282">PI/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Labour-intensive manufacturing by micro, small and medium enterprises also needs a sustained fillip. The government’s focus is currently on large companies – so-called “national champions” like industrial conglomerates Tata and Mahindra – which are being encouraged through <a href="https://thewire.in/political-economy/why-the-modi-government-policy-of-national-champions-is-unravelling">subsidies</a>.</p>
<p>If these subsidies were instead redirected towards smaller enterprises, they might do more for employment generation. Large corporations <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/planning-in-the-20th-century-and-beyond/817DA53ABC693583B3E3D052CA5B2CE5#fndtn-information">typically</a> use highly capital-intensive methods of production, whereas smaller ones tend to absorb more labour. Historically, it is the latter that has generated <a href="https://archive.org/details/developmentwithh0000unse/mode/2up">most</a> of the non-farm jobs in developing countries.</p>
<p>The third area where employment can be generated is, indeed, services. Public expenditure should prioritise public health, education, vocational training and universities.</p>
<p>These sectors are labour-intensive, contribute to the creation of public goods, and will build the human capital needed by both manufacturing and modern export-oriented services. That is the only way India’s health and education services can reach the <a href="https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/385696/hcd-sa.pdf">levels observed</a> in east Asia and attract more foreign investment.</p>
<p>A renewed focus on smaller enterprises across these sectors is needed. Inclusive growth requires providing jobs rapidly at the bottom of the pyramid, not only at the top of the wage – and skill – distribution.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222092/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Santosh Mehrotra does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>India needs to follow a path akin to China’s to find answers to its job woes.Santosh Mehrotra, Visiting Professor at the Centre for Development Studies, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2217152024-01-30T13:34:33Z2024-01-30T13:34:33ZThe opening of India’s new Rama temple made waves – but here’s what the central ritual actually meant<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571512/original/file-20240125-15-t0kpkc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C13%2C2261%2C1493&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Prime Minister Narendra Modi, center left, performs rituals during the opening of the temple dedicated to Lord Ram in Ayodhya, India, on Jan. 22, 2024.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IndiaHinduTemple/8ee5a9844b5f4124965e6fd8b2525d08/photo?Query=rama%20temple%20india%20modi&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=648&digitizationType=Digitized&currentItemNo=NaN&vs=true&vs=true">Press Information Bureau via AP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The consecration rituals of the icon of Lord Rama were performed in a newly built mega-temple in the town of Ayodhya, India, on Jan. 22, 2024. The prime minister of India, Narendra Modi, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMumilPMcfs">performed the rituals</a> during a <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/what-is-ram-mandir-pran-pratishthas-abhijeet-muhurat-which-will-last-84-seconds-101705901568681.html">48-minute period considered auspicious</a> by Hindu astrologers. Lord Rama, an avatara or incarnation of Vishnu, is one of the most important deities in the Hindu tradition.</p>
<p>Amid the carefully staged pageantry, the media’s hysteria over the guest lists and the celebrations of <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-news/ram-mandir-celebrations-in-us-car-rally-organised-at-golden-gate-bridge-with-tesla-light-show-101705896670586.html">exultant Hindus</a> – not just in India but <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X437KhS9Wl4">from Golden Gate Bridge to Times Square</a> – the religious significance of the rituals, known in Sanskrit as “prana pratishtha,” or “establishment of breath,” was completely lost. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/others/ram-lalla-s-idol-from-makeshift-temple-shifted-to-sanctumsanctorum-101705860918400.html">Media all around the world, particularly in India, referred</a> to the icon of Lord Rama as an <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/india/why-indias-new-ram-temple-matters-dispute-behind-it-2024-01-22">“idol</a>.” However, the term does not capture the Hindu belief that matter transforms into divine reality during this ritual. Although there are many nuanced Sanskrit words, there is no English term that does justice. In fact, the word “idol” has pejorative implications. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://religion.ufl.edu/directory/vasudha-narayanan/">professor of religion</a> who has studied the religious significance of deities in temples, I want to highlight this important ritual, which is said to transform the material image. </p>
<h2>From matter to deity</h2>
<p>The ritual of “prana pratishtha” is a culmination of several days or even weeks of preparation. At crucial moments during the performance of the ritual, many Hindus, though not all, believe that the divine being comes to abide in a carefully carved icon. </p>
<p>In an idea roughly analogous to <a href="https://www.usccb.org/eucharist">transubstantiation</a> in the Catholic Church – where, when the priest consecrates the bread and wine, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23013382">the whole substance of the bread and wine</a> is believed to become the body of Christ – through prana pratishtha, the material icon becomes a divine presence.</p>
<p>Although several Hindu texts speak of the supreme being as being beyond form, gender and even number, paradoxically, Hindus also see the supreme entity as graciously taking a “material” form and <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Gods_of_Flesh_Gods_of_Stone/LD91JTIl8uIC?hl=en&gbpv=1">abiding in a temple as an incarnate deity worthy of worship</a>. </p>
<p>Despite textual and regional variations, there are many common practices in this ritual. During the process of prana pratishtha, this image carved by a master sculptor is initially purified, then covered in <a href="https://www.republicworld.com/india/ram-mandir-interesting-facts-rituals-for-19th-20th-and-21st-jan-details-inside/">water, grains, fragrant substances, herbs, flowers and other materials</a>. In doing so, it is said to absorb the energies of the universe. Texts called “<a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Classical_Hindu_Mythology/zobyDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=cornelia+dimmitt&printsec=frontcover">Puranas</a>” and “<a href="https://www.wisdomlib.org/definition/agama">Agamas</a>,” composed in the first millennium C.E., give many details for the procedure. </p>
<p>There are fire sacrifices in a pavilion outside, the deity is taken formally into the temple and also in a <a href="https://thedailyguardian.com/ram-lallas-pran-pratistha-the-grandeur-of-ayodhya-dham-is-increasing-every-moment/#google_vignette">procession through the town</a>, and there is recitation of mantras.</p>
<p>Precious stones and metals, as well as a yantra, a metal plate with geometrical drawings, are buried in the ground in the inner shrine where the deity is to be installed. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/ram-lalla-eyes-mandir-idol-pran-pratishtha-sculptor-arun-yogiraj-ayodhya-temple-shwet-shila-2492448-2024-01-23">The eyes of the icon are also ritually opened</a>. Since the unrestricted power or “shakti” of the deity is believed to blaze out through its gaze, a mirror is held in front of it both to guide the sculptor in opening the eyes carefully and also to reflect the power back to it. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PtVX2Fhx0Q">In Ayodhya, a scarf was removed from the eyes of the deity</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BQGTmW10NZQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The consecration ceremony at the Rama temple in Ayodhya.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the crucial time, the chief priest invokes the divine being, inviting it to abide in the icon. With the opening of the eyes and the invoking and transfer of breath, the material icon is said to be transformed into an incarnation of the deity. </p>
<h2>Controversies over the temple land</h2>
<p>The “prana pratishtha” rituals have been done in thousands of temples in India and globally. But the Ayodhya one has arguably drawn the most attention politically and has also been the most controversial. </p>
<p>The new temple has been built on the land where <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-IRTB-17391">a 16th century mosque – the Babri Masjid – was destroyed by Hindu activists in December 1992</a>. Some Hindus claim that the mosque had been built by razing a 15th century Rama temple, said to be the site of his birth. While there seems to be evidence that a temple stood where the mosque was built, scholars have disputed the claim that that <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3517901">spot was the very one where Rama was born</a>. Representatives of Jainism, another ancient religion of India, have also claimed that a <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/jain-body-claims-disputed-site-in-ayodhya/articleshow/39766315.cms?from=mdr">sixth century Jain temple</a> existed on this site before the mosque was built. <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Creating_a_Nationality/1hduAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0&bsq=Creating%20a%20Nationality:%20The%20Ramjanmabhumi%20Movement%20and%20Fear%20of%20the%20Self">Several scholars have argued</a> that the destruction of the mosque is directly connected with Hindu nationalism and communal violence.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571527/original/file-20240125-27-o148ri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Hindu worshippers stand above the top dome of an ancient mosque waving saffron flags." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571527/original/file-20240125-27-o148ri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571527/original/file-20240125-27-o148ri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571527/original/file-20240125-27-o148ri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571527/original/file-20240125-27-o148ri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571527/original/file-20240125-27-o148ri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571527/original/file-20240125-27-o148ri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571527/original/file-20240125-27-o148ri.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=488&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People atop the 16th century Babri mosque before the structure was demolished in 1992.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/in-this-file-photograph-taken-on-december-6-1992-hindu-news-photo/88756585?adppopup=true">Douglas E. Curran/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Hindus’ and Muslims’ rights to worship at the site have been litigated for more than a hundred years, and in 2019, the Supreme Court of India ruled that the <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/ayodhya-ram-mandir-babri-masjid-supreme-court-verdict-security-on-alert-1617220-2019-11-09">land be given to a Hindu trust</a> and a five-acre lot be given to the Muslims to build a mosque. Building the temple was started soon after this judgment. </p>
<p>Politically, the attention accompanying the rites highlighted the metaphor of Rama “<a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india/pm-narendra-modi-completes-ram-mandir-pran-pratishtha-ceremony-as-millions-celebrate-homecoming-of-ram-lalla-after-500-years/articleshow/107046063.cms?from=mdr">returning home</a>.” It refers to an incident in the story of Rama as told in the ancient epic, the “<a href="https://southasia.ucla.edu/religions/texts/ramayana/">Ramayana</a>,” when he is exiled from Ayodhya on the eve of his coronation and returns home after 14 years of exile.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.newsweek.com/new-yorks-times-square-witnesses-hindu-joy-over-ayodhya-temple-1862932">Devotees’ sentiments</a> as well as speeches at the inauguration of the temple spoke of Rama’s return to Ayodhya after 500 years of being banished from his birthplace. </p>
<p>It was a clear reference to what the government and many Hindus believed to be a return of Rama to Ayodhya after his presence was “banished” <a href="https://time.com/6564070/india-modi-temple-ram/">with the building of the mosque</a> in the 16th century. </p>
<h2>‘Not in our names’</h2>
<p>There were many <a href="https://www.hindusforhumanrights.org/en/blog/dont-weaponize-faith-huge-times-square-projection-denounces-modinbsppolitical-stunt-in-ram-temple-controversynbsp?fbclid=IwAR3NPFKp3yvOpzTlMBDHPJFsEFxAGSN5GBCbPD6WTJTbkPfhsnif3rNjtrw">Hindus who objected</a> to the <a href="https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/opinion/i-condemn-repudiate-what-is-being-done-in-the-name-of-hinduism-in-ayodhya">politicization of the event</a> as well as the active role of the government and its agencies in the ritual fanfare. Indian Air Force choppers <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india/video/iaf-pilots-showered-flowers-ram-mandir-pran-pratishtha-ceremony-ayodhya-2492123-2024-01-22">rained flowers on the temple after the consecration</a>. </p>
<p>Some observers, including outsiders sympathetic to Hinduism, saw these rituals as a <a href="https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/modi-is-god-a-jewish-perspective/">glorification of Modi, not Rama</a>. The event was also contested in religious circles. Several monastic heads refused to join the event, but a prominent Hindu writer said that these religious leaders were not representative of Hinduism and <a href="https://swarajyamag.com/commentary/shankaracharyas-hindu-unity-and-the-ayodhya-triumph-of-ram-bhaktas-a-closer-look">refuted their objections</a>. </p>
<p>Despite these controversies, for those Hindus who supported the building of the temple, it was a sacred moment. For during the prana pratishtha, the divine is said to become present in the icon, if the rituals are properly performed. The “idol” made of material substance is then transformed, and the temple becomes the home for the deity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221715/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vasudha Narayanan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A scholar of Hinduism explains the importance of the consecration ritual, which is believed to bring the presence of the divine into the temple.Vasudha Narayanan, Distinguished Professor of Religion, University of FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2220262024-01-30T10:53:31Z2024-01-30T10:53:31ZIndia: visa problems for English cricketer reflect a longstanding security rift with neighbouring Pakistan<p>Young England cricketer Shoaib Bashir arrived in Hyderabad just in time to see the team triumph in style, inflicting a rare and unexpected victory against an Indian side considered nigh on unbeatable on its home turf. Bashir, a 20-year-old spin bowler who had been a surprise selection when the team was announced at the beginning of January, missed the first Test match because his Indian visa had been delayed.</p>
<p>This is not the first time a visiting cricketer has had visa problems in India. The same has happened to English cricketers Moeen Ali and Saqib Mahmood, while Australian opening batsman Usman Khawaja was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/feb/01/usman-khawaja-stranded-in-australia-with-visa-issues-ahead-of-india-tour">forced to wait 24 hours</a> before joining his teammates for a tour of India in February 2023. These are all cricketers with Pakistani heritage. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, during the cricket World Cup hosted by India in October 2023, visas for the Pakistan team were <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/25/india-visa-delay-disrupts-pakistans-cricket-world-cup-2023-preparations#:%7E:text=Pakistan%20cricket%20team's%20preparations%20for,under%20way%20in%2010%20days.">subject to delays</a> while Pakistani fans and journalists were <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2023/10/14/pakistan-fans-glaring-absence-india-match-icc-cricket-world-cup-2023#:%7E:text=Cricket%20World%20Cup-,Pakistan%20fans%20a%20glaring%20absence%20at%20India%20Cricket%20World%20Cup,Cup's%20marquee%20clash%20in%20Ahmedabad.">effectively barred</a> from the tournament completely.</p>
<p>The World Cup ban for journalists and fans appears to be a reflection of the current acrimonious state of relations between India and Pakistan. But the difficulties experienced by overseas players of Pakistani origin reflects a longer-term Indian suspicion towards visitors with Pakistani roots and has a degree of justification.</p>
<p>Terror attacks in Mumbai in 2008, which claimed the lives of 166 people, were orchestrated by terrorists of the Pakistan-based <a href="https://www.csis.org/blogs/examining-extremism/examining-extremism-lashkar-e-taiba">Lashkar-e-Taiba</a> (LeT) in collusion with the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). But one operative responsible for conducting reconnaissance of the targets for attack was an American national of Pakistani origin named David Headley. Headley, in his visa application, had <a href="https://www.mha.gov.in/sites/default/files/RTI_IS-Idiv_130814_00002_1.PDF">concealed his Pakistani roots</a> and managed to visit India multiple times to reconnoitre the targets. </p>
<p>As a result, the Indian Home Ministry (MHA), which is in charge of internal security, decided to tighten the visa requirements. Since 2009, all visa applications made by people with Pakistani roots were to be vetted and cleared by the MHA – a process that can take up to 90 days.</p>
<p>Some observers have called this a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/aug/14/india-visa-rule-persecutes-pakistanis">“racist”</a> move directed squarely at Pakistanis that violates UK, European, and international human rights law. Others, meanwhile, have termed it “collective punishment” of the kind that is <a href="https://www.outlookindia.com/making-a-difference/as-if-we-are-all-david-headley-news-288058">often seen in South Asia</a>.</p>
<p>The US and UK governments <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/dec/21/britain-us-protest-india-tourism">lodged diplomatic protests</a> against India’s decision to tighten its visa rules, but the Indian government resisted the pressure. US citizens who complained to the US State Department were simply told that <a href="https://www.outlookindia.com/making-a-difference/as-if-we-are-all-david-headley-news-288058">India had a right to deny visas</a> as it chooses. </p>
<p>One reason for the western weakness in being able to press this issue with the Indian government was arguably because of their the west’s consistent failure in accommodating India’s counter-terrorism concerns over the years. Headley, for instance, was not only an LeT operative but <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/david-headley-homegrown-terrorist">also an agent</a> of the US government’s Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). Indian security agencies believe US intelligence could have done more <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/did-the-u-s-know-more-than-it-let-on-about-mumbai-attacks-suspect/">to help prevent the attack</a>. </p>
<p>Similarly, the UK had an unsympathetic attitude towards India’s security concerns about <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/dec/01/wikileaks-cables-india-mumbai-attacks">British Pakistanis</a>. Several requests by Indian intelligence officials to monitor suspected British Pakistanis had failed to elicit serious responses from their British counterparts.</p>
<p>Mindful of international pressure to <a href="https://www.livemint.com/Leisure/29lXP57cHDAloqUf2uJOHM/Why-India-didnt-attack-Pakistan-after-2611-Mumbai-attacks.html">exercise restraint</a> in the aftermath of the attacks, the then Manmohan Singh government instituted several defensive counter-terrorism measures, including the new visa rules. But <a href="https://www.mea.gov.in/Portal/ForeignRelation/Pakistan_April2014.pdf">India-Pakistan relations</a> remained active, despite the problem of cross-border terrorism. </p>
<h2>Modi’s neighbourhood policy</h2>
<p>After Modi came to power in 2014, despite his Hindu nationalist image, his government made peaceful overtures over the next couple of years in pursuit of what India called its <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Asian_foreign_policy_of_the_Narendra_Modi_government">“neighbourhood-first policy”</a>. This aimed to encourage cross-border cooperation and business enterprise across South Asia and focused on building deeper people-to-people ties.</p>
<p>But as terrorist attacks from Pakistan continued, India changed its tack to more forceful measures targeting terrorist bases within Pakistan. As a result, a new mantra became popular in Indian government circles: <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/home-minister-rajnath-singh-appeals-to-kashmiris-not-to-visit-gunfight-sites/articleshow/66334471.cms?from=mdr">“terror and talks cannot go together”</a>.</p>
<p>In August 2019, India overturned <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/11/whats-article-370-what-to-know-about-india-top-court-verdict-on-kashmir">Article 370</a>, which allowed it to split the contested state of Kashmir into two centrally administered provinces: Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. This angered the Pakistan government which felt it should have been consulted. Pakistan then announced any further security cooperation would be conditional on <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/pakistan-pmo-no-talks-unless-india-revokes-art-370-move/articleshow/97072776.cms?from=mdr">India’s restoration of Article 370</a>. Since then there has been a total standstill in bilateral relations.</p>
<h2>Focus on counter-terrorism</h2>
<p>Meanwhile a focus on regional counter-terrorism has become something of a mantra for Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Consistent with this, the Modi government declared <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/31/india-pro-israel-narendra-modi-bjp-government">support to Israel</a> following the October 7 attacks and to the recent Iranian air strikes against Pakistan, claiming <a href="https://www.mea.gov.in/response-to-queries.htm?dtl/37515/Official_Spokespersons_response_to_media_queries_regarding_Irans_air_strikes_in_Pakistan">“zero tolerance towards terrorism”</a>.</p>
<p>Seen within this paradigm, India’s approach towards Pakistan is unlikely to change as the country expects its general elections in April. Recent speeches by Indian officials <a href="https://www.mea.gov.in/Speeches-Statements.htm?dtl/37514/Remarks_by_MoS_Dr_Rajkumar_Ranjan_Singh_at_the_19th_NAM_Summit__Ministerial_Meeting">further indicate</a> that, while the neighbourhood continues to remain a high priority for Modi, it is <a href="https://www.mea.gov.in/Speeches-Statements.htm?dtl/34940/Remarks_by_Foreign_Secretary_at_the_Inaugural_Session_of_the_Training_Module_on_Indias_Neighbourhood_Lal_Bahadur_Shastri_National_Academy_of_Administr">“with the exception of Pakistan”</a>. </p>
<p>A poll taken in India in August 2023 reflected a <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2023/08/29/indians-views-of-other-countries/#:%7E:text=Indians'%20views%20of%20Pakistan,-Strained%20bilateral%20relations&text=About%20seven%2Din%2Dten%20Indians,view%20of%20the%20neighboring%20country.">growing public negativity</a> towards Pakistan. The Pew Foundation poll found that 73% were unfavourable towards Pakistan (57% very unfavourable). In light of this, in the run-up to the April election, Modi is likely to feel that any positive gestures towards Pakistan might by politically unviable. </p>
<p>It’s a similar situation in Pakistan in the run-up to the general election there in February. A <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-pakistani-election-looms-the-military-maintains-its-grip-on-the-countrys-politics-221395">hostile military</a> in control of domestic politics combined with <a href="https://www.samaa.tv/20873539-evolving-pakistani-views-on-india-kashmir-dispute-terrorism-and-diplomacy">strong anti-India public opinion</a> invalidate any prospects for reestablishing ties with India. This is despite the obvious need for <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/10/05/india-pakistan-imf-trade-border-kashmir-debt/">stronger economic cooperation with India</a> to ease its current domestic crisis.</p>
<p>So, given the strong likelihood of a <a href="https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/politics/story/a-hattrick-for-pm-modi-in-2024-lok-sabha-elections-almost-inevitable-says-this-british-paper-411430-2024-01-01">Modi victory</a> in April and Pakistan’s intransigence in <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/03/03/pakistan-terrorism-crisis-inconsistent-policy-military-economy/">sponsorship of terror outfits</a>, the visa hassles for Pakistanis or westerners with Pakistani roots are unlikely to stop any time soon.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222026/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dheeraj Paramesha does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>India changed its visa rules after the 2008 Mumbai massacre to make it more difficult for Pakistanis to visit.Dheeraj Paramesha, Lecturer in Intelligence, Security and Policing, School of Criminology, University of HullLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2216352024-01-22T16:09:39Z2024-01-22T16:09:39ZIn opening a Hindu temple on the site of a former mosque, Narendra Modi is following an old Hindu nationalist ploy<p>Pronouncing the fulfilment of “the dream that many have cherished for years”, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/22/modi-inaugurates-hindu-temple-on-site-of-razed-mosque-in-india">has inaugurated</a> a new Hindu temple at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh in the north of the country. It is built on the site of a mosque that was destroyed by Hindu nationalists more than 30 years ago. </p>
<p>When the Hindu nationalists demolished the 16th-century Babri Masjid mosque, they did so in the belief that it had been built by the Muslim Mughal emperor Babur on the site of an ancient Hindu temple that marked the birthplace of the god Ram. But the historical and archaeological evidence for the existence of this is <a href="https://thewire.in/history/babri-masjid-asi-excavation-ayodhya-ram-temple">hotly debated by experts</a>.</p>
<p>Modi has turned the consecration of the Ayodhya temple into a massive national event, inviting 8,000 VIPs including Bollywood stars, Hindu religious leaders, politicians and diplomats. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims also made their way to the town, which has received a US$3 billion (£2.35 billion) government-funded makeover. </p>
<p>Critics have condemned what they describe as a <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/ram-mandir-ayodhya-mamata-banerjee-bjp-politics-opposition-consecration-2486465-2024-01-09">politicisation of a religious event</a>, pointing to elections in April or May this year at which Modi will bid for a third term. Over his decade as prime minister, Modi has deliberately harnessed and encouraged Hindu nationalist aspirations for his own ends.</p>
<p>This event is undoubtedly aimed at energising Modi’s political base among Hindu nationalists. But there is more to this story than cynical electioneering.</p>
<p>The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), of which Modi is now the leader, has been advocating for decades for the construction of a Hindu temple on the site at Ayodhya. </p>
<p>In 1992, the party was a relatively minor player in a country dominated by the secular Indian National Congress. But in 2019, with Modi as prime minister, the Indian Supreme Court ruled that the temple could be built on the site. Plans for a new mosque were relocated nearby to a symbolically smaller patch of land.</p>
<h2>History of hatred</h2>
<p>Immediately after the mosque’s destruction in 1992, riots between Hindus and Muslims erupted across India. One Hindu nationalist vigilante later <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/feb/06/travel.features">defended his violence</a> in curious political terms: “Muslims … had no compunction about killing people, while a Hindu would pause before killing and ask himself why he was doing it.”</p>
<p>The moral relativism of this remarkable statement reflects an attitude that has been at the heart of Hindu nationalist politics from its inception. It is centred on the twin paranoias of Hindu disunity because of the ancient caste system and the illusion of Islamic unity (Indian Muslims are actually <a href="https://contendingmodernities.nd.edu/theorizing-modernities/modern-islam-story-south-asia/">doctrinally and politically divided</a>.</p>
<p>In 1923, these paranoias were systematically laid out by Hindu political philosopher Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in his <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essentials_of_Hindutva#">Essentials of Hindutva</a>. This book is widely seen as a foundational text of Hindu nationalism. Imprisoned from 1911 to 1937 for sedition by the British, Savarkar rapidly shifted his revolutionary zeal from opposing the European colonisers to repudiating India’s Muslims. </p>
<p>At odds with his attempts to make Muslims out to be a polluting foreign influence is the fact that the majority were not external invaders but <a href="https://thewire.in/caste/caste-among-indian-muslims-real-why-deny-reservation">Hindu converts</a> attempting to escape the caste system. The caste system perpetuated ideas of purity and pollution within the hierarchy. High castes enforced a range of occupational, hygiene, religious, and dietary practices on the lower castes through shame, sanctions and violence. </p>
<p>Accordingly, Savarkar believed that Muslim unity came from an immunity to shame. Observing Muslim inmates in his jail, he glibly attributed the violence of Muslim prison gangs to an impulse inherent in Islam. </p>
<p>With the same breath, he implored his Hindu inmates to jettison shame, mimic these traits and contemplate a violent politics of “cruelty” towards Muslims. In doing so, they would distract from caste divisions.</p>
<p>Savarkar exhorted Hindu society to discard Gandhi’s philosophy of passive resistance. Instead they should pursue a violent and “shameless” <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/historical-journal/article/glory-and-humiliation-in-the-making-of-v-d-savarkars-hindu-nationalism/B196AD5F952FF78DF066CC25E0D058E8#fn1">quest for Hindu fraternity</a> in which caste distinctions would disappear. Meanwhile, the once united Muslims would live as a humiliated and cowed community that no longer had the self-belief to challenge Hindu political power.</p>
<p>The destruction of mosques and construction of temples became key strategies for uniting Hindus by banishing caste differences in <a href="https://theprint.in/pageturner/excerpt/as-a-teenager-savarkar-tried-to-destroy-a-mosque-was-sad-hindus-werent-united/281796/">Savarkar’s ideology</a>. Some of the planned mega-temples would accommodate <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/historical-journal/article/glory-and-humiliation-in-the-making-of-v-d-savarkars-hindu-nationalism/B196AD5F952FF78DF066CC25E0D058E8">5,000 worshippers</a> from every caste. At the same time, tearing down Muslim heritage across India aimed to politically humiliate the seemingly unified Muslims and return political Hinduism “to its original glory”.</p>
<h2>Cynical politics</h2>
<p>Modi’s government and its Hindu nationalist surrogate organisations have put this ideology into practice. The inauguration of the Ayodhya temple has little to do with Hindu religious doctrine. Indeed, the government was criticised for trying to arrange the event before the temple’s “sanctum sanctorum” (holy of holies) was completed. </p>
<p>The BJP also failed to invite several key Hindu monastic organisations. Indeed, being overshadowed by high-caste Brahmin priests would distract from Modi’s populist brand built around him as a <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/modi-is-a-teli-ghanchi-obc-bjp/articleshow/34084111.cms">humble middle-caste tea salesman</a>. </p>
<p>Allied to this project are other strategies for forging Hindu unity while publicly humiliating Muslims. For instance, the arbitrary demolition of Muslim homes and businesses by mobs aided and abetted by local police. </p>
<p>These attacks occur when Muslims are deemed to have shown insufficient deference to Hindu sentiments – for example by eating beef or participating in anti-government protests. The bulldozer has since become a Hindu nationalist symbol and even internationalised by BJP troll-farms <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/9/4/modis-lesson-from-israel-demolish-muslim-homes-erase-their-history">supporting Israeli actions in Gaza</a>.</p>
<p>At first glance, the Ayodhya inauguration innocuously celebrates a new self-confident “Vatican for Hindus”. But we cannot forget its political motivations. If the violent destruction of a minority’s place of worship is given legal and political legitimacy in the name of Hindu nationalism, then democracy has given way to mob rule.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/bharat-why-the-recent-push-to-change-indias-name-has-a-hidden-agenda-213105">Bharat: why the recent push to change India's name has a hidden agenda</a>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vikram Visana received funding from the British Academy in the form of a Small Grant of £5300 from 2019-2023. </span></em></p>Modi is running for his third consecutive term of office, but many believe he plans to remain in power indefinitely.Vikram Visana, Lecturer in Political Theory, University of LeicesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2198112024-01-18T18:59:01Z2024-01-18T18:59:01ZWhy a controversial Hindu temple in India could prove pivotal to Narendra Modi’s party in upcoming elections<p>Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister, famously opposed government interference in the rebuilding of the Somnath temple, a popular religious site for the Hindus in Gujarat, because he saw the project as a <a href="https://www.theweek.in/news/india/2020/08/04/ram-mandir-precursor-how-a-nehru-govt-minister-helped-rebuild-somnath-temple.html">form of “Hindu revivalism”</a>. </p>
<p>In line with his idea of a secular India, Nehru wanted <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/research/hindu-revivalism-why-jawaharlal-nehru-disapproved-rajendra-prasads-presence-at-somnath-temple-inauguration-6539918/">complete separation of state and religion</a>. </p>
<p>There are no such qualms for the current prime minister, Narendra Modi, head of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Images of him <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/05/world/asia/modi-temple-ayodhya.html">were beamed live across the country in 2020</a> performing Hindu rituals during the foundation stone-laying ceremony of a grand temple dedicated to Lord Ram, a revered Hindu deity. </p>
<p>The half-completed temple, which will be the largest in India and will be <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/preparing-for-the-ram-temple-consecration-a-package/article67737059.ece">inaugurated</a> on Monday, has been built on the site of the 16th century Babri mosque, that was reduced to rubble by a Hindu mob in 1992. Violent riots followed, <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2020/08/18/mounting-majoritarianism-and-political-polarization-in-india-pub-82434">killing more than 2,000 people</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indias-top-court-halts-plans-survey-centuries-old-mosque-2024-01-16/">most of them minority Muslims</a>. </p>
<p>After a prolonged legal battle, the Indian Supreme Court in 2019 <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/ayodhya-verdict-understanding-the-supreme-court-judgment/story-G7mzXfBFEDJ88PmuLj8CpL.html">awarded the land</a> where the mosque once stood to Hindus for the building of a temple. </p>
<p>The inauguration of the temple comes at a pivotal time for the country, with elections due in a few months. It is likely to play a significant role in the upcoming polls, for three main reasons.</p>
<h2>Drawing Hindus together across castes</h2>
<p>First, the Ram Temple movement has allowed the BJP to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00856401.2015.1089460">unite</a> large sections of the Hindu population behind a singular political and religious goal, irrespective of caste considerations. Prior to this, mainly upper castes identified with its ideology. </p>
<p>To expand its voter base, the party resorted to a strategy of “<a href="https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/modi-spells-out-social-engineering-mantra-for-bjp-s-success-beyond-2024-123012200266_1.html">social engineering</a>”. <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/2658585">It went on a drive to recruit large numbers of leaders from lower castes</a> (or as they are known in India, “scheduled castes” and “other backward classes”) in order to project an image as a party representing all Hindus that wants to better living conditions for all. </p>
<p>The strategy was successful. Having won just two seats out of 543 in India’s parliament in 1984, the BJP became the single largest party in parliament in 1996, the first national election after the mosque demolition.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-hindu-nationalists-are-cheering-moves-to-build-a-temple-challenging-a-secular-tradition-126901">Why Hindu nationalists are cheering moves to build a temple, challenging a secular tradition</a>
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<p>Last October, an opposition-ruled state (Bihar) released a caste census, despite much push-back from the BJP. The census revealed that <a href="https://frontline.thehindu.com/politics/bihar-caste-survey-report-game-changer-in-indian-politics-results-challenge-bjp-hindutva-unity-narrative/article67402996.ece">63% of the state’s population belong to the “other backward classes”</a>. </p>
<p>This could be seen as damaging to the BJP as it shows the party hasn’t done enough to lift people out of poverty. There was always a demand for such surveys so that jobs could be reserved for the lower castes according to their actual share in population. The BJP has resisted them, however, fearing this would anger their upper caste supporters.</p>
<p>The opposition has promised similar nationwide surveys if it manages to defeat the BJP in the 2024 election. And it has <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/india/bihar/caste-survey-in-bihar-reveals-hiked-quotas-for-deprived-castes-in-2023-2818607">committed to distributing resources</a> in a more equitable way, if elected.</p>
<p>These developments have put the BJP’s mantra of Hindu unity on rather shaky ground. To ensure this doesn’t become a major election issue, BJP leaders will have to amplify the noise around the temple, demonstrating the unity of all Hindus irrespective of caste.</p>
<h2>Sectarian tensions bring out voters</h2>
<p>Second, sectarian tension has always <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/bjp-gains-in-polls-after-every-riot-says-yale-study/articleshow/45378840.cms">helped the BJP electorally</a>. Studies show that whenever there’s a riot in the year before an election, the party <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/100.00015051">gains an increase of 0.8% in the share of the vote</a>. </p>
<p>This is a substantial gain because in India’s first-past-the-post voting system, winning just 37% of the total votes in the 2019 parliamentary elections <a href="https://www.economist.com/leaders/2020/01/23/narendra-modi-stokes-divisions-in-the-worlds-biggest-democracy">ensured an overwhelming majority of seats</a> for Modi’s party. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-some-indians-want-to-change-the-countrys-name-to-bharat-213524">Why some Indians want to change the country's name to 'Bharat'</a>
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<p>Of course, not all Hindus support the Ram Temple. But the BJP is well aware that the number of Hindu temple supporters is large enough to help the party win elections comfortably. </p>
<p>In a survey held after the 2022 election in the state of Uttar Pradesh, <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/elections/uttar-pradesh-assembly/religious-polarisation-and-electoral-choices/article65215835.ece">over two-thirds of the Hindu respondents</a> who thought the temple was a “very important” election issue voted for the BJP. </p>
<p>This is arguably the single-most polarising issue in the country and some Hindu nationalists want to keep the pot boiling. They have already petitioned the courts with claims to <a href="https://scroll.in/article/1024769/behind-gyanvapis-women-petitioners-a-network-of-men-who-have-long-fought-for-hindutva-causes">two other historical mosques in Varanasi and Mathura</a>. The Supreme Court also seems to be taking a <a href="https://thewire.in/law/supreme-court-greenlights-asi-gyanvapi-survey">favourable view of these claims</a>.</p>
<h2>Distraction from other big issues</h2>
<p>And last but not least, a grand inauguration ceremony – and its continuous month-long coverage on pro-government mainstream TV channels – will distract voters from real issues and help the BJP control the electoral narrative. </p>
<p>There are plenty of other issues to be concerned with. India’s economic growth hasn’t necessarily led to more jobs, with about 42% of graduates under 25 <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/business/42-3-of-graduates-under-25-unemployed-finds-latest-state-of-working-india-report-8949124/">unemployed</a>. </p>
<p>Despite the fact that Modi promised to <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/pm-promises-farmers-income-doubling-by-2022/article24212508.ece">double the incomes of farmers by 2022</a>, they are still struggling to keep up with ever-rising debts. More than 100,000 farmers <a href="https://thewire.in/agriculture/average-30-farmer-suicides-per-day-in-modi-govt-years-points-to-a-systemic-apathy">committed suicide</a> from 2014–22, a rate of more than 30 per day. </p>
<p>Human rights activists, journalists and student protesters are <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/10/13/india-arrests-raids-target-critics-government#:%7E:text=The%20Indian%20government%20also%20used,Dalit%20meeting%20in%20January%202018.">regularly charged with stringent anti-terrorism laws</a> and thrown in prison. Amnesty International was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/29/amnesty-to-halt-work-in-india-due-to-government-witch-hunt">forced to shut down</a> after the government froze its accounts following the publication of critical reports of its human rights record.</p>
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<p>Ethnic violence has <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2024/1/9/ethnic-conflict-in-indias-manipur-has-completely-ruined-businesses">wracked</a> the northeastern state of Manipur since last May. An influential member of parliament who asked tough questions about industrialist Gautam Adani’s relationship with Modi was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/22/mahua-moitra-indian-parliament-expulsion">expelled from parliament</a> in December. The government <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-67656686">claimed</a> she had accepted bribes to ask the questions; she denies this.</p>
<p>And institutions meant to safeguard India’s democracy are being <a href="https://thewire.in/rights/decaying-institutions-and-diminishing-democracy-of-the-indian-republic">systematically dismantled</a>. </p>
<p>The government has also been accused by UN special rapporteurs of “<a href="https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2023/country-chapters/india#:%7E:text=In%20June%2C%20three%20United%20Nations,participation%20in%20inter%2Dcommunal%20violence.">collective punishment</a>” of Muslims suspected of taking part in inter-communal violence or protests through the bulldozing of their properties, <a href="https://doij.org/10.10000/IJLMH.113298">often disregarding standard procedures</a>. One demolition was even telecast live with <a href="https://scroll.in/article/1026083/indians-are-expressing-shock-at-news-channel-glee-over-demolition-of-muslim-activists-house">news anchors cheering from the sidelines</a>. </p>
<p>In two states that have seen the worst of such bulldozer actions (Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh), the BJP was returned to power in state elections.</p>
<p>Modi’s government doesn’t want to lose any support from its Hindu base, so the temple inauguration will presumably bring much BJP chest-thumping, especially as the election draws closer.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219811/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aviroop Gupta does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Ram temple, built on the site of a destroyed mosque, could be used by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party to mobilise his Hindu nationalist supporters ahead of the elections.Aviroop Gupta, PhD Candidate, Curtin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2189072023-11-30T23:40:44Z2023-11-30T23:40:44ZAlleged assassination plots in the U.S. and Canada signal a more assertive Indian foreign policy<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/alleged-assassination-plots-in-the-us-and-canada-signal-a-more-assertive-indian-foreign-policy" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>A recent indictment from the United States Department of Justice <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/11/29/us/u-s-v-gupta.html">has alleged</a> an Indian security official was involved in attempting to assassinate a U.S. and Canadian citizen in New York. The alleged target, <a href="https://theconversation.com/alleged-assassination-plot-against-sikh-separatist-could-hamper-india-u-s-relations-218502">Gurpatwant Singh Pannun</a>, is a leader in the Sikh separatist movement and has been involved in organizing referendums for the establishment of Khalistan, a proposed independent Sikh state in northern India. </p>
<p>The indictment also states that there is a link between the foiled attempt to kill Pannun and the murder of Canadian Khalistani leader <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-fraught-history-of-india-and-the-khalistan-movement-213956">Hardeep Singh Nijjar</a> in Surrey, B.C. earlier this year. </p>
<p>The Indian government said it was investigating the allegations, and had established a committee to “<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67570007">address the security concerns highlighted by the US government</a>.”</p>
<p>This announcement by the U.S. could have potential ramifications for Indian politics, both at home and abroad. However, it is unlikely to have any significant impact on next year’s general elections, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be seeking his third term in office.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-the-khalistan-movement-sparking-a-diplomatic-feud-between-india-and-canada-213860">Explainer: what is the Khalistan movement sparking a diplomatic feud between India and Canada?</a>
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<h2>Bolstering Modi’s strongman image</h2>
<p>Canadian allegations against India had handed Modi an excellent political platform for the next general elections. </p>
<p>It sent a clear message that India’s government would, under no circumstances, tolerate any threats to the country. </p>
<p>India’s foreign policy has become more muscular under Modi; and that’s a strategy that resonates with his supporters. </p>
<p>His landslide victory in 2019 had a lot to do with support for India’s “<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37504308">surgical strikes</a>” in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir in 2016 in response to an attack that killed 19 Indian soldiers. </p>
<p>Following Canada’s allegations of Indian involvement in Nijjar’s killing, the Modi government was once again able to successfully generate a narrative against Canada in general and the Liberal party in particular. </p>
<p>India’s narrative consists of four parts: </p>
<ul>
<li><p><a href="https://theprint.in/opinion/security-code/khalistan-on-the-pacific-how-the-gangs-of-punjab-were-born-in-canada/980176/">Canada is a safe haven for terrorists, extremism and organized crime</a>, and there is a nexus between Indo-Canadian gangsters and Sikh separatists working with Pakistan’s intelligence agency.</p></li>
<li><p>The Canadian government has <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/9-separatist-outfits-supporting-terror-groups-have-bases-in-canada-indias-deportation-requests-ignored-officials-4404779">consistently ignored repeated requests from India</a> to take actions against Khalistani “terrorists” operating on Canadian soil.</p></li>
<li><p>Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government is pandering to the large Sikh diaspora in Canada.</p></li>
<li><p>The Liberal minority government is dependent on support from the New Democratic Party leader, Jagmeet Singh, a Sikh supposedly sympathetic to the Khalistani cause. </p></li>
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<p>Indian news media and politicians have repeated the official discourse constantly for weeks. </p>
<p>While India was quick to dismiss Canadian allegations, it has adopted a much more cautious approach to the U.S. indictment. India has much to lose by alienating the Biden administration as both countries have invested a great deal in enhancing Indo-U.S. relations and making India a central ally in America’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/U.S.-Indo-Pacific-Strategy.pdf">Indo-Pacific strategy</a>.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Indo-Canadian relations have been chilly since 2015, largely due to Khalistan activity in Canada. Moreover, <a href="https://www.international.gc.ca/country_news-pays_nouvelles/2023-05-10-india-inde.aspx?lang=eng">annual trade between India and Canada is worth about $12 billion</a> while trade with the U.S. is worth <a href="https://ustr.gov/countries-regions/south-central-asia/india#:%7E:text=U.S.%20goods%20and%20services%20trade,was%20%2445.7%20billion%20in%202022.">$192 billion</a>. In short, India has much more to lose by alienating the U.S than it does by taking a hard line with Canada. </p>
<h2>Furthering authoritarianism</h2>
<p>On the surface it might appear that news of the U.S. indictment could fracture India’s muscular foreign policy. However, this episode is unlikely to have much impact on India’s domestic politics. Modi remains popular with an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/18/opinion/modi-india.html">approval rating of 78 per cent</a>. </p>
<p>He is credited, among other things, with India’s emergence as a global power, with his effective handling of border issues with China, for taking on Pakistan and with the success of the country’s <a href="https://apnews.com/article/india-spacecraft-chandrayaan-moon-landing-b31109bb08197f33b829e7a6e4edfc6d">space program</a>. </p>
<p>The 26-party opposition coalition, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/26/india-what-you-need-to-know-about-indias-opposition-alliance">Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA)</a>, is unlikely to challenge Modi on this particular issue. The national defense narrative is a strong one, and India’s territorial integrity is a sacrosanct issue for all political parties.</p>
<p>However, among some minority communities, Muslims and Sikhs, both at home and abroad, revelations of assassination plots could raise serious concerns. The Modi government’s aggressive pursuit of a Hindu nationalist agenda, its repression of minorities and control over dissent have become more entrenched. </p>
<p>India’s parliament is in the process of amending its sedition laws. If the changes are passed, endangering the unity and integrity of the country could result in <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/sedition-to-go-but-endangering-unity-and-integrity-of-india-could-result-in-life-term/articleshow/102661307.cms?from=mdr">life-term imprisonment</a>. These proposed changes to the already harsh and draconian penal code will only further criminalize dissent. The Modi government is ensuring that dissenting voices, particularly those of minority communities, completely disappear from Indian democracy. </p>
<h2>Amplifying the Khalistan movement</h2>
<p>India’s campaign of global repression of Sikh separatists could have the effect of unifying the Sikh diaspora. It was in 2018 that Pannun came up with the idea of holding a non-binding referendums to mobilize the global Sikh community. </p>
<p>That year, Sikh activists announced their <a href="https://www.sikhpa.com/sikhs-for-justice-to-declare-punjab-independence-referendum-for-202/">campaign for holding referendums</a> starting in 2021 across multiple cities. The first referendum took place in London on Oct. 31, 2021, followed by eight more referendums during 2022 and 2023 in the cities of Leeds and Luton (United Kingdom), Geneva (Switzerland), Brampton, Mississauga and Surrey (Canada), Melbourne (Australia), and Brescia (Italy). </p>
<p>Pannun announced plans for referendums in <a href="https://time.com/6339942/india-gurpatwant-singh-pannun-sikh-separatist-qa/">Punjab</a> and <a href="https://yespunjab.com/sfj-declares-us-phase-of-khalistan-referendum-beginning-jan-28/">the U.S</a>, and for another round of voting in Canadian cities. In October, following Trudeau’s announcement of credible allegations against the Indian government, thousands of voters turned out to participate in a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/khalistan-vote-second-round-surrey-1.7012234">referendum in Surrey, B.C.</a>, some coming from as far as the cities of Edmonton and Calgary. </p>
<p>While only a small minority of the Sikh diaspora is thought to support creating a separate Sikh state, the majority were likely registering their disapproval of India and its repression of minorities. Memory of the 1984 <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/10/29/india-no-justice-1984-anti-sikh-bloodshed">anti-Sikh riots</a> in the wake of Indira Gandhi’s assassination which left thousands dead remains very much alive within the entire Sikh community to this day. </p>
<p>But Khalistani referendum politics relies heavily on images depicting so-called “martyrs” (separatists killed by India) and Indian diplomats as the assassins of Sikh activists. <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/toronto-hindu-temple-defaced-b2167886.html">The desecration of Hindu temples</a> also has the potential to create division within the Indian Hindu and Sikh diasporas. Canadian Liberal MP Chandra Arya has <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/step-in-take-action-canadian-mp-chandra-arya-on-khalistani-supporters-threat-to-hindu-temple-in-surrey/articleshow/105369065.cms">accused Khalistan supporters of targetting Hindu temples</a>. </p>
<p>As more information comes out, the Canadian government will need to carefully manage its relations with India and the relationship between diasporic communities here.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218907/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Reeta Tremblay has received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the Canadian International Council's Victoria branch. </span></em></p>This announcement by U.S. authorities could have potential ramifications for Indian politics, both at home and abroad, and could spur separatist activities in the Sikh diaspora.Reeta Tremblay, Adjunct and Professor Emerita, Politics, University of VictoriaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2185022023-11-23T22:45:55Z2023-11-23T22:45:55ZAlleged assassination plot against Sikh separatist could hamper India-U.S. relations<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/alleged-assassination-plot-against-sikh-separatist-could-hamper-india-us-relations" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The United States government recently stated it had thwarted a <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/56f7d6d6-6a93-4172-a49e-d8a91991e29d">plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist leader in the U.S.</a> and issued a warning to the Indian government. According to media reports, U.S. authorities say they successfully stopped a plot to assassinate Sikh separatist <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/who-is-gurpatwant-pannun-target-foiled-murder-plot-us-2023-11-23/">Gurpatwant Singh Pannun</a> on American soil. Pannun is a <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/washington-asks-india-about-alleged-assassination-plot-against-u-s-canadian-activist-1.6655973">U.S.-Canadian citizen</a> and a prominent figure in the pro-Khalistan movement, which calls for establishing an independent Sikh state in northern India. </p>
<p>White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson indicated that the administration is treating this issue with the utmost seriousness and noted it has been raised with India “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-thwarts-plot-kill-sikh-separatist-issues-warning-india-ft-2023-11-22/">at the senior-most levels.</a>” </p>
<p>Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he hoped India “<a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-washington-presses-india-on-alleged-plot-to-kill-canadian-american/">will take these real concerns seriously</a>.” This recent revelation comes two months after Trudeau said his government had “<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-indian-government-nijjar-1.6970498">credible evidence</a>” of an Indian link to the killing of a pro-Khalistan leader in Canada. In June 2023, <a href="https://theconversation.com/justin-trudeaus-india-accusation-complicates-western-efforts-to-rein-in-china-213922">Hardeep Singh Nijjar</a> was assassinated outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, B.C. </p>
<h2>U.S. protest</h2>
<p>The alleged killing in Canada and foiled plot in the U.S. give rise to concerns regarding India’s reliability as a trusted strategic partner for Western governments. The mounting authoritarianism of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government and its belligerent foreign policy raises questions about India’s future trajectory which potentially conflicts with the interests of the U.S. and its allies.</p>
<p>The U.S. reportedly issued a <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/22/us-thwarted-plot-to-kill-sikh-separatist-issued-warning-to-india-report">diplomatic protest</a> to India following Modi’s visit to Washington in June. Furthermore, U.S. federal prosecutors have <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-thwarts-plot-kill-sikh-separatist-issues-warning-india-ft-2023-11-22/">filed a sealed indictment</a> against one suspect in court. The debate now centres around whether to unseal and make this indictment public immediately, or await the completion of Canadian investigations before its disclosure.</p>
<p>Pannun <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/22/us-thwarts-plot-to-kill-sikh-separatist-and-issues-diplomatic-warning-to-india">has been organizing</a> a symbolic referendum on an independent Khalistan in San Francisco. India perceives the activities of pro-Khalistan leaders as a threat to its sovereignty.</p>
<h2>India’s differing responses</h2>
<p>The Indian Ministry of External Affairs has not commented on the White House statement. Nevertheless, the White House statement <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/international/4323600-us-concern-india-reports-sikh-separatist-killing-plot/">conveyed</a> that their Indian counterparts “expressed surprise and concern” upon the issue being raised with them. Indian officials reiterated that extrajudicial killing is not reflective of Indian government policy.</p>
<p>The contrast in the Indian government’s response to the Canadian and U.S. announcements is intriguing. India vehemently denied Canada’s allegations and dismissed the claims as “<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2264814147529">absurd</a>.” Furthermore, New Delhi heightened diplomatic tensions by issuing a <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/india-canada-travel-warning-1.6972377">travel warning</a> to its citizens in Canada, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/india-visa-service-suspension-canada-faq-1.6975990">halting visa services</a> and threatening to <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/41-canadian-diplomats-left-india-1.7001515">revoke the immunity</a> of Canadian diplomats in India. </p>
<p>From the perspective of the Indian government, relations with Canada are not deemed strategically crucial. Consequently, India appears willing to weather a temporary strain in relations and can afford to allow them to be derailed for a few years.</p>
<p>However, India’s relations with the U.S. hold immense <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/06/22/joint-statement-from-the-united-states-and-india/">strategic significance</a>. Given the ongoing <a href="https://www.usip.org/publications/2023/05/why-we-should-all-worry-about-china-india-border-dispute">border disputes</a> with China and Beijing’s escalating assertiveness, there exists a tangible threat to India’s territorial sovereignty.</p>
<p>Recognizing the power asymmetry with China, India finds it imperative to cultivate a closer strategic partnership with the U.S. Conversely, the U.S. sees India as pivotal to its <a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/3531303/us-india-relationship-critical-to-free-open-indo-pacific/">Indo-Pacific strategy</a>, which is aimed at counterbalancing China’s growing influence. The U.S. has actively supported India’s economic and military growth to foster a power balance in the Asian region. </p>
<p>The great power rivalry between the U.S. and China aligns with India’s national interests. However, India seeks a stable rivalry, cautious of overly hostile relations that could potentially entangle it in the U.S.-China conflict. Simultaneously, if relations were to improve between the U.S. and China, India could risk losing its current strategic significance.</p>
<h2>Growing belligerence</h2>
<p>The Indian government has consistently asserted that extrajudicial killing is not part of its foreign policy. However, its alleged involvement in Nijjar’s assassination in June, <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/who-was-paramjit-singh-panjwar-the-wanted-terrorist-shot-dead-in-lahore-8595352/">the killing of another Sikh leader in Pakistan</a> in May, and this thwarted plot in the U.S. indicate a concerning pattern of behaviour. </p>
<p>The authoritarian tendencies of the Modi government and its seeming willingness to target people on foreign soil could strain India’s relationship with its allies and partners. </p>
<p>The India-U.S. relationship has been billed as grounded in <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/democracy-and-the-us-india-relationship/">shared democratic values</a>. This alliance has also been held up as a model contrasting with the authoritarian regime in China. The recent events, however, cast a shadow on this narrative, and could prompt the U.S. to reevaluate the partnership. </p>
<p>Under the authoritarian trajectory of the Modi government, U.S.-India relations appear to be shifting towards an alignment with mutual interests rather than shared values.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218502/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Saira Bano does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Reports of an alleged Indian plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist in the United States could undermine India-U.S. relations and both country’s efforts to counter China’s growing influence.Saira Bano, Assistant Professor in Political Science, Thompson Rivers UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2141402023-10-29T14:00:56Z2023-10-29T14:00:56ZGeopolitical chess game: Why India has no interest in serving as a western pawn<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/geopolitical-chess-game-why-india-has-no-interest-in-serving-as-a-western-pawn" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Canada’s <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/19/india/canada-india-diplomats-removed-intl-hnk/index.html">deepening divide with India</a> following its accusation that the Indian government was responsible for <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66860510">the murder of Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar</a> has revealed a cynical truth: the West’s interest in democracy and rules-based international order is largely empty rhetoric. </p>
<p>Canada’s western allies <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-19/asio-chief-says-no-reason-to-dispute-canada-india-spy-claim/102993480">have offered some support in its confrontation with India</a>. However, <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/09/27/india-canada-trudeau-accusations-us-ties-intelligence/">this support is extremely limited</a>. India is too important to American efforts to contain China.</p>
<p>India understands this and is taking full advantage of its position in this ongoing geopolitical chess game by getting what it can from the West while keeping a clear focus on its own interests.</p>
<p>India is a regional rival of China. It <a href="https://asiatimes.com/2023/04/the-myths-and-realities-of-the-population-sweepstakes/">may have passed China as the world’s most populous country</a> and is, <a href="https://www.india.com/business/economic-survey-2022-23-key-takeaways-india-3rd-largest-economy-in-purchasing-power-economic-survey-5877020/">by purchasing power parity, the world’s third largest economy</a>. </p>
<p>The United States is trying to redirect global resources and <a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Opinion/India-can-be-a-bigger-winner-in-the-supply-chain-shift-from-China">supply chains from China to India</a>. Supposedly, India is “safe” because it shares “democratic values” with the West. </p>
<h2>Modi regime</h2>
<p>However, India’s so-called liberal democracy has been severely damaged by the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/09/opinion/india-modi-conflict-zone.html">Hindu-supremacist policies</a> of <a href="https://novaramedia.com/2023/02/23/white-and-hindu-supremacists-are-a-match-made-in-heaven/">the Narendra Modi regime</a>. </p>
<p>In modern India, religious minorities, especially Muslims, are regularly victims of mob violence, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/28/muslim-man-lynched-in-india-for-taking-a-banana-at-hindu-temple-event">including lynching</a> <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2018/4/19/rape-as-a-political-tool-in-india">and sexual</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/indian-womens-struggle-against-sexual-violence-has-had-little-support-from-the-men-in-power-210318">assault</a>. </p>
<p>A rabid <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/15/indias-opposition-alliance-to-boycott-hate-filled-tv-news-anchors">nationalist media</a> pumps up government policies. <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/10/india-arrests-and-raids-at-newsclick-signals-attack-on-media-critical-of-the-government/">Critical journalists</a> <a href="https://www.thepolisproject.com/research/mapping-violence-against-journalists-in-india-key-findings/">are brutalized and silenced</a>. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/29/world/asia/modi-india-gandhi-judiciary.html">The judiciary and parliament have been cowed</a>. </p>
<p>Indian author Arundhati Roy argues that <a href="https://scroll.in/article/1055943/arundhati-roy-the-dismantling-of-democracy-in-india-will-affect-the-whole-world">India is well on its way to becoming a fully fascist state</a>. Roy was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/20/arundhati-roy-india-author-freedom-of-speech">recently charged by the Modi regime for supposedly “provocative” statements</a> she made in 2010.</p>
<p>The western world knows all of this, but its actions towards India aren’t motivated by “shared values.” The West, led by the U.S., is driven only by the desire to contain China.</p>
<p>India has rejected Canada’s accusations, but has also flagged western hypocrisy. Indian MP Shashi Tharoor has alleged the U.S. and Israel are the <a href="https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/politics/story/so-quick-to-judge-others-shashi-tharoor-lambasts-western-media-over-india-canada-row-399129-2023-09-21">“two foremost practitioners of extra-territorial assassinations in the past 25 years.”</a> American drone warfare <a href="https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/blog/2020-09-04/ten-years-investigating-us-covert-warfare">has killed thousands of people the U.S. accuses of terrorism and thousands of innocent bystanders</a> in the Global South.</p>
<p>India may be following the West’s lead, but on a much smaller scale. Also, it allegedly acted in a western state, which seemingly expect to be exempt from the kind of violence they have unleashed on the Global South.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/indias-accusation-of-terrorism-is-a-ploy-to-hide-its-own-human-rights-abuses-214660">India's accusation of 'terrorism' is a ploy to hide its own human rights abuses</a>
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<h2>Not an American pawn</h2>
<p>India is happy to accept <a href="https://asiatimes.com/2023/09/indias-not-the-china-alternative-wall-street-thinks/">western economic, military and technological support to help it close its enormous gaps in wealth, infrastructure and overall development with China</a>. The West, meantime, needs India to maintain its global domination. </p>
<p>But <a href="https://iai.tv/articles/india-is-creating-a-new-world-order-auid-2118">India has no more interest in perpetuating western dominance of the global system than China does</a>. It is not an American pawn. </p>
<p><a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2022/04/25/what-is-in-our-interest-india-and-ukraine-war-pub-86961">India is pursuing its own interests</a>, as its continuing relationship with Russia indicates. </p>
<p>India and China <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2023/08/should-we-expect-a-thaw-in-china-india-relations-soon/">have a major border dispute</a> and are militarily at odds. They <a href="https://frontline.thehindu.com/world-affairs/is-there-a-way-out-of-the-troubled-india-china-relationship/article66471168.ece">view each other with mutual suspicion</a> and, often, contempt.</p>
<p>But they understand that they will be neighbours forever and their relationship can be mutually beneficial <a href="https://www.economist.com/international/2023/07/19/what-if-china-and-india-became-friends">if they can find diplomatic resolutions to their conflicts</a>. <a href="https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3232842/troubled-china-india-relationship-means-asian-century-remains-elusive">This may be easier said than done</a>, but the two countries <a href="https://hbr.org/2007/12/china-india-the-power-of-two">have improved relations in the past</a> and enjoy a growing economic relationship today. </p>
<p>Most Indians accept that <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/why-india-chinas-bitter-foe-wont-become-us-ally-1792564">making an active enemy of China is not in India’s best interests</a>.</p>
<p>The more aggressive the U.S. becomes towards China, <a href="https://inkstickmedia.com/india-is-well-positioned-to-take-advantage-of-the-us-china-rivalry/">the more leverage it gives to India to use against both the Americans and the Chinese</a>. India can extract benefits from the U.S.; simultaneously, American aggression provides China with incentives to improve its relations with India. </p>
<h2>Choosing a side</h2>
<p>But there is a point — perhaps fast approaching — at which regional states will feel forced to make a choice between China or the U.S. There’s a limit to how far both sides can be played off against the other. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3231481/world-has-more-fear-aggressive-us-peaceful-china">Tensions between India and China</a> benefit U.S. interests. If India and China resolve their differences and choose to work together — or, at least, not to work against each other — it would complicate those interests. As unlikely as this may seem now, <a href="https://www.economist.com/international/2023/07/19/what-if-china-and-india-became-friends">harmonious relations between China and India are a real long-term possibility</a>.</p>
<p>India is far from posing a threat to American power the way China is now. Nonetheless, if the U.S. succeeds in elevating India at China’s expense, it will eventually have to contend with challenges from India. It’s already clear that India doesn’t see itself as a western subordinate and has its own regional aspirations. </p>
<p>India’s alleged murder of a Canadian citizen may be a taste of how India will handle its relations with the West as it rises in power. India will be demanding privileges the West extends to itself and its allies, for whom <a href="https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/what-rule-based-international-order/">“rules-based international order” is a meaningless facade</a>. </p>
<p>Canada <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/canadas-trudeau-wants-india-cooperate-murder-probe-wont-release-evidence-2023-09-21/">has asked India to co-operate in its investigation</a> of Nijjar’s murder. The investigation will probably go nowhere and be quietly buried. There are suspicions that India may be <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/08/sikh-activists-hardeep-singh-nijjar-killing">threatening other Sikh activists</a> and may have <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/avtar-singh-khanda-inquest-1.6989059">committed another murder</a> in the U.K. </p>
<p>India has <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/india-visa-services-1.7007375#:%7E:text=According%20to%20the%20release%2C%20officials,currently%2C%22%20the%20announcement%20says">recently eased some visa restrictions on Canadians even as it has expelled 41 Canadian diplomats</a>, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/india-canada-embassies-diplomats-1.7005303">threatening to revoke their diplomatic immunity</a>.</p>
<p>India will walk away untouched from its spat with Canada. It is too important to western strategies against China. But India has its own game to play and that does not necessarily accord with what the West wants.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214140/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shaun Narine does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>India is far from posing a threat to American power the way China is now. But if the West elevates India at China’s expense, it will eventually have to contend with Indian challenges.Shaun Narine, Professor of International Relations and Political Science, St. Thomas University (Canada)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2146602023-10-15T12:27:46Z2023-10-15T12:27:46ZIndia’s accusation of ‘terrorism’ is a ploy to hide its own human rights abuses<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/indias-accusation-of-terrorism-is-a-ploy-to-hide-its-own-human-rights-abuses" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has accused India of being involved in the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian Sikh leader, on Canadian soil. </p>
<p>Narendra Modi’s right-wing <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2022/05/narendra-modi-india-religion-hindu-nationalism/630169/">Hindu nationalist</a> Indian government <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/india-canada-expel-diplomats-escalate-1.6984817">is defiant</a> and denies involvement. Indian officials have instead admonished Canada for being a “<a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/09/28/1201733505/india-sikh-separatism-khalistan-canada-crisis-analysis">safe haven</a>” for Sikh “terrorism,” a pejorative for <a href="https://doi.org/10.7758/rsf.2018.4.5.04">Sikh self-determination</a>.</p>
<p>India’s weaponization of “terrorism” is a ploy to justify its transnational aggression. It is using the rhetoric of “terrorism” <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-no-india-killing-a-canadian-is-not-just-like-america-killing-bin-laden/">seemingly to imply</a> that if the West can engage in extrajudicial killings, India can too.</p>
<p>The tactic also deflects attention from the Modi government’s <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/asia-and-the-pacific/south-asia/india/report-india/">well-documented</a> abuses of religious minorities, caste-oppressed and Indigenous people, journalists, activists and academics in India. </p>
<p>Deploying “terrorism” as such mirrors a long history of its use by colonial powers to suppress political dissent.</p>
<h2>Terrorism: A contested concept</h2>
<p>While the use of “terrorism” is ubiquitous, it has <a href="https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1400&context=jil">no agreed-upon definition</a>. The <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-46/page-8.html#docCont">Criminal Code</a> of Canada defines terrorism as an act committed “in whole or in part for a political, religious or ideological purpose, objective or cause” with “the intention of intimidating the public.” </p>
<p>“Terrorism” <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1527-2001.2010.01150.x">also signifies illegitimate or immoral violence</a>, which legal definitions do not capture.</p>
<p>The so-called War on Terror, initiated after the 9/11 attacks in 2001, gave new life to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.899291">anti-terrorism legislation</a> globally. This is when Canada incorporated the above definition of “terrorism” into the Criminal Code. </p>
<p>As security agencies focused on “terrorism” by Muslim-identified groups, anti-terrorism laws <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/commentary/doc/2020CanLIIDocs495#!fragment//BQCwhgziBcwMYgK4DsDWszIQewE4BUBTADwBdoByCgSgBpltTCIBFRQ3AT0otokLC4EbDtyp8BQkAGU8pAELcASgFEAMioBqAQQByAYRW1SYAEbRS2ONWpA">disproportionately</a> targeted Muslims. </p>
<p>Canadian critical race scholar <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S1059-4337(06)40001-6">Sherene Razack argues</a> that counter-terrorism uses “race-thinking” to maintain narrow notions of nationhood. This results in marginalizing certain groups that can then be legitimately subject to repressive and unconstitutional laws.</p>
<h2>Terrorism and state violence</h2>
<p>The term “terrorism” is intertwined with a <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2021/9/18/war-of-terror-legal-colonialism">colonial history</a> of state violence. The British empire <a href="https://doi.org/10.3998/pc.12322227.0005.006">routinely invoked</a> “terrorism” to suppress political dissent within colonies. </p>
<p>In the name of national security, “terrorism” was used in Canada to justify state violence against <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24469643">Indigenous people</a> <a href="https://lh.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/lh/article/view/5537/4732">as well as against</a> feminists, labour movements and other political dissidents. </p>
<p>The War on Terror resulted in the American-led invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, causing <a href="https://www.brown.edu/news/2021-09-01/costsofwar">death and displacement</a> of millions, as well as the <a href="https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442624467">securitization</a> of Muslim citizens. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A grey-haired man stands a podium with the U.S. presidential insignia. Behind him a sign reads Mission Accomplished." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535617/original/file-20230704-29-gwwpyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535617/original/file-20230704-29-gwwpyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535617/original/file-20230704-29-gwwpyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535617/original/file-20230704-29-gwwpyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535617/original/file-20230704-29-gwwpyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535617/original/file-20230704-29-gwwpyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535617/original/file-20230704-29-gwwpyo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">In this May 2003 photo, President George W. Bush declares the end of major combat in Iraq as he speaks aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln off the California coast. The war dragged on for many years after that.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)</span></span>
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<p>State violence could once itself be considered terrorism, but in <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44016685">recent decades</a>, the term has come to exclude state violence.</p>
<p>Terrorism is now understood as illegitimate violence by non-state entities. This is odd considering states themselves can engage in <a href="https://sunypress.edu/Books/S/State-Violence-and-Moral-Horror">immoral violence</a> on a scale that cannot be matched by non-state organizations. </p>
<p>State violence is often ideologically motivated, with the intention to induce widespread fear and behavioural change. This has prompted some scholars <a href="https://kar.kent.ac.uk/24178/">to make the case</a> for reconsidering state violence itself as terrorism.</p>
<h2>Colonial techniques of power</h2>
<p>The Indian government’s use of the term “terrorism” to squash political dissent borrows from the playbook of colonial powers. </p>
<p>India’s <a href="https://thewire.in/law/in-illustrations-a-brief-history-of-indias-national-security-laws">national security laws</a> — the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) — <a href="https://www.epw.in/engage/article/dissent-democracy-political-imprisonment-under">set the stage for widespread</a> human rights and civil liberties violations. </p>
<p>The Modi government’s <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/uapa-bill-draconian-terms-opposition-in-lok-sabha/article28323449.ece">2019 amendment</a> to the UAPA made it possible to designate citizens as terrorists without following formal judicial processes. </p>
<p>These laws <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/8/16/india-uapa-terror-law-scrutiny">have been abused</a> to imprison activists, journalists, human rights defenders, caste-oppressed communities and religious minorities. Claiming terrorism has <a href="https://www.livemint.com/news/world/interpol-cites-misuse-of-uapa-rejects-india-s-red-corner-plea-for-khalistan-separatist-pannun-11665581191103.html">provided justification to suppress</a> self-determination in Kashmir, the most <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/wx5wdx/900-detained-after-7-targeted-killings-kashmir-india">militarized zone</a> in the world. </p>
<p>Concerns for national security have also dominated <a href="https://twailr.com/rewriting-india-the-construction-of-the-hindutva-citizen-in-the-indian-state/">new policies in India</a>, like the Citizenship Amendment Act and National Registry of Citizens, that aim to create a monolithic Hindu supremacist state.</p>
<h2>Avoiding condemnation</h2>
<p>By designating Sikh separatists or Khalistanis as “terrorists,” India has escaped widespread domestic condemnation for its alleged involvement in Nijjar’s murder. </p>
<p>In India, in fact, the term “Khalistani” is often seen as synonymous with terrorism. It functions as a stigmatizing label to justify lethal violence against Sikh separatists. </p>
<p>In the past, Modi’s Hindu nationalist government has dismissed any form of Sikh dissent by categorizing it as Khalistani. In 2020 and 2021, when thousands of Sikh farmers protested new farming laws, the government <a href="https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-news-how-to-divide-farmers-use-khalistan-maoist-and-tukde-tukde-gang/367191">attempted to discredit</a> the movement by saying that it had been infiltrated by Khalistanis.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-indian-farmers-are-so-angry-about-the-modi-governments-agricultural-reforms-154428">Why Indian farmers are so angry about the Modi government's agricultural reforms</a>
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<p>Nijjar’s death could indicate India’s willingness to use state violence against Sikh separatists outside India. In the 1980s, in face of a <a href="https://time.com/3545867/india-1984-sikh-genocide-anniversary/">state-sanctioned pogrom</a>, many Sikhs fled India seeking asylum in Canada and elsewhere.</p>
<p>Today, India targets Sikh political dissidents around the world by labelling them “Khalistani terrorists.” <a href="https://thewire.in/world/hardeep-singh-nijjar-killing-khalistan-speculation">There is widespread speculation</a> India has been violently attacking Sikh activists around the world in <a href="https://thewire.in/diplomacy/canada-accuses-indian-government-of-assassinating-sikh-citizen-in-vancouver-expels-senior-diplomat">violation of international law</a>.</p>
<p>International policing agencies are <a href="https://thewire.in/world/interpol-rejects-indias-red-corner-notice-against-khalistan-separatist-gurpatwant-singh-pannun">resisting Indian pressure</a> and refusing extradition requests against Sikh political dissidents. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9986646/jagmeet-singh-nijjar-evidence/">evidence is mounting</a> that suggests India was involved in Nijjar’s assassination. </p>
<p>If it turns out India was in fact involved, Nijjar’s death should be regarded not only as an extrajudicial killing but also as an act of state terror — an ideologically driven attempt to quash the Sikh separatist movement by <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/canadas-sikhs-are-grateful-afraid-after-trudeaus-india-allegations-2023-09-30/">instilling fear</a> among Sikh communities around the world.</p>
<p>With the War on Terror, the U.S. and its allies set the stage for countries to justify state violence under the guise of combating terrorism.</p>
<p>It should come as no surprise that India is emulating the West.</p>
<p>Under the leadership of a right-wing Hindu nationalist government, India is providing similar justifications for events like the murder of Nijjar.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214660/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fahad Ahmad receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Baljit Nagra does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If it turns out India was involved in the death of a Sikh activist in Canada, it should be regarded not only as an extrajudicial killing but also as an act of state terror.Fahad Ahmad, Assistant Professor, Department of Criminology, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityBaljit Nagra, Associate Professor, Criminology, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2155242023-10-13T03:33:39Z2023-10-13T03:33:39ZCelebrated novelist Arundhati Roy faces prosecution in India – for a speech she gave in 2010<p>Booker Prize-winning writer Arundhati Roy, author of <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9780006550686/the-god-of-small-things/">The God of Small Things</a>, has been charged, along with retired law professor <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheikh_Showkat_Hussain">Sheikh Showkat Hussain</a>, for allegedly seditious comments supporting the separation of Kashmir from India. </p>
<p>They were speaking at a 2010 Delhi conference, the same year right-wing activist Sushil Pandit <a href="https://thewire.in/rights/why-is-the-indian-state-reigniting-a-13-year-old-case-against-arundhati-roy">filed the complaint</a> on which these latest charges draw.</p>
<p>Nearly 13 years later, on October 10, Delhi’s lieutenant governor V.K. Saxena, with the approval of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-man-who-dines-alone-26758">Narendra Modi’s government</a>, sanctioned the <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/delhi-lg-approves-prosecution-of-arundhati-roy-kashmir-professor-in-2010-provocative-speeches-case/article67403942.ece">prosecution</a>. Roy and Hussain are accused of making statements promoting social enmity, prejudicing national integration and inciting offences against the state and public tranquillity.</p>
<p>It’s the latest in a series of prosecutions and arrests using India’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unlawful_Activities_(Prevention)_Act">Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act</a>, which was amended in 2019 to allow the government to designate individuals as terrorists, without following any formal judicial process.</p>
<p>Roy and Hussain are not being prosecuted under sedition law, though. (In May 2022, the Indian Supreme Court <a href="https://www.livelaw.in/top-stories/breaking-supreme-court-urges-centre-states-to-refrain-from-registering-firs-invoking-section-124a-ipc-198810">ordered</a> a hold on prosecuting such cases, while the Indian government reviews the colonial-era sedition law.)</p>
<p>As India hurtles toward the 2024 national election, liberal-left civil society and independent media have become prime targets of the Modi government.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/novelist-arundhati-roy-and-her-mission-to-inspire-in-the-ministry-of-utmost-happiness-80344">Novelist Arundhati Roy and her mission to inspire in the Ministry of Utmost Happiness</a>
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<h2>A ‘dangerous time’ for minorities</h2>
<p>A strident critic of Modi’s ruling <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bharatiya_Janata_Party">Bharatiya Janata Party</a>, Roy used her September <a href="https://scroll.in/article/1055943/arundhati-roy-the-dismantling-of-democracy-in-india-will-affect-the-whole-world">acceptance speech</a> for the European Essay Prize to further condemn his government. </p>
<p>She criticised its normalisation of Hindu supremacism in public life and institutions, its crony capitalism, and India’s burgeoning economic inequality. She noted: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>elections are a season of murder, lynching and dog-whistling – the most dangerous time for India’s minorities, Muslims and Christians in particular. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The ‘Maoist conspiracy’ case</h2>
<p>On October 2, India’s National Investigative Authority conducted <a href="https://thewire.in/rights/nia-raids-62-andhra-pradesh-telangana-maoist">coordinated raids</a> against human rights activists in the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, related to the “Maoist conspiracy” case in the village of Munchingiputtu. </p>
<p>TV journalist Pangi Nagannna <a href="https://menafn.com/1107181625/NIA-Arrests-Andhra-Pradesh-Resident-In-Connection-With-Munchingiputtu-Maoist-Conspiracy">had been arrested</a> by Munchingiputtu police in November 2020 for allegedly acting as a Maoist “courier”.</p>
<p>He was charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (and various sections of the Indian Penal Code), along with 63 others. He then reportedly named several activists associated with organisations linked to the outlawed <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_India_(Maoist)">Communist Party of India (Maoist) </a> – thus revealing a conspiracy to aid a Maoist insurgency.</p>
<p>These raids involve the confiscation of electronic devices vital to activists’ work. They are designed to intimidate and suppress advocacy.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/india-elections-who-are-narendra-modis-main-rivals-and-can-they-beat-him-114525">India elections: who are Narendra Modi's main rivals – and can they beat him?</a>
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<h2>Newsclick raids</h2>
<p>On October 3, Prabir Purkayastha and Amit Chakravarty, of the news organisation <a href="https://www.newsclick.in/">Newsclick</a>, were subjected to <a href="https://thewire.in/media/delhi-police-conducts-early-morning-raids-at-houses-of-journalists-satirists">police raids</a>. So were 50 other journalists and contributors – including historians, activists and satirists.</p>
<p>Purkayastha and Chakravarty were charged under the the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, as well as with criminal conspiracy and promoting social enmity.</p>
<p>The basis appeared to be a two-month-old <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/05/world/europe/neville-roy-singham-china-propaganda.html">New York Times report</a> that alleged, with <a href="https://scroll.in/article/1057147/nyts-report-has-been-weaponised-against-indian-journalists-i-had-warned-the-paper-about-it">weak evidence</a>, that Newsclick had received funds from an American, Neville Roy Singham, to “sprinkle” its coverage with “Chinese government talking points”. </p>
<p>Since 2010, <a href="https://thewire.in/media/16-indian-journalists-have-been-charged-under-uapa-7-are-currently-behind-bars">16 journalists</a> have been charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Most of these arrests have been in the Modi era. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/divided-indian-diaspora-in-australia-tops-concerns-for-narendra-modi-visit-205993">Divided Indian diaspora in Australia tops concerns for Narendra Modi visit</a>
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<h2>An alleged conspiracy and a ‘puppet’</h2>
<p>In August, Bharatiya Janata Party politicians and ministers Nishikant Dubey, Anuraj Thakur and Rajeev Chandrasekhar used the New York Times report to <a href="https://thewire.in/politics/bjp-mp-nishikant-dubey-rahul-gandhi-newsclick-independent-journalists-chinese-links-nyt-report">allege a conspiracy</a> between the opposition Congress Party and Rahul Gandhi, Newsclick and the Chinese government, to “break India” and prevent “India’s rise”. </p>
<p>The Bharatiya Janata Party has also claimed Rahul Gandhi is a <a href="https://twitter.com/BJP4India/status/1709819569450471817?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1709819569450471817%7Ctwgr%5E5c6f952b45acfff22946e46aab6e999906ebc58d%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.businesstoday.in%2Flatest%2Fpolitics%2Fstory%2Frahul-gandhi-as-new-age-ravan-pm-modi-as-adani-puppet-poster-war-erupts-between-bjp-congress-401027-2023-10-06">puppet</a> of billionaire investor George Soros.</p>
<p>In March, Gandhi had been convicted over his comments that “all thieves have Modi as [their] common surname”, which were deemed insulting to the prime minister. He was sentenced to two years’ jail, meaning he lost his parliamentary seat. An appeal to the Supreme Court saw his <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/04/rahul-gandhi-wins-supreme-court-appeal-against-defamation-conviction">conviction suspended</a> on August 4 (the day before the New York Times report), allowing him to return to parliament and contest next year’s national elections.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-modis-india-has-become-a-dangerous-place-for-muslims-132591">Why Modi's India has become a dangerous place for Muslims</a>
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<h2>Dissent shrinking under ‘flawed democracy’</h2>
<p>As Roy has long pointed out, India has always been a <a href="https://www.penguin.co.in/book/broken-republic-2/">flawed democracy</a> with overly centralised <a href="https://journalofdemocracy.org/articles/the-authoritarian-roots-of-indias-democracy/">governance</a> structures that breed discontent, a <a href="https://scroll.in/article/951661/is-there-a-hindu-bias-in-indias-secular-constitution-a-2005-academic-paper-suggests-as-much">constitution</a> with elements favouring the Hindu majority, and laws that stifle free speech. </p>
<p>However, the space for dissent has dramatically shrunk in the past decade under Modi’s authoritarian populist leadership. </p>
<p>The government’s new information technology <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/global-net-freedom-on-the-decline-indias-censorship-regime-creating-uneven-playing-field-freedom-house-report/article67384799.ece">rules</a> require social media companies to use AI moderation to identify and remove fake, false or misleading news related to the government. In 2020, the government issued more than 9,800 take-down orders.</p>
<p>The subjects of these <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/6k-social-media-content-takedown-orders-this-year-101623014539309.html">orders</a> have included a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0dkb144">BBC documentary that was critical of Modi</a>, criticism of the government’s COVID policies, and support of farmer protests against India’s agricultural policies. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The Indian government’s social media take-down orders included a BBC documentary critival of Modi.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The government has used <a href="https://scroll.in/article/897932/income-tax-raids-on-raghav-bahl-quint-and-news-minute-raise-questions-of-media-intimidation">tax investigations</a>, <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/08/06/umar-khalid-india-modi/">accusations of terrorism</a> and <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/8/4/indias-supreme-court-suspends-rahul-gandhis-defamation-conviction">criminal defamation cases</a> against its critics and opponents. </p>
<p>Courts often <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2016/05/25/stifling-dissent/criminalization-peaceful-expression-india">dismiss cases</a> (like Rahul Gandhi’s) based on laws that criminalise peaceful expression. But their record is patchy, and the drawn-out legal process imposes heavy financial and personal penalties on the accused. This leads many to withdraw comments – with chilling effects on free speech. </p>
<p>Hailed as the world’s largest democracy, India risks becoming the world’s largest autocracy, with consequences for the whole world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215524/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Priya Chacko receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Arundhati Roy’s prosecution is just one of a series of actions by Narendra Modi’s government against its opponents – including journalists, activists, students and opposing politicians.Priya Chacko, Senior Lecturer in International Politics, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2143132023-10-04T16:21:02Z2023-10-04T16:21:02ZCanada-India crisis: India’s post-colonial era explains why it’s on edge about Sikh separatism<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/canada-india-crisis-indias-post-colonial-era-explains-why-its-on-edge-about-sikh-separatism" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>India has reportedly told Canada to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-66991662">withdraw about 40 of its diplomats</a>. Any Canadian diplomats in India past Oct. 10 are expected to lose their immunity. The high-profile diplomatic crisis has confirmed rumours of longstanding tensions between the two countries over the issue of Sikh separatism in the Indian state of Punjab. </p>
<p>Those tensions went global after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/09/18/hardeep-singh-nijjar-canada-india/">alleged in Canada’s Parliament that the Indian government was complicit in the murder of Canadian-Sikh independence activist</a>, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, on Canadian soil. </p>
<p>India vociferously denied Canada’s claims, labelling them “absurd” and “politically motivated” to “<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/25/unpacking-india-canada-tensions-amid-trudeaus-bombshell-allegations">shift the focus from Khalistani separatists</a> who have been provided shelter in Canada and continue to threaten Indian sovereignty.”</p>
<h2>The facts so far</h2>
<p>Here’s what we know about the diplomatic crisis now in the international spotlight.</p>
<p>Canada <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/24/americas/canada-five-eyes-india-hardeep-singh-nijjar-intl-hnk/index.html#:%7E:text=Intelligence%20gained%20by%20the%20%E2%80%9CFive,Ambassador%20to%20Canada%20said%20Sunday.">received information from its partners in Five Eyes</a> — an intelligence-sharing pact between the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — that there was foreign interference in the murder of Nijjar, a prominent member of the Sikh community in Surrey, British Columbia.</p>
<p>Nijjar, a Canadian citizen wanted in India for alleged terrorist acts, was part of the Khalistan movement calling for a Sikh homeland separate from India’s Punjab state. The movement is controversial because of <a href="https://theprint.in/world/guns-gangs-extremism-how-nexus-of-organised-crime-and-sikh-separatism-took-root-in-canada/1773759/">its organized violence against Indian officials and terrorism-motivated tactics</a>. </p>
<p>At the time of his death in June 2023, Nijjar had been <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/25/unpacking-india-canada-tensions-amid-trudeaus-bombshell-allegations">organizing an unofficial referendum among the Sikh diaspora in North America, Europe and Australia to validate the call for an independent Sikh homeland</a>. </p>
<p>The Indian government has accused Canada of harbouring anti-Indian extremists many times, most notably at the recent <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/12/trudeau-leaves-india-after-aircraft-issues-delayed-departure-from-rocky-g20">G20 summit in India,</a> when Prime Minister Narendra Modi pulled Trudeau aside for a stern exchange. </p>
<p>Trade talks were subsequently halted <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/15/canada-hits-pause-on-trade-mission-to-india-after-tensions-at-g20-summit#:%7E:text=Most%20recently%2C%20during%20last%20weekend's,handling%20of%20recent%20Sikh%20protests.">between India and Canada</a> following the tensions at the summit. India and Canada have each expelled diplomats from their respective countries, and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/india-visa-service-suspension-canada-faq-1.6975990">India has suspended visas for Canadians</a> as the diplomatic crisis deepens.</p>
<h2>Still to be revealed</h2>
<p>Many details haven’t been divulged about the ongoing standoff.</p>
<p>Trudeau has yet to reveal the “credible evidence” provided by Five Eyes linking India to the crime. While <a href="https://www.business-standard.com/world-news/us-supports-canada-s-efforts-in-probe-against-india-over-killing-of-nijjar-123092200019_1.html">American officials support Canada’s efforts to investigate India</a> over Nijjar’s murder and have rejected suggestions there’s a wedge between the U.S. and Canada over the issue, there is still no tangible substantiation of Indian involvement.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/26/indian-government-sikh-activist-hardeep-singh-nijjar-murder-canada-fbi-warning">FBI has warned American-Sikh activists that their lives are in danger</a>, while U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/23/india-canada-row-blinken-calls-on-delhi-to-cooperate-in-push-for-accountability-over-killing">India to co-operate with Canada and ensure “accountability”</a> over the killing. But that doesn’t necessarily mean the Indian government had a hand in Nijjar’s murder.</p>
<p>At this point, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/19/trudeau-india-expulsions-canada-sikh-leader-killed">tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions</a>, visa restrictions
by India and a <a href="https://travel.gc.ca/destinations/india">Canadian travel advisory</a> are retaliatory measures by two callow governments that are allowing respective domestic political anxieties to unfurl on the global stage.</p>
<h2>Fraught history</h2>
<p>India has a painful history with separatism after it gained independence from British colonialism in 1947. <a href="https://www.history.ox.ac.uk/why-was-british-india-partitioned-in-1947-considering-the-role-of-muhammad-ali-0#:%7E:text=In%20August%201947%20British%20India,%2C%20present%2Dday%20Bangladesh">Partition carved the country up and created Pakistan</a>.), a separate homeland for former Indian Muslims. </p>
<p>Shortly after that, diplomatic and later militaristic crisis over <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indias-jammu-kashmir-gets-first-foreign-investment-dubais-emaar-2023-03-20/">Jammu and Kashmir</a> unfolded, which culminated in two wars between India and Pakistan and several armed engagements.</p>
<p>Even today, Jammu and Kashmir are contested territories with <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/13/why-indias-revival-of-civil-militias-in-kashmir-is-raising-fears">ongoing Kashmiri insurgencies</a> that have had both Indian and Pakistani authorities on edge for more than 75 years.</p>
<p>Similarly, there are ethnic tensions and demands for self-determination <a href="https://www.outlookindia.com/national/punjab-to-manipur-a-look-at-india-s-separatist-movements-news-321007">in Manipur</a>. The parallel rise of Naga nationalism in neighbouring Nagaland is also a thorny issue for Indian authorities. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/manipur-violence-why-has-indias-government-been-slow-to-respond-210785">Manipur violence: Why has India's government been slow to respond?</a>
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<p>There are also a number of secessionist movements in northeast states, including Assam, aimed at <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/elections/history-of-separatism-in-the-conflicted-northeastern-state-of-nagaland-1195265.html">establishing sovereignty for Indigenous people through armed struggle</a>. </p>
<p>The rising threat of Khalistan — by no means new, but the most organized and successful in terms of funding from the India global diaspora — has heightened hysteria in India. </p>
<h2>Existential crisis</h2>
<p>On one hand, <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/india-rising-soft-power-and-the-worlds-largest-democracy/">India is the largest democracy in the world</a>, <a href="https://www.livemint.com/economy/indias-gdp-growth-seen-at-6-2-in-fy24-fastest-among-major-economies-reuters-poll-11695791164910.html">the fifth-largest and fastest-growing major economy of the world</a>, the fastest growing population in the world and a regional superpower. </p>
<p>On the other hand, India’s <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-hold-top-spot-economic-growth-risks-downside-remain-2023-09-27/">secessionist movements represent an existential crisis</a> threatening everything India has worked towards for the past 76 years. </p>
<p>Nijjar’s murder, however, is also a matter of grave importance for Canada. If the Indian government was in fact involved in the murder of a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil, it would represent a serious violation of Canadian sovereignty that cannot be disregarded.</p>
<p>But it’s worth noting Trudeau’s Liberals have been <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/poilievre-s-conservatives-maintain-summer-lead-over-trudeau-s-liberals-poll-1.6579307">losing ground to the Conservative Party of Canada in public opinion polls</a> for months. Given the Sikh diaspora in Canada — the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/09/20/canada-india-tensions-sikh-population/">largest community of Punjabis outside India</a> — has traditionally voted Liberal, <a href="https://www.afr.com/policy/foreign-affairs/diaspora-politics-are-behind-the-canada-india-blow-up-20230925-p5e7j8">some regard Trudeau’s focus on Nijjar’s murder as political opportunism</a>. </p>
<p>But after <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-singh-how-it-will-work-1.6393710">Trudeau struck a deal to work together with the NDP</a> — <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/jagmeet-singh-the-man-who-pulls-trudeaus-strings-on-the-khalistan-issue/articleshow/103830959.cms?from=mdr">headed by Jagmeet Singh, a self-proclaimed Khalistani supporter</a> — it would be difficult for him to disregard Sikh rights.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Jagmeet Singh discusses the bombshell accusation about India’s involvement in Nijjar’s death. (Economic Times)</span></figcaption>
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<p>Trudeau may view the Nijjar incident as a lifeboat that could help keep him keep afloat as his popularity sinks. But that could easily have a disastrous impact with <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/9/27/india-wants-to-take-on-trudeau-its-taking-down-its-own-diaspora">other segments of the Indian diaspora</a>, especially Hindus who oppose Sikh separatism and might now be dealing with racist assumptions about Indians following the prime minister’s allegations.</p>
<p>It’s clear Trudeau has placed a domestic battle from a distant land in the international spotlight as he’s challenged a rising superpower.</p>
<p>But both Canada and India will need to calculate the risks and repercussions of such a high-profile diplomatic rift in a highly globalized world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214313/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Noor Mirza does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>India’s secessionist movements represent an existential crisis threatening everything India has worked towards for the past 76 years.Noor Mirza, Researcher, Balsillie School of International AffairsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2134562023-10-01T19:16:37Z2023-10-01T19:16:37ZCloser relations between Australia and India have the potential to benefit both nations<p>The structure of Andrew Charlton’s <a href="https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/australia-s-pivot-india">Australia’s Pivot to India</a> is built on three promises: the promise of India; the promise of the Australia-India relationship; and the promise of the Indian diaspora becoming a powerful mainstream force in Australian politics. </p>
<p>At a time when the Indian diaspora is attracting attention globally, this book – launched on Wednesday by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese – will be read, and read widely. </p>
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<p><em>Review: Australia’s Pivot to India – Andrew Charlton (Black Inc.)</em></p>
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<p>Unfortunately, the successes of the diaspora have been temporarily overshadowed by the Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/justin-trudeaus-india-accusation-complicates-western-efforts-to-rein-in-china-213922">accusation</a> that Indian government agents were involved in the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Vancouver. Nijjar was an advocate for a separate Khalistan Sikh state and the government of India believed he was involved in terrorist activities. India has categorically denied Trudeau’s charge.</p>
<p>Written for a discerning but popular audience, Australia’s Pivot to India is an elegant volume that treads ground familiar to those who have followed the bilateral relationship. The book serves as a primer and a political manifesto embedded in Charlton’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldview">weltanschauung</a>. It is written with finesse and fluency, but hurriedly: there is at least one sentence borrowed from my writings, used without attribution. </p>
<p>Charlton, the federal member for Parramatta and a rising star of the Australian Labor Party, is a believer. He is persuaded by India’s contemporary success and advocates the need for even greater intimacy between New Delhi and Canberra. For him, India’s rise is almost inevitable. As he puts it: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>For all its twists and turns, India’s journey has brought it to a point of extraordinary promise. Just as the twentieth century was said to be the American Century, and the nineteenth century was the Age of Empire, we may well end the twenty-first century with India on top. </p>
<p>India is already the largest nation in the world by population. And it’s growing so quickly that by 2070 its population should rival that of China, the United States and the European Union combined. India also has the fastest economic growth of any major nation. It has the second-largest armed forces and the fastest growing military capability in the world. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Will this book, and the earlier Peter Varghese report <a href="https://www.dfat.gov.au/publications/trade-and-investment/india-economic-strategy/ies/index.html">An India Economic Strategy to 2035</a>, do for India what the <a href="https://press.anu.edu.au/publications/series/china-update/china-next-twenty-years-reform-and-development">Ross Garnaut report</a> and Kevin Rudd’s writings did for China three decades ago? </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/india-has-landed-on-the-moon-heres-what-the-political-and-economic-gains-are-212313">India has landed on the Moon: here's what the political and economic gains are</a>
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<h2>Amrit Kaal</h2>
<p>Charlton’s book is dedicated to the people of Parramatta and the Indian diaspora across Australia. But his India-focused political vision speaks beyond the Little India of his Parramatta electorate.</p>
<p>For his electorate and the Indian audience of his book, Charlton is preaching to the converted. Indians, including its diaspora across the world, believe in India’s rise probably more strongly than the most generous outsider. </p>
<p>While the Chinese were content to emerge after just 150 years of Western humiliation, many Indians believe Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of <a href="https://www.investindia.gov.in/team-india-blogs/new-india-amrit-kaal">Amrit Kaal</a> – literally the “age of immortality” – will see the return of the “Golden Age” of India after nearly 2000 years of suppression. Amrit Kaal refers to the period between 75 years and 100 years of India’s independence (2022-2047): a period in which it is projected that India will transition to become a developed country.</p>
<p>While Charlton focuses on India’s staggering demographics and its growth story, more recent news has also celebrated the country’s rise. As the Economist <a href="https://www.economist.com/asia/2023/09/07/the-g20-summit-will-be-a-resounding-success-for-india">recently suggested</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>In 2008 China used the Beijing Olympic games as a “coming-out party” to show itself off to the world. For India, the Presidency of the G20 has served much the same purpose.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The <a href="https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/meetings/international-summit/2023/09/09-10/">G-20 Summit in September</a> demonstrated India’s convening power and its ability to generate a consensus at what is arguably the most important forum engaged with the globe’s most consequential problems. The summit, and 200-odd meetings held all over India this year, brought the diversity, colour and genius of the Indian people onto the world stage with a new confidence.</p>
<h2>Civilisational strength</h2>
<p>Soft power is too vulgar, too belittling a term, to describe arguably the most resilient source of India’s power: a civilisational strength often suppressed by a lack of self-confidence. This has changed, and changed in such a way that India is being perceived as a key destination for dialogue and debate over the most contentious of issues. </p>
<p>Despite the seductive force of realpolitik, India seems to be able to retain its core values and its space, as well as its conscience. The theme of India’s G-20 presidency – <em>Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam</em>: a Sanskrit term meaning one earth, one family, one future – signalled this. The theme was fleshed out in the <a href="https://www.g20.org/content/dam/gtwenty/gtwenty_new/document/G20-New-Delhi-Leaders-Declaration.pdf">G20 New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We meet at a defining moment in history where the decisions we make now will determine the future of our people and our planet. It is with the philosophy of living in harmony with our surrounding ecosystem that we commit to concrete actions to address global challenges.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Simultaneously, India has become the voice for an alternative technological vision. Just ahead of the summit, <a href="https://datatopics.worldbank.org/g20fidata/">World Bank G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion</a> released a document that endorsed the transformative impact in India of <a href="https://www.ibm.com/topics/api">Application Programming Interfaces</a> (APIs), which allow different computer programs to communicate with each other. </p>
<p>It pointed out that a comprehensive data coordination system, known as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JAM_Yojana">JAM trinity</a>, has increased rates of participation in the Indian financial system from 25% in 2008 to over 80% of adults in last six years, and that it could do for much for the world. </p>
<p>The government established an electronic identification system, known as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aadhaar">Aadhaar</a>, which provides a unique identification number, based on biometrics, to everyone resident in India. Its electronic financial inclusion program, the <a href="https://www.pmindia.gov.in/en/major_initiatives/pradhan-mantri-jan-dhan-yojana/">Jan Dhan Yojana</a>, lets every citizen open a bank account, which provides access to a debit card, accident insurance cover, an overdraft facility and transfer of all direct benefits from the government. All transactions can be done through a mobile phone. </p>
<p>This technology is part of what has come to be known as the <a href="https://indiastack.org/">India Stack</a> – open-access software that can be provided to all those interested in the Global South. </p>
<p>India’s insistence on the African Union’s inclusion in the now G-21 was also rooted in this “alternative” vision of not losing your heart, even while being dictated by your head.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/au-and-g20-membership-will-give-africa-more-say-on-global-issues-if-it-speaks-with-one-voice-213737">AU and G20: membership will give Africa more say on global issues – if it speaks with one voice</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>Mutual understanding</h2>
<p>All of these developments complement the argument Charlton develops in Australia’s Pivot to India and will surely find place in the next edition of the book. The bulk of his book is concerned with examining the past, present and future of the bilateral relationship.</p>
<p>Charlton does well to look beyond the clichés of the “3Cs”: Commonwealth, cuisine and cricket. He considers multiple sectors where there are enormous opportunities for the relationship to grow. The “3Cs” lead to the “4Ds”: democracy, defence, <em>dosti</em> (friendship) and the diaspora. </p>
<p>Business, politics, media, education and culture are also identified by Charlton as potential areas of development. As he incisively points out: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Australia’s pivot to India should aspire to build a distinctive relationship that goes beyond transactional engagement and circumstantial alignment […] the essence of the partnership is to deepen the relationship with mutual investment in common endeavours across every sphere of our interactions. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The aim should be “to increase mutual understanding, build relationships and breed familiarity”. With their “expertise and energy”, the almost one-million-strong diaspora can play a key role in cementing the relationship and is therefore a “vital part of Australia’s pivot to India”.</p>
<p>In fleshing out areas of cooperation, Charlton illustrates the huge potential of the Australia-India partnership. As I have written in the foreword of historian Meg Gurry’s book on the <a href="https://www.mup.com.au/books/australia-and-india-mapping-the-journey-electronic-book-text">bilateral relationship</a> (the only full-length study on the relationship, which Charlton cites extensively): </p>
<blockquote>
<p>After six decades characterised by misperception, lack of trust, neglect, missed opportunities and even hostility, a new chapter in India’s relations with Australia has begun.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Consider this: in 1955, Robert Menzies decided Australia should not take part in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Bandung-Conference">Bandung Afro-Asian</a> conference, which had been organised by India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Burma (Myanmar) and Ceylon (Sri Lanka). In doing so, Menzies – who would later confess that Occidentals did not understand India – alienated Indians, offended Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and left Australia unsure about its Asian identity for decades.</p>
<p>In 2011, when I became the inaugural director of the <a href="https://aii.unimelb.edu.au/">Australia India Institute</a> (whose seminal role in building the bilateral relationship Charlton almost completely ignores), I made a giant leap of faith. I had not visited Australia before and had little knowledge of the country. My friends warned me I was literally going “Down Under”, soon to become irrelevant and marginal to all policy issues in India. My teenage daughters were told they risked being bashed up in school and college. My extended family was astounded.</p>
<p>But today I have no doubt it was one of the best decisions of my life. With not one unpleasant experience in the country, as a family we have found Australians open, friendly, fair, accepting and generous, and the country a model of good governance.</p>
<p>In September 2014, when Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott visited India – <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-03/first-meeting-for-tony-abbott-and-india27s-new-leader-narendra/5716150">the first</a> stand-alone state visit to be hosted by the Modi government – he brought a sordid chapter of bilateral relations to a close. When asked why Australia had agreed to export uranium to India, which is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Abbott was unequivocal: “We trust you!” </p>
<p>No better declaration could have been made to reflect the new Australian belief in the promise and potential of this relationship, for it was the deficit of understanding and faith that severely undermined the relationship in the past. </p>
<p>In a reciprocal gesture, in November of that year, Mr Modi became the first Indian prime minister to visit Australia <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/indian-prime-minister-narendra-modi-draws-thousands-to-sydney-olympic-park-20141117-11oe5f.html">in 28 years</a>, adding new ballast to the relationship. Since then, the bilateral relationship has grown in strength, and across the board.</p>
<p>Today there are few countries in the Indo-Pacific which share so much in common, in both values and interests, than India and Australia. From water management and clean energy, to trauma research, skills and higher education, counter-terrorism, maritime and cybersecurity, there is a world of opportunities that awaits the two countries if they work in close coordination with each other.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213456/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amitabh Mattoo was the inaugural director of the Australia India Institute.</span></em></p>Today there are few countries in the Indo-Pacific which share so much in common, in both values and interests, than India and Australia. Andrew Charlton’s new book examines the possibilities.Amitabh Mattoo, Honorary Professor of International Relations, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2135242023-09-27T12:27:58Z2023-09-27T12:27:58ZWhy some Indians want to change the country’s name to ‘Bharat’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550340/original/file-20230926-15-ivocio.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C23%2C7774%2C5171&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomes delegates to the G20 leaders summit in front of a placard reading 'Bharat,' the Hindi word for 'India.'</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/british-prime-minister-rishi-sunak-and-us-president-joe-news-photo/1669134258?adppopup=true">Dan Kitwood/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When India invited delegates attending the G20 summit in September 2023 to dinner with “<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-66716541">the President of Bharat</a>,” rather than “the President of India,” it may have looked to the world like a simple case of postcolonial course correction. </p>
<p>The word “India” is, after all, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-does-turkey-want-other-countries-to-start-spelling-its-name-turkiye-199390">an exonym</a> – a placename given by outsiders. In this case, the name came from the British, who ruled the subcontinent from 1858 to 1947, <a href="https://theconversation.com/colonialism-in-india-was-traumatic-including-for-some-of-the-british-officials-who-ruled-the-raj-77068">a violent period of colonialism</a> that later came to be called “the British Raj.” </p>
<p>“Bharat,” on the other hand, is the word for “India” in Hindi, by far <a href="https://www.forbesindia.com/article/news-by-numbers/hindi-day-2020-indias-mostspoken-languages-are/62577/1">the most spoken language in the nation</a>. Alongside English, Hindi is one of two languages used in <a href="https://qz.com/india/1712711/indias-constitution-is-over-30-times-as-long-as-the-us">the Indian Constitution</a>, with versions written in each language.</p>
<p>“Bharat” may, therefore, look like a well-reasoned and uncontroversial replacement for a term anointed long ago by outsiders – something akin to how <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-43821512">Eswatini</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1980/08/26/archives/zimbabwe-is-welcomed-into-un-independence-achieved-in-april.html">Zimbabwe</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-13072774">Burkina Faso</a> updated their countries’ names from the colonial designations “Swaziland,” “Rhodesia” and “Upper Volta,” respectively. </p>
<p>But the use of “Bharat” has <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/6/india-or-bharat-whats-behind-the-dispute-over-the-countrys-name">elicited outcry</a> from the political opposition, some Muslims, and Hindu conservatives in the south, reflecting ongoing tensions in India between language, religion and politics. </p>
<h2>Two different language families</h2>
<p>My book with fellow linguist <a href="https://julietetelandresen.com/">Julie Tetel Andresen</a>, “<a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Languages+In+The+World%3A+How+History%2C+Culture%2C+and+Politics+Shape+Language+-p-9781118531280">Languages in the World: How History, Culture, and Politics Shape Language</a>,” covers the language history and politics of India.</p>
<p>Hindi is the most-spoken language in India, but its use is largely relegated to a part of the country that linguists refer to as “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hindi-language">the Hindi belt</a>,” a massive region in northern, central and eastern India where Hindi is the official or primary language.</p>
<p>Around 1500 B.C.E., a group of outsiders from Central Asia – known now as the <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/society/history-and-culture/theres-no-confusion-the-new-reports-clearly-confirm-arya-migration-into-india/article61986135.ece">Indo-Aryans</a> – began migrating and settling in what is now northern India. They spoke a language that would eventually become <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sanskrit-language">Sanskrit</a>. As groups of these speakers separated from one another and spread out over northern India, their spoken Sanskrit changed over time, becoming distinctive.</p>
<p>Most of the languages spoken in northern India today – Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali and Gujarati, among many others – derive from this history. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550428/original/file-20230926-21-ur64w0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map of India highlighting predominant languages spoken in various regions." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550428/original/file-20230926-21-ur64w0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550428/original/file-20230926-21-ur64w0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550428/original/file-20230926-21-ur64w0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550428/original/file-20230926-21-ur64w0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550428/original/file-20230926-21-ur64w0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=748&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550428/original/file-20230926-21-ur64w0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=748&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550428/original/file-20230926-21-ur64w0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=748&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Different languages are predominantly spoken in different parts of India.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/indian-map-with-official-languages-of-indian-royalty-free-illustration/1490281073?phrase=map+of+indian+languages&adppopup=true">Venkatesh Selvarajan/iStock via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But the Aryans were not the first group to inhabit the Indian subcontinent. Another group, the Dravidians, was already living in the region at the time of the Aryan migrations. They may have been <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-021-00868-w">the original inhabitants of the Indus-Valley Civilization in northern India</a>. Over the millennia, the Dravidians migrated to the southern part of the subcontinent, while the Aryans fanned out across the north. </p>
<p>Today, Dravidians number <a href="https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Dravidian_peoples">about 250 million people</a>. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Dravidian-languages">Dravidian languages</a>, such as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tamil-language">Tamil</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Telugu-language">Telugu</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Malayalam-language">Malayalam</a>, have no historical relationship and virtually no linguistic similarities to the Indo-Aryan languages of the north. </p>
<h2>Dravidians spurn Hindi</h2>
<p>By the time the Raj ended in 1947, English had been established as the language of the elites and was used in education and government. As the new nation of India took shape, Mahatma Gandhi advocated for a single Indian language to unite the diverse regions and for many years championed Hindi, <a href="https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/fact-check-did-gandhi-want-hindi-as-national-language/cid/1705408">which was already widely spoken in the north</a>.</p>
<p>But after independence, opposition to Hindi grew in the Dravidian-speaking south, where English was the favored lingua franca. For Tamils and other Dravidian groups, Hindi was associated with the Brahmin caste, whom many felt <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/why-periyar-is-still-an-influencer-in-the-political-landscape-of-tamil-nadu/periyars-movements/slideshow/63215382.cms">marginalized Dravidian languages and culture</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Portrait of a woman smiling, wearing a blue and white shawl." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550332/original/file-20230926-21-sf77gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/550332/original/file-20230926-21-sf77gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=826&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550332/original/file-20230926-21-sf77gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=826&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550332/original/file-20230926-21-sf77gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=826&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550332/original/file-20230926-21-sf77gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1039&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550332/original/file-20230926-21-sf77gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1039&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/550332/original/file-20230926-21-sf77gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1039&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Indira Gandhi pushed to codify English, alongside Hindi, as an official language in the constitution.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/indian-politician-indira-gandhi-news-photo/639614209?adppopup=true">Henri Bureau/Sygma/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For many people in the south, Hindi came to be seen as a language as foreign as English. To keep tensions from spilling over, the first prime minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, supported verbiage in the constitution adopted in 1950 <a href="https://www.uottawa.ca/clmc/language-provisions-constitution-indian-union#:%7E:text=The%20Constitution%20adopted%20in%201950,official%20language%20of%20the%20Union.">allowing for the continued use of English in government</a> for a limited period.</p>
<p>Violence nevertheless continued in the south for years around what was seen as the <a href="https://www.thenewsminute.com/tamil-nadu/history-anti-hindi-imposition-movements-tamil-nadu-102983">unfair promotion of Hindi</a>. It abated only when Indira Gandhi – Nehru’s daughter and the third prime minister of India – <a href="https://www.impriindia.com/insights/linguistic-diversity-language-policy/">pushed to codify English</a>, alongside Hindi, as an official language in the constitution.</p>
<p>Today, the Indian Constitution <a href="https://www.mha.gov.in/sites/default/files/EighthSchedule_19052017.pdf">recognizes 22 official languages</a>.</p>
<h2>Nationalists push for one official language</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/75-years-ago-britains-plan-for-pakistani-and-indian-independence-left-unresolved-conflicts-on-both-sides-especially-when-it-comes-to-kashmir-185932">The Partition of India in 1947</a> – corresponding to the dissolution of the Raj – led to the creation of Pakistan, which was set up to aggregate the majority Muslim regions from the colonial state. An independent India was set up to include the majority non-Muslim regions. </p>
<p>Today, roughly <a href="https://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/2023-05/Pakistan.pdf">97% of Pakistan’s population is Muslim</a>. In India, Hindus make up about 80% of the population, while <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-58595040">Muslims make up about 14%</a> – more than 200 million people.</p>
<p>This is where modern domestic politics come into play. </p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/20/what-is-hindu-nationalism-and-who-are-the-rss">Hindutva</a>” is a brand of far-right Hindu nationalism that emerged in the 20th century in response to colonial rule but gained its biggest following under the leadership of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Narendra-Modi">Prime Minister Narendra Modi</a> and his <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bharatiya-Janata-Party">Bharatiya Janta Party</a>, or the BJP. </p>
<p>As a political ideology, Hindu nationalism should be distinguished from Hinduism, a religion. It advances policies that seek to promote Hindu supremacy and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/05/11/modi-india-muslims-hatred-incitement/">are widely considered anti-Muslim</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/25/threat-unity-anger-over-push-make-hindi-national-language-of-india">One such policy</a> is the promotion of Hindi as the sole official language of India. Speaking in 2022 at a Parliamentary Official Language Committee meeting, <a href="https://frontline.thehindu.com/cover-story/linguistic-imperialism-bjp-pronouncements-on-promoting-hindi-spark-outrage/article38492154.ece">BJP Home Minister Amit Shah said</a>, “When citizens of states speak other languages, communicate with each other, it should be in the language of India.”</p>
<p>To Shah, the “language of India” and Hindi were one and the same.</p>
<h2>Suppressing Urdu</h2>
<p>Muslims in India speak the languages of their communities – Hindi among them – as do Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and Christians. </p>
<p>However, making Hindi the national language could be viewed as one part of a broader political project that can be characterized as anti-Muslim. That’s why the political opposition is against using “<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/6/india-or-bharat-whats-behind-the-dispute-over-the-countrys-name">Bharat</a>,” even though many Muslims are themselves Hindi speakers. </p>
<p>These politics become even clearer in the context of the BJP’s attempts <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Urdu-language">to limit the use of Urdu</a> – a language with a high degree of <a href="https://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/%7Eharoldfs/540/langdial/node2.html">mutual intelligibility</a> to Hindi – <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-61199753">in Indian public life</a>. </p>
<p>Although Urdu and Hindi are remarkably similar, their differences take on outsized religious and national significance. </p>
<p>Whereas Hindi is written in the Devanagari script, which has strong cultural associations with Hinduism, Urdu is written in the Perso-Arabic script, which has strong associations with Islam. Whereas Hindi draws on Sanskrit for new words, Urdu draws on Persian and Arabic, again emphasizing associations to Islam. And whereas Hindi predominates in India, <a href="https://www.sprachcaffe.com/english/magazine-article/what-language-is-spoken-in-pakistan.htm">Urdu is the official language of Pakistan</a>, along with English. </p>
<p>Thus the appearance of “Bharat” in official government correspondence may reopen old wounds for Muslims – and even for conservative Hindus in the Dravidian-speaking south who might otherwise support Modi and the BJP. </p>
<p>Although an official name change is unlikely in the immediate future, “Bharat” will likely continue to serve as a rallying cry for right-wing nationalists. </p>
<p>To them, the conciliatory language politics of Nehru and Indira Gandhi <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/07/15/india-nehru-history-myths-modi-bjp-politics-review/">are a thing of the past</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213524/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Phillip M. Carter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The government’s use of the Hindi word for ‘India’ revives debates over whether Hindi should be the national language – and reopens some old wounds.Phillip M. Carter, Professor of Linguistics and English, Florida International UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2137392023-09-21T12:43:34Z2023-09-21T12:43:34ZG20 summit proved naysayers wrong – and showed Global South’s potential to address world’s biggest problems<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549372/original/file-20230920-21-8kndta.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Indonesian President Joko Widodo, left, presents Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi a tree sapling during the G20 summit in New Delhi.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/joko-widodo-president-of-indonesia-presents-prime-minister-news-photo/1671163483">Dan Kitwood/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Skepticism was running high ahead of the 2023 summit of the Group of 20, or G20, held in New Delhi in early September. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/06/opinions/putin-xi-skip-g20-delhi-opportunity-andelman/index.html">announced that they would not attend</a>. At one moment, it was <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/05/biden-tests-negative-for-covid-19-days-away-from-g20-summit.html">touch and go</a> whether U.S. President Joe Biden – whose wife, Jill, was ill with COVID-19 – would make the trip. The general consensus was the group <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/05/india-geopolitics-g20.html">would fail to come up with a final declaration</a>, largely because of differences over the war in Ukraine. </p>
<p>And yet, the assembled leaders did <a href="https://www.g20.org/content/dam/gtwenty/gtwenty_new/document/G20-New-Delhi-Leaders-Declaration.pdf">release a joint declaration</a> on giving a new impetus to the World Bank, fighting climate change and dealing with infectious diseases, among other issues. One of the main outcomes was the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au-and-g20-membership-will-give-africa-more-say-on-global-issues-if-it-speaks-with-one-voice-213737">admission of the African Union</a> as a full member, much as the European Union has been from the start.</p>
<p>The final G20 statement <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/09/world/asia/g20-biden-russia-ukraine-war.html">has been criticized</a> for not specifically condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But given Moscow’s and Beijing’s stance on that war – and New Delhi’s <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/india-remaining-neutral-russias-invasion-ukraine/story?id=97891228">studiously neutral position</a> on it – that was never much in the cards. </p>
<p>And perhaps that is the point. From its beginning, the G20 was established to <a href="https://www.uschamber.com/international/g20-was-born-out-of-economic-crisis-now-is-g20s-opportunity-to-help-avoid-a-new-one">deal with global economic governance</a> issues. Yet, over time, some members have attempted to hijack it to focus on geopolitics. </p>
<p>Perhaps the time has come for the G20 – which <a href="https://www.g20.org/en/about-g20/">now consists of</a> 19 leading economies, the European Union and the African Union – to go back to basics and deal with what it’s best at: the economic, environmental and developmental challenges facing our troubled world. After all, there are already plenty of international organizations that deal with geopolitics, not least the United Nations.</p>
<h2>India’s leadership of the Global South</h2>
<p>Politics of a domestic kind was certainly in evidence during the G20. Taking place as <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/1/indias-opposition-parties-to-jointly-contest-2024-elections-against-modi">India gears up for its 2024 elections</a>, the country was plastered with G20 posters featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The emblem of the gathering was the lotus flower, which happens to be that of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP.</p>
<p>It is estimated that some 100,000 foreign delegates visited India in the year running up to the meeting, and that 15 million Indians participated in G20-related activities. </p>
<p>As Indian diplomat <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhaykr/?originalSubdomain=br">Abhay Kumar</a> told me during my visit to New Delhi a week prior to the summit, cultural events were held in all Indian states as part of the official G20 program. New Delhi itself looked as clean and green as I have ever seen it since first setting foot there 20 years ago as Chile’s ambassador to India.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549392/original/file-20230920-23-4aptm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A large poster for the G20 summit featuring India Prime Minister Narendra Modi" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549392/original/file-20230920-23-4aptm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549392/original/file-20230920-23-4aptm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549392/original/file-20230920-23-4aptm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549392/original/file-20230920-23-4aptm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549392/original/file-20230920-23-4aptm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549392/original/file-20230920-23-4aptm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549392/original/file-20230920-23-4aptm3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">For Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the 2023 summit was a chance to promote his leadership ahead of the 2024 elections.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/indian-security-personnel-stands-guard-next-to-a-g20-news-photo/1651380232">Tauseef Mustafa/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Was all this a bit much? Perhaps. But at a time when some politicians revel in decrying anything that has to do with the outside world, there is something to be said for stressing the significance of a diplomatic summit – and its meaning for the people of what is today the most populated country on Earth. </p>
<p>There is little doubt that the world is undergoing an “<a href="https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/indias-moment-on-the-g-20-summit-outcomes/article67295264.ece">India moment</a>.” The recent <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/science/india-moon-landing-photos.html">moon landing</a> of an Indian spaceship, the Indian economy growing at the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/08/indias-massive-expansion-to-be-a-driver-of-global-growth-sp-global.html">fastest clip of any major country</a>, and New Delhi flexing its diplomatic muscles big time during the G20 all burnish its credentials as a leader of what has <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-global-south-is-on-the-rise-but-what-exactly-is-the-global-south-207959">become known as the Global South</a> – and consists of various countries around the globe described as “developing.”</p>
<h2>What’s next for G20</h2>
<p>With G20 summits <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/11/16/g20-bali-leaders-declaration/">held in Indonesia in 2022</a> and India in 2023 – and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/rio-de-janeiro-host-g20-summit-2024-2023-05-09/">set for Brazil in 2024</a> – rising powers from the Global South have been able to set an agenda, stressing the priorities of the developing nations’ development, debt financing, food security and climate change. This is in contrast to the Group of Seven, or G7, which in recent years has focused on <a href="https://www.globalpolicy.org/en/news/2022-07-09/g7-summit-elmau-2022-intensified-geopolitics-overshadow-development-agenda">geopolitics and the war in Ukraine</a>. </p>
<p>But questions about the role, purpose and ultimate effectiveness of the G20 remain.</p>
<p>The group certainly inhabits a world vastly different from the one in which it was originally designed for. The G20 at the leaders’ level got off to a promising start, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Group-of-Twenty-G20/Cooper-Thakur/p/book/9780415780896">successfully managing the 2007-2008 financial crisis</a>. It served as both a steering committee for the world economy and a crisis committee to deal with threats to the world economy.</p>
<p>Yet, the G20 has struggled to stay relevant. A high point was the summit held in Hangzhou, China, in 2016, which led to a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/03/breakthrough-us-china-agree-ratify-paris-climate-change-deal">joint U.S.-China commitment</a> on lowering carbon emissions in the fight against climate change. </p>
<p>But in 2020, when the world first faced the COVID-19 pandemic, the G20 was <a href="https://www.cigionline.org/articles/covid-19-failure-g20/">deemed to have failed miserably</a>, with very little international coordination to cope with the worst pandemic in a century, and “<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9519117/">vaccine nationalism</a>” running rampant. </p>
<p>The fact that the host and chair that year was Saudi Arabia, an authoritarian regime with relatively little international credibility, did not help. Also, the inability of the G20 to come up with firmer commitments on what may be the most significant global challenge of our time – to halt the course of climate change – has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/06/world/asia/g20-summit-india.html">elicited skepticism among observers</a>.</p>
<p>From its origins as a steering and crisis committee, the G20 <a href="https://www.globalgovernanceproject.org/reinventing-the-g20/andrew-f-cooper/">has evolved into something else</a> as the world order itself has changed. In 1998-1999, when the G20 was founded at the finance ministers’ level, and in 2008-2009, when it was upped to leaders’ level, countries were, by and large, still in global governance mode: They worked together to deal with common problems. </p>
<p>In 2023, however, <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/global-development-era-great-power-competition">great power competition</a> is the order of the day, and a zero-sum rather than win-win mentality tends to prevail in the games nations play.
As the world veers toward a <a href="https://global.upenn.edu/perryworldhouse/fracturing-world-future-globalization-report-and-thought-pieces">fragmented, if not downright fractured, order</a>, the G20 serves as a hub for world leaders to meet and sort out their differences. And there is certainly a need for that – although the absence of the presidents of China and Russia from the 2023 summit puts even that condition into question. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549395/original/file-20230920-25-ytrtws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A group of world leaders on a stage" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549395/original/file-20230920-25-ytrtws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549395/original/file-20230920-25-ytrtws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549395/original/file-20230920-25-ytrtws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549395/original/file-20230920-25-ytrtws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549395/original/file-20230920-25-ytrtws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549395/original/file-20230920-25-ytrtws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549395/original/file-20230920-25-ytrtws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">BRICS leaders convened in Johannesburg, South Africa, in August 2023 and agreed to invite Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to their bloc.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/chinese-president-xi-jinping-delivers-an-important-speech-news-photo/1622826269">Xie Huanchi/Xinhua via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The way forward</h2>
<p>Some developed nations might be tempted to retreat from this evolved and enlarged G20 to the comfort zone of the G7 – the group of most-developed nations, where everybody thinks and for the most part dresses alike – and attempt to steer global economic governance from there, as was done in the last quarter of the 20th century.</p>
<p>But that ship has sailed. The G7 today represents just <a href="https://www.statista.com/chart/27687/g7-share-of-global-gdp-and-population">10% of humanity</a> and <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/economic-policy/how-brics-countries-have-overtaken-the-g7-in-gdp-based-on-ppps/">30% of the world’s Gross Domestic Product</a>. This is in contrast to the 42% of the world’s population and 36% of the world’s GDP <a href="https://www.usip.org/publications/2023/08/what-brics-expansion-means-blocs-founding-members">embodied by the newly expanded BRICS group</a>, consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The North Atlantic countries no longer rule the roost and must come to terms with the geoeconomic and geopolitical realities of the new century. </p>
<p>The very reason the G20 was set up in 1999 was because the <a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/paul-blustein/the-chastening/9780786724697/?lens=publicaffairs">G7 could not deal with</a> the Asian financial crisis at the time, and needed a broader entity to cope with it. A quarter of a century later, with Asia <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Blogs/Articles/2023/05/01/asia-poised-to-drive-global-economic-growth-boosted-by-chinas-reopening#:%7E:text=Growth%20in%20Asia%20and%20the,the%20rest%20of%20the%20world.">representing a much larger share</a> of the world economy than it did then, this is even truer now.</p>
<p>The G20 has its faults, but it still performs a useful function to help the world economy navigate perilous waters, as globalization beats a retreat and the dangers of a fractured international system loom larger. I believe the G20 should be further built up and nurtured, not cavalierly dismissed. The world would be poorer without it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213739/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jorge Heine is a research professor at the Pardee Schoom of Global Studies, Boston University. A past VP of the International Political Science Association ( IPSA) he was previously ambassador of Chile to China, to
India and to South Africa. He has also served as a Cabinet minister in the Chilean government.</span></em></p>The G20 has its critics, but an expert on international politics explains why it still performs a useful function – particularly in this period of great geopolitical divisions.Jorge Heine, Interim Director of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2139602023-09-20T12:26:26Z2023-09-20T12:26:26ZWhy India fears the Khalistan movement and how Canada became embroiled in diplomatic spat over killing of Sikh separatist<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549211/original/file-20230920-27-ybhlcd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C51%2C3828%2C2531&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in happier times.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/canadian-prime-minister-justin-trudeau-with-pm-narendra-news-photo/923312238?adppopup=true">Vipin Kumar/Hindustan Times via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>India and Canada have engaged in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/09/19/india-expels-canada-diplomat-sikh-assassination/">tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions</a> as part of an escalating row over the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/canada-india-killing-sikh-activist-hardeep-singh-nijjar-rcna105749#:%7E:text=Nijjar%2C%2045%2C%20was%20shot%20and,Trudeau%20told%20Parliament%20on%20Monday.">killing of a Sikh separatist leader</a> on Canadian soil.</em></p>
<p><em>The expulsions follow claims by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that there are “<a href="https://abc13.com/canada-investigating-credible-allegations-linked-to-sikh-leaders/13799637/">credible allegations</a>” linking the Indian government of Narendra Modi with the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/canada-india-sikh-trudeau-modi-nijjar-fb390e4a45d167711db4f96681edd0a2#:%7E:text=NEW%20DELHI%20(AP)%20%E2%80%94%20Hardeep,a%20terrorist%20by%20India's%20government.">death of Hardeep Singh Nijjar</a>. Nijjar, a prominent member of the Khalistan movement seeking to create an independent Sikh homeland in the Indian state of Punjab, was shot dead on June 18, 2023, outside a Sikh cultural center in Surrey, British Columbia.</em></p>
<p><em>With tensions between the two countries rising, The Conversation reached out to <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=LVf6UHIAAAAJ&hl=en">Mark Juergensmeyer</a> – an expert on religious violence and Sikh nationalism – at the University of California, Santa Barbara, to bring context to a diplomatic spat few saw coming.</em></p>
<h2>1. What is the Khalistan movement?</h2>
<p>“Khalistan” means “the land of the pure,” though in this context the term “khalsa” refers broadly to the religious community of Sikhs, and the term “Khalistan” implies that <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/what-is-khalistan-movement-why-is-it-fuelling-india-canada-rift-2023-09-19/">they should have their own nation</a>. The likely location for this nation would be in Punjab state in northern India where <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/religionglobalsociety/2023/01/rethinking-religion-and-nationalism-the-case-of-the-sikhs/">18 million Sikhs live</a>. A further 8 million Sikhs <a href="https://doi.org/10.4000/osb.5894">live elsewhere in India and abroad</a>, mainly in the U.K., the U.S. and Canada. </p>
<p><iframe id="Eempy" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/Eempy/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>The idea for an independent land for Sikhs goes back to pre-partition India, when the concept of a separate land for Muslims in India was being considered.</p>
<p>Some Sikhs at that time thought that if Muslims could have “Pakistan” – the state that <a href="https://storyofpakistan.com/the-birth-of-pakistan-2/">emerged through partition in 1947</a> – then there should also be a “Sikhistan,” or “Khalistan.” That idea was rejected by the Indian government, and instead the Sikhs <a href="https://punjab.global.ucsb.edu/sites/secure.lsit.ucsb.edu.gisp.d7_sp/files/sitefiles/journals/volume19/no2/Sandhu.pdf">became a part of the state of Punjab</a>. At that time the boundaries of the Punjab were drawn in such a way that the Sikhs were not in the majority. </p>
<p>But Sikhs persisted, in part because one of the central tenets of the faith is “<a href="https://sikhri.org/articles/miri-piri">miri-piri</a>” – the idea that religious and political leadership are merged. In their 500-year history, Sikhs <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/sikhs-of-the-punjab/sikh-empire-17991849/F392B4CF5D691DA781A20C00CCF5DC2A">have had their own kingdom</a>, have fought against Moghul rule and constituted the <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/gallant-and-patriotic-how-sikhs-shaped-armed-forces/articleshow/99028321.cms?from=mdr">backbone of the army</a> under India’s colonial and independent rule. </p>
<p>In the 1960s, the idea of a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-66852291">separate homeland for Sikhs</a> reemerged and formed part of the demand for redrawing the boundaries of Punjab state so that Sikhs would be in the majority. The protests were successful, and the Indian government created <a href="https://www.thesikhencyclopedia.com/historical-events-in-sikh-history/the-modern-history-of-sikhs-1947-present/punjabi-suba-movement/">Punjabi Suba</a>, a state whose boundaries included speakers of the Punjabi language used by most Sikhs. They now compose <a href="https://religionunplugged.com/news/2022/3/11/how-sikhs-became-a-new-target-of-indias-right-wing-and-voted-out-the-bjp">58% of the population</a> of the revised Punjab. </p>
<p>The notion of a “Khalistan” separate from India resurfaced in a dramatic way in the <a href="https://time.com/3545867/india-1984-sikh-genocide-anniversary/">large-scale militant uprising</a> that erupted in the Punjab in the 1980s. Many of those Sikhs who joined the militant movement did so because they wanted an independent Sikh nation, not just a Sikh-majority Indian state. </p>
<h2>2. Why is the Indian government especially concerned about it now?</h2>
<p>The Sikh uprising in the 1980s was a violent encounter <a href="https://time.com/3545867/india-1984-sikh-genocide-anniversary/">between the Indian armed police and militant young Sikhs</a>, many of whom still harbored a yearning for a separate state in Punjab. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549219/original/file-20230920-29-o3pv4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Several men, wearing yellow or blue turbans and flowing white shirts, standing inside a building, while holding guns." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549219/original/file-20230920-29-o3pv4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549219/original/file-20230920-29-o3pv4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=843&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549219/original/file-20230920-29-o3pv4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=843&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549219/original/file-20230920-29-o3pv4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=843&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549219/original/file-20230920-29-o3pv4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1060&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549219/original/file-20230920-29-o3pv4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1060&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/549219/original/file-20230920-29-o3pv4f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1060&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Sikh leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, seated center, with his followers in Amritsar, on April 17, 1984.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/IndiaJarnailBhindranwale/ac229078c41d41359643bf9de67da2cb/photo?Query=operation%20bluestar&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1050&currentItemNo=2&vs=true">AP Photo/Sondeep Shanker</a></span>
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<p>Thousands of lives were lost on both sides in <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/10/29/india-no-justice-1984-anti-sikh-bloodshed">violent encounters between the Sikh militants and security forces</a>. The conflict came to a head in 1984 when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-history/operation-bluestar-history-explained-8648026/">launched Operation Blue Star</a> to liberate the Sikh’s Golden Temple from militants in the pilgrimage center of Amritsar and capture or kill the figurehead of the Khalistan movement, Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. He was killed in the attack, and Sikhs around the world were incensed that their sacred place was violated by police action. Indira Gandhi was <a href="https://warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/features/indira-gandhi-assassination/">assassinated in retaliation</a> by Sikh members of her own bodyguard. </p>
<p>In recent years, several firebrand Sikh activists in India have reasserted the idea of Khalistan, and the Indian government <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/22/india/india-separatist-khalistan-movement-explainer-intl-hnk/index.html">fears a return</a> of the violence and militancy of the 1980s. The government of Narendra Modi <a href="https://sundayguardianlive.com/news/pm-modi-seeks-action-against-khalistan-network-in-the-west">wants to nip the movement</a> in the bud before it gets too large and extreme.</p>
<h2>3. What is the connection between the Khalistan movement and Canada?</h2>
<p>After the Sikh uprising was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/16/world/a-decade-after-massacre-some-sikhs-find-justice.html">crushed in the early 1990s</a>, many Sikh activists fled India and went to Canada, where they were welcomed by a large Sikh community – many of whom had been sympathetic to the Khalistan idea. A sizable expatriate community of Sikhs has been <a href="https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-0-387-29904-4_110">growing in the country since the early 20th century</a>, especially in British Columbia and Ontario.</p>
<p>Sikhs have been attracted to Canada not only because of its economic opportunities but also because of the freedom to develop their own ideas of Sikh community. Though support for Khalistan is <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/22/india/india-separatist-khalistan-movement-explainer-intl-hnk/index.html">illegal in India</a>, in <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-history/history-khalistan-in-canada-explained-8946517/">Canada Sikh activists</a> are able to speak freely and organize for the cause.</p>
<p>Though Khalistan would be in India, the Canadian movement in favor of it helps to cement the diaspora Sikh identity and give the Canadian activists a sense of connection to the Indian homeland. </p>
<h2>4. Has the Canadian government been sympathetic to the Khalistan movement?</h2>
<p>The diaspora community of Sikhs <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/221026/dq221026b-eng.htm">constitutes 2.1% of Canada’s population</a> – a higher percentage of the total population than in India. They make up a significant voting block in the country and carry political clout. In fact, there are more Sikhs in Canada’s cabinet than in India’s.</p>
<p>Although Trudeau has assured the Indian government that any acts of violence will be punished, he also has reassured Canadians that he respects free speech and the rights of Sikhs to speak and organize freely as long as they do not violate Canadian laws. </p>
<h2>5. What is the broader context of Canada-India relations?</h2>
<p>The Bharata Janata Party, or BJP, of India’s Prime Minister Modi tends to support Hindu nationalism.</p>
<p>Recently, the Modi government <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2023/09/15/will-india-change-its-name-to-bharat">used “Bharat” rather than “India</a>” when referring to the country while hosting the G20 conference, attended by President Joe Biden, among other world dignitaries. “Bharat” is the preference of Hindu nationalists. This privileging, along with an increase in hate crimes, has led to an environment of fear and distrust among minorities, including Sikhs and Muslims, in India.</p>
<p>Considering the high percentage of Sikhs in Canada’s population, Trudeau understandably wants to assert the rights of Sikhs and show disapproval of the drift toward Hindu nationalism in India.</p>
<p>And this isn’t the only time that Trudeau and Modi have clashed over the issue. In 2018, Trudeau was condemned in India for his <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-india-atwal-controversy-1.4546502">friendship with Jaspal Singh Atwal</a>, a Khalistani supporter in Canada who was convicted of attempting to assassinate the chief minister of Punjab. </p>
<p>Yet both countries have reasons to try to move on from the current diplomatic contretemps. India and Canada have close trading ties and common strategic concerns with <a href="https://theconversation.com/justin-trudeaus-india-accusation-complicates-western-efforts-to-rein-in-china-213922">relationship to China</a>. It is likely that, in time, both sides will find ways to cool down the tensions from this difficult incident.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213960/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Juergensmeyer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke of ‘credible allegations’ of Indian involvement in a Sikh leader’s death.Mark Juergensmeyer, Professor of Sociology and Global Studies, University of California, Santa BarbaraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2139222023-09-19T22:19:19Z2023-09-19T22:19:19ZJustin Trudeau’s India accusation complicates western efforts to rein in China<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/justin-trudeaus-india-accusation-complicates-western-efforts-to-rein-in-china" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegation that the Indian government <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-indian-government-nijjar-1.6970498">was involved</a> in the assassination on Canadian soil of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Sikh independence advocate, will undoubtedly erode Canadian-Indian relations at a time when the West is trying to appeal to India. </p>
<p>Trudeau has made international headlines with his allegation in Parliament this week that India had a hand in the murder of Nijjar, who was <a href="https://bc.ctvnews.ca/police-tight-lipped-as-b-c-sikh-leader-s-slaying-flares-international-tensions-1.6568266#:%7E:text=Nijjar%20was%20the%20president%20of,the%20evening%20of%20June%2018.">gunned down last June in the parking lot of a gurdwara — a Sikh place of worship — in the Vancouver suburb of Surrey.</a></p>
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<p>Both government and opposition parties have unanimously condemned India, saying the allegations suggest an unacceptable violation of Canadian sovereignty. </p>
<p>Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9971043/canada-has-expelled-a-top-indian-diplomat-who-is-pavan-kumar-rai/">has announced</a> the expulsion of Indian diplomat Pavan Kumar Rai. The federal government says Rai led the Canadian branch of the Research and Analysis Wing, India’s foreign intelligence service. Joly says she’ll raise the issue with the G7 foreign ministers in New York. </p>
<p>India, meantime, has denied the allegation and <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/19/india-expels-canada-diplomat-after-india-envoy-expelled-in-sikh-killing-row">expelled a Canadian diplomat</a> in retaliation.</p>
<h2>Tensions running high</h2>
<p>Tensions between Canada and India were apparent when Trudeau recently visited New Delhi for the G20 summit.</p>
<p>Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/aircraft-glitch-delays-canada-pm-trudeaus-departure-india-2023-09-10/">had raised concerns</a> to Trudeau about <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-khalistan-sikh-india-canada/">Sikh Khalistani protests in Canada</a>. The Sikh independence movement is considered a threat to Indian territorial sovereignty and integrity. </p>
<p>Canada has the largest Sikh diaspora outside Punjab, <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/who-was-hardeep-singh-nijjar-the-sikh-activist-whose-killing-has-divided-canada-and-india-1.6567734">and activists like Nijjar have been staging demonstrations</a> to demand an independent Khalistan state separate from India. Trudeau defended these demonstrations as freedom of expression, assembly and peaceful protest. </p>
<p>But Trudeau also made his allegations about India’s involvement in Nijjar’s death <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/canada-trudeau-khalistan-modi-g7-b2414088.html">to U.S. President Joe Biden, British Prime Minster Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron at the G20</a>.</p>
<p>This complicates efforts by Canada and its allies to improve relations with India in a strategic attempt to counter-balance what they view as an increasing threat posed by China. </p>
<p>In response to China’s growing might, Canada unveiled its <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/news/2022/11/canada-launches-indo-pacific-strategy-to-support-long-term-growth-prosperity-and-security-for-canadians.html">Indo-Pacific strategy</a> in 2022 that characterized China as a “disruptive power” and underscored the Canadian commitment to strengthening ties with countries in the Indo-Pacific region. That strategy has a particular focus on India.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/canadas-indo-pacific-strategy-the-same-old-starry-eyed-thinking-about-asian-trade-195491">Canada's Indo-Pacific strategy: The same old starry-eyed thinking about Asian trade</a>
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<h2>Improving India-Canada trade</h2>
<p>Canada has also committed to improving trade relations with India by negotiating a free-trade agreement. </p>
<p>There have been nine rounds of negotiations, but those talks stopped amid allegations about India’s role in Nijjar’s death. Canadian Trade Minister Mary Ng <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9963069/mary-ng-canada-india/">cancelled her planned visit to India</a> in October. </p>
<p>Despite the importance countering China’s influence, the Indian government’s authoritative tendencies, human rights violations and interference in Canadian internal affairs have created obstacles to Ottawa’s efforts to improve the India-Canada relationship.</p>
<p>It’s <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/britain-to-continue-trade-talks-with-india-despite-murder-of-sikh-leader-in-canada/ar-AA1gX58a">highly improbable</a> that Canada’s allies, including the U.S., the U.K. and France, will cut ties with India due to Trudeau’s allegations. India is simply too important for strategic and economic reasons. </p>
<p>India holds significant importance when it comes to countering China’s geopolitical influence. <a href="https://www.international.gc.ca/country-pays/india-inde/relations.aspx?lang=eng">Ottawa has previously indicated India was a “priority” market for Canada</a>; in 2022, India was Canada’s 10th largest trading partner.</p>
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<h2>‘Democracy’ partnership</h2>
<p>A strategic agreement between the U.S. and India is primarily aimed at tempering China’s growing influence and has been called <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/09/24/fact-sheet-the-united-states-and-india-global-leadership-in-action/#:%7E:text=President%20Biden%20hosted%20Prime%20Minister%20Narendra%20Modi%20today%2C,freedom%2C%20pluralism%2C%20openness%2C%20and%20respect%20for%20human%20rights.">a partnership</a> between “the world’s oldest democracy” and “the world’s largest democracy” to highlight shared democratic values. </p>
<p>But the Modi government has been harshly criticized for <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-56393944">democratic backsliding and authoritarian tendencies</a>, including fostering Hindu extremism, violating minority and human rights and cracking down on the media, academia and civil society.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, Biden refrained from criticizing Modi publicly when he visited the White House in June <a href="https://www.oneindia.com/international/these-lawmakers-are-boycotting-pm-modis-us-congress-address-3575665.html">despite being pressured</a> to raise human rights issues with the Indian leader. </p>
<p>Seventy-five U.S. congressional representatives wrote a letter to Biden urging him to do so. Half a dozen Democrats also boycotted Modi’s speech to U.S. Congress. But the Biden administration <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/08/biden-india-modi-g20-autocrat">reportedly believes</a> expressing concerns about Modi’s autocratic policies would harm the relationship.</p>
<h2>Holding India accountable</h2>
<p>Indeed, Canada’s allies have often turned a blind eye to Modi’s misdeeds due to strategic considerations.</p>
<p>But it’s now time for Canada and its allies to assertively hold India accountable for its actions. </p>
<p>The strategic partnerships formed between western nations and India were originally founded on the premise of shared democratic values. As the world’s most populous country, with the fifth largest economy and second-largest military, India is still an invaluable partner to the West.</p>
<p>But if India is diverging from these apparent shared principles, it’s essential to maintain the integrity of these partnerships by ensuring that Indian officials remain committed to democratic ideals and human rights.</p>
<p>Even if Canada’s allies won’t publicly back Trudeau, the federal government should stay committed to its core values by ensuring India faces consequences for its authoritarian actions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213922/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Saira Bano does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegations that India was involved in the murder of a Canadian citizen complicates efforts by Canada and its allies to woo India to counter-balance Chinese might.Saira Bano, Assistant Professor in Political Science, Thompson Rivers UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2133842023-09-13T12:46:38Z2023-09-13T12:46:38ZUkraine war: why the G20 refused to condemn Russian aggression – and how that might change<p>The recent G20 summit in India concluded with <a href="https://www.g20.org/content/dam/gtwenty/gtwenty_new/document/G20-New-Delhi-Leaders-Declaration.pdf">a statement on Russia’s war in Ukraine</a> that differs in a number of subtle but highly significant ways from the declaration made by world leaders at the end of the 2022 summit in Bali. </p>
<p>At first glance, the New Delhi statement appears to offer support for Kyiv. It explicitly upholds the principles of sovereignty and opposes the threat or use of force to gain territory. It describes the use of nuclear weapons or threats to use them as “inadmissible”. It acknowledges the human suffering caused by the war. </p>
<p>It also calls for the resumption of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/20/what-was-the-black-sea-grain-deal-and-why-did-it-collapse">Black Sea Initiative</a> to ensure the export of grain, fertilisers and other vital agricultural products to markets around the world.</p>
<p>But there is a curious absence at the heart of these passages: actions are condemned but no responsibility is assigned for them. </p>
<p>In sharp contrast to the wording of the <a href="https://www.g20.org/content/dam/gtwenty/gtwenty_new/about_g20/previous-summit-documents/2022-bali/G20%20Bali%20Leaders%27%20Declaration,%2015-16%20November%202022.pdf">2022 G20 communique</a>, there is no reference to Russia as the aggressor that started this war and whose troops continue their illegal occupation of Ukrainian territory. There is no acknowledgement that only Russia has <a href="https://warontherocks.com/2023/07/defanging-russian-nuclear-threats/">threatened the use of nuclear weapons</a>. </p>
<p>The bland term “human suffering” conceals the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/09/russias-war-ukraine-synonymous-torture-un-expert">torture, rape and murder of civilians</a> and <a href="https://ukraine.un.org/en/224744-un-human-rights-ukraine-released-reports-treatment-prisoners-war-and-overall-human-rights#:%7E:text=Forms%20of%20torture%20included%20beating,prisoners%20of%20war%20were%20shocking.">prisoners of war</a> by Russian soldiers that has shocked the world. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is himself the subject of <a href="https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-ukraine-icc-judges-issue-arrest-warrants-against-vladimir-vladimirovich-putin-and">an arrest warrant</a> by the International Criminal Court for his role in the abduction of Ukrainian children and their transfer to Russia. </p>
<p>The Black Sea grain deal did not simply collapse. Russia <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/17/russia-halts-participation-in-black-sea-grain-deal-kremlin-2">withdrew from the agreement</a> in July and since then has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/16/world/europe/russia-drone-attack-danube-port-ukraine.html">attacked Ukrainian ports</a> along the Danube River that Kyiv is using to get at least some of its grain to international markets. </p>
<p>It was clear from the outset that the atmosphere of this year’s G20 meeting would be much cooler towards Ukraine than the 2022 summit in Indonesia. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/nov/15/g20-summit-2022-live-updates-bali-ukraine-volodymyr-zelenskiy-to-address-world-leaders#:%7E:text=Addressing%20the%20summit%20in%20Bali,must%20and%20can%20be%20stopped.%E2%80%9D">invited to address the delegates in Bali</a> via video link from Kyiv. But no such invitation <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/india-not-planning-to-invite-ukraine-to-upcoming-g20-summit-in-september">was extended in 2023</a> by India’s Narendra Modi. </p>
<h2>Global south rising</h2>
<p>To explain this dramatic change in attitude towards the war in Ukraine, some analysts point to shifts in the global balance of political power. Increasingly over the past few years, leading countries in the global south (developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America) have felt able to seek <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/09/11/g20-india-ukraine-final-statement/">greater influence</a> in international forums. This new reality is beginning to be acknowledged more readily by western governments – not least, the United States. </p>
<p>The global south accounts for an enormous and growing proportion of the world’s purchasing capacity. The Brics – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-global-south-is-on-the-rise-but-what-exactly-is-the-global-south-207959#:%7E:text=By%202030%20it%20is%20projected,the%20United%20States%20and%20Indonesia.">now outperform the G7</a>, which is dominated by North America and Europe. </p>
<p>This growth in economic power has been accompanied by a greater sense of confidence and authority by states in Africa, Asia and Latin America in their dealings with the international community. This may well have been stirred by the urgency of the need to address the climate crisis, whose effects are being felt <a href="https://www.orfonline.org/research/a-global-south-perspective-on-the-fight-against-the-climate-crisis/">more immediately and more drastically</a> by global south countries.</p>
<p>This shift in economic and, increasingly, political power southwards is becoming an important factor in Russia’s war in Ukraine. While most governments and societies in the west have come out strongly in support of Kyiv, much of the rest of the world has taken <a href="https://www.crisisgroup.org/global-ukraine/global-south-and-ukraine-war-un">a more cautious approach</a>, avoiding condemnations of Russia in favour of calling for both sides to cease hostilities and pursue a negotiated settlement.</p>
<h2>Shifting priorities</h2>
<p>This response reflects a concern that the war in Ukraine is consuming time, attention and resources that could otherwise be directed towards finding solutions to other, global, problems – such as poverty, inequalities and, of course, the climate emergency. It also demonstrates a reluctance to support a cause that is <a href="https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2023/07/31/behind-the-global-souths-hesitancy-to-criticize-russias-invasion-of-ukraine">important to the west</a> when western governments have often been slow to act on issues that are vital to the survival of populations in the most disadvantaged parts of the world.</p>
<p>By compromising on the wording of the G20 statement, the Biden administration has given Modi a “win” in the form of a communique with unanimous support. This move can be interpreted as an indication of America’s shifting geopolitical priorities. Many in the US believe that strengthening India as a counter balance to China is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/05/18/taiwan-ukraine-support-russia-china/">more important</a> than championing the cause of Ukraine. </p>
<p>But viewing this incident in such stark, zero-sum terms may be a mistake. The US has shown respect and indeed humility by acknowledging that India and other global south countries have a very different perspective on Russia’s war in Ukraine. Washington now has the chance to build a more solid foundation for its relationship with the majority of the world’s governments and societies. </p>
<p>By demonstrating that it takes the political priorities of the global south seriously, the US may find that they are, in turn, more receptive to arguments about the need to oppose Russian aggression in Ukraine.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213384/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Mathers does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The joint statement that emerged from the G20 summit in New Delhi reflected the growing influence of the global south in world affairs.Jennifer Mathers, Senior Lecturer in International Politics, Aberystwyth UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2131052023-09-08T14:05:41Z2023-09-08T14:05:41ZBharat: why the recent push to change India’s name has a hidden agenda<p>The invitations to a state dinner to mark India’s hosting of this year’s G20 came not, as you’d expect, from the office of the president of India, but from the “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/07/india-or-bharat-g20-invitations-throw-up-question-dating-back-centuries">president of Bharat</a>”. This has prompted speculation from observers both at home and abroad about whether this signifies an official government intention to rename the country.</p>
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<p>Some have <a href="https://www.livemint.com/politics/news/will-bjp-rename-bharat-if-india-bloc-rechristens-itself-bharat-arvind-kejriwal-11693915259439.html">suggested</a> that the ruling BJP (Bharatiya Janata arty) is rattled, and is responding to the adoption of the <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/i-n-d-i-a-indian-national-democratic-inclusive-alliance-2024-elections-confusion-over-2-different-full-forms-for-opposition-alliance-4219182">acronym INDIA</a> (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) by a group of more than two dozen opposition political parties ahead of the general elections in 2024.</p>
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<p>There are numerous <a href="https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/trending/india-or-bharat-netizens-use-humour-to-debate-wonder-if-institutions-names-would-change-541603">debates taking place online</a> – both humorous and serious – about whether this name change ought to go ahead.</p>
<p>There’s a <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/india/bjp-mp-stirs-row-seeks-to-rename-india-to-bharat-1241795.html">growing push among BJP MPs</a> to adopt the name change, since “India” – the conventional English rendering of the country’s name – to some at least, symbolises “colonial slavery”. There have been <a href="https://news.abplive.com/news/india/india-to-bharat-country-name-change-what-supreme-court-said-1627743">previous petitions</a> seeking such a name change, but these were dismissed by the Supreme Court in 2016, and again in <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/india-or-bharat-here-is-what-sc-had-to-say-on-renaming-in-2020/articleshow/103398304.cms">2020</a>. </p>
<p>Just days before the G20 invitation went out, Mohan Bhagwat, head of the nationwide right-wing paramilitary organisation RSS (<a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/05/03/706808616/the-powerful-group-shaping-the-rise-of-hindu-nationalism-in-india">Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh</a>) – the ideological parent of the BJP – <a href="https://time.com/6310821/bjp-rename-india-bharat/">called explicitly</a> for the use of “Bharat” rather than India, <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/mohan-bhagwat-asks-people-to-use-name-bharat-instead-of-india/article67273901.ece">saying</a>: “We don’t have to think about whether anyone outside will understand this or not. If they want to, they will, but that is not our problem … The world need us today, we don’t need the world.”</p>
<h2>Constitutional change</h2>
<p>The recent flurry of speculation reopens old debates that were <a href="https://www.barandbench.com/columns/india-or-bharat-what-constituent-assembly-debated-and-what-supreme-court-held">discussed and resolved</a> in the Constituent Assembly in September 1949. Article 1 of the constitution, which deals with the name and territory of the Union, refers to the country as “India, that is Bharat”. In other words, the two names for the country have since always been understood as being synonymous. So the proposed change would mean altering the constitution to remove the reference to “India”. </p>
<p>Adding to the mix is the fact that a special session of the Indian parliament <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/govt-likely-to-move-bill-to-rename-india-as-bharat-in-parliaments-special-session/articleshow/103381210.cms?from=mdr">has been called</a> for September 18-22, thus fuelling speculations that this in on the order of business.</p>
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<p>But it’s unlikely that the path to the name change will be a formal one in the first instance. Like many significant changes that accommodate long-held demands of the Hindu nationalist right-wing in India, any name change will probably need to follow a process of societal normalisation.</p>
<p>For example, take the decision in April 2023 to <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/4/14/mughals-rss-evolution-outrage-as-india-edits-school-textbooks">remove from school textbooks</a> references to the (Muslim) Mughals who ruled over the subcontinent between the 16th and 19th centuries. The push for this began to gain momentum in 2016 with the informal <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/up-front/story/20160321-the-great-mughal-whitewash-audrey-truschke-south-asian-history-828594-2016-03-09">#DeleteMughalsFromHistory</a> hashtag in 2016. </p>
<p>So the G20 dinner invite is merely an opening gambit in a longer play.</p>
<h2>Rise of the Hindu right</h2>
<p>Part of the rationale offered by supporters of the name change is that Bharat is an indigenous term that goes back in history and was prominent in the anti-colonial struggles – for example, the slogan “<em><a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/jaipur/aradhana-mishra-bharat-mata-ki-jai-slogan-viral-video-8926590/">Bharat Mata ki Jai</a></em>” (Hail to mother Bharat). But there are other more important political ideological factors that must not be missed.</p>
<p>As the backbone of the right-wing in the country, the RSS (founded in 1925) has always carried a vision for India as a Hindu nation that extends far beyond electoral politics. In this transformation of Indian society and polity, the idea of <a href="https://theloop.ecpr.eu/hindu-nationalists-strategy-of-othering/">“othering” non-Hindus</a> has been crucial, and at various times has targeted Muslims, Christians, non-Brahmins, secularists, atheists, dissenters and so on.</p>
<p>So the proposed change of name from India to Bharat is not an anti-colonial move. Rather it is the creation of a binary designation whereby those who continue to espouse an “Indian” identity will, over time, become politically labelled as an “other” to the true and authentic “Bharatiya” (resident of Bharat) who is the “ideal” Hindu or Hindu-ised citizen.</p>
<p>In my 2017 <a href="https://www.nitashakaul.com/uploads/Kaul-2017-Journal_of_Labor_and_Society.pdf">analysis of the rise of the right</a> in India, I outlined the strategic ways in which the right relies upon contradictory leveraging of various dualities. One that I identified was India versus Bharat. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.asianstudies.org/publications/eaa/archives/on-the-difference-between-hinduism-and-hindutva/">Hindutva</a>, or political Hindu right-wing vision of India cherished by the RSS and BJP, is one where Bharat stands not just for a country that is India, but also connotes an idyll of pure Hindutva morality.</p>
<p>The right is seeking to create a new wedge between those who live in India and those who live in Bharat. Much like the divide between Remainers and Leavers in the UK is a legacy of Brexit, this kind of divisive politics has long-term consequences as the meanings attached to specific terms are altered. </p>
<p>The entities Bharat and India are constructed for particular political purposes. The RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said in 2013: “<a href="https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/rapes-occur-in-india-not-bharat-says-rss-chief-mohan-bhagwat-509401">Rapes do not happen in Bharat, they happen in India</a>.” </p>
<p>But facts matter little in the face of politically charged ideologues. Contemporary India is marked by a politics of distraction, where the recovering of some idyllic past is used by the right to obscure from view the failures of the present when it comes to equal rights and freedoms for citizens, competitive politics and the rule of law. </p>
<p>For citizens in need of life and livelihood security, a renamed Bharat is a hollow promise trading on manipulated narratives of past glory.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213105/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nitasha Kaul does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The move to rename India as ‘Bharat’ is part of a push by the Hindu nationalist right to create an ideologically pure state that in reality never existed.Nitasha Kaul, Director, Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD), Professor of Politics, International Relations, and Critical Interdisciplinary Studies, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2113892023-08-22T17:01:15Z2023-08-22T17:01:15ZNarendra Modi’s Independence Day speech sounded more like a snake oil salesman than a statesman<p>Narendra Modi’s tenth consecutive Independence Day speech as Indian prime minister, delivered from the Red Fort in Delhi on August 15, was <a href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/trends/pm-modis-77th-independence-day-speech-longer-than-any-other-in-recent-past-11190481.html">long</a> (90 minutes) and characteristically loaded with bombast. It was not the inclusive message of a statesman seeking to address a nation’s challenges and opportunities, but more of a campaign pitch for next year’s general election. </p>
<p>At times, he resembled the old snake oil salesman cliché: he proclaimed the success of his product and ignored its side effects. He was vague on detail and tried to distance himself from any problems his policies had caused. And, as you’d expect, he rubbished what his competitors have to offer. </p>
<p>At other times, he channelled Julius Caesar, <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/india/prime-minister-narendra-modi-independence-day-speech-2023-full-text-8893141/">repeatedly referring to himself in the third person</a>: “Modi had the courage to bring reforms … And Modi brought reforms one after the other.” His speech was littered with such references.</p>
<p>In a remarkable display of sophistry, he repeatedly called the citizens of India his “<em>parivarjan</em>” or family. This is significant, because Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is backed by the “<em>Sangh Parivar</em>” or “Sangh family” of Hindu supremacist rightwing organisations. So, when the prime minister refers to family, it’s clear this is non-inclusive – and his speech was rife with the familiar us-versus-them tropes that have become the staple of <a href="https://www.nitashakaul.com/uploads/Kaul-2017-Journal_of_Labor_and_Society.pdf">rightwing politics</a> in Modi’s India.</p>
<p>He also presented his administration as the beginning of an “<a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/business/union-budget/union-budget-2022-23-what-does-amrit-kaal-mean-1076822.html"><em>amrit kaal</em></a>”. This is a term from Vedic (or Hindu) astrology that means an auspicious critical time to start a new era or new projects. But an important subtext of his address was his assertion that India underwent more than a millennium of slavery. India’s Independence Day speech is supposed to celebrate freedom from British colonial rule which ended in 1947. But Modi’s 1,000 years of slavery has been <a href="https://thewire.in/government/independence-day-modi-speech-slavery-manipur">widely interpreted</a> as deliberately referencing long periods of the country’s history during which the country was ruled by Muslim dynasties, including the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/mughalempire_1.shtml">Mughal empire (1526-1761)</a>, characterising it as an era of invasion, looting and subjugation.</p>
<h2>Rhetoric versus reality</h2>
<p>Modi has used his previous Independence Day speeches to <a href="https://www.jagranjosh.com/general-knowledge/key-highlights-from-pm-modi-independence-day-speech-1692067102-1">announce his government’s campaigns</a> – and this year was no different. Sadly but predictably, few media organisations were brave enough to point to the contrast between his <a href="https://thewire.in/politics/narendra-modi-independence-day-speech-rhetoric-plan">rhetoric and reality</a> when he listed his government’s successes. </p>
<p>His claim to have the economy under control rings hollow when you consider that inflation is at a <a href="https://www.livemint.com/economy/independence-day-2023-whats-been-indias-inflation-trajectory-in-last-one-year-check-key-figures-11692031722341.html">15-month high of 7.44%</a>, driven by a doubling of fruit and vegetable prices in recent months. His claim that exports are increasing is <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/exports-decline-by-22-to-32-97-billion-in-june-steepest-monthly-fall-in-3-years/articleshow/101762242.cms?from=mdr">simply untrue</a>. </p>
<p>Meanwhile policy pledges of previous years that have not been fulfilled were simply forgotten. His promises to double farmer’s incomes, encourage the development of “<a href="https://smartcities.gov.in/">smart cities</a>”, provide <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/by-2022-every-indian-will-have-a-house-promises-pm-modi/story-z2ZAADfVfDemFWItiM1oXI.html">housing</a> and <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/Electricity-for-all-houses-by-2022-Modi/article60205952.ece">electricity</a> for all, or to solve the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/6/15/has-india-kashmir-policy-under-modi-failed">crisis in Kashmir</a> hardly rated a mention. </p>
<p>Modi’s speech was also big on was women’s empowerment and safety. He said it was “everyone’s responsibility to ensure there is no atrocity against our daughters”. But <a href="https://thewire.in/women/big-talk-small-action-modi-govts-work-on-womens-empowerment-in-the-last-9-years">during his tenure</a>, women’s participation in the labour force has fallen and crimes (especially relating to sexual violence) against women have risen. This was most recently seen <a href="https://theconversation.com/indian-womens-struggle-against-sexual-violence-has-had-little-support-from-the-men-in-power-210318">in BJP-ruled Manipur</a>. His tenure has been marked by shameful prolonged silences on ghastly situations and failure to fix responsibility and act on addressing <a href="https://thewire.in/women/narendra-modi-nari-shakti-independence-day">crimes against women</a>. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/indian-womens-struggle-against-sexual-violence-has-had-little-support-from-the-men-in-power-210318">Indian women's struggle against sexual violence has had little support from the men in power</a>
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<p>Similarly, his regular invocation of the “140 crore family members” (the entire population of India) as one “family” ignores the situation of minorities in India. This has deteriorated rapidly in recent years while <a href="https://thewire.in/communalism/modis-india-empowering-the-mob-disempowering-the-state">mob violence against ethnic minorities</a> has continued, against a backdrop of silence from those in power. A blatantly assertive Hindu supremacist vigilante mob culture is on display where <a href="https://scholarworks.iu.edu/iupjournals/index.php/muslimphilanthropy/article/view/5012">hate speech</a> against Muslims and Christians has become normalised. </p>
<p>Were Modi a statesman worthy of his position, he would have assured India’s minorities that they are equal rights-bearing citizens. He would have refrained from <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/77th-independence-day-pm-modi-speech-red-fort-key-quotes/articleshow/102737080.cms?from=mdr">platitudes about peace</a> and the “Indian family” and rather spelled out policy proposals to tackle ethnic violence in Manipur. </p>
<h2>Stump speech</h2>
<p>Modi’s speech spent some time accusing his political opponents of the “<a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/independence-day-2023-pm-modi-decries-corruption-nepotism-appeasement-as-three-sins-get-rid-of-them-101692069707816.html">three evils</a>” his government had worked hard to eradicate. These, he described in some detail as:</p>
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<p>Corruption, nepotism and appeasement; these challenges have flourished which has suppressed the aspirations of the people of our country.</p>
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<p>The Modi-led BJP administration has been <a href="https://www.economist.com/international/2023/05/02/the-2023-crony-capitalism-index">notorious for its crony capitalism</a>. One of India’s wealthiest businessmen, Gautam Adani, who hails from Modi’s home state of Gujarat, has <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/474706d6-1243-4f1e-b365-891d4c5d528b">gained the nickname, “Modi’s Rockefeller”</a> for his reportedly close relationship with the prime minister. Adani himself commented on television earlier this year that: “These allegations are baseless … the fact of the matter is that my professional success is not because of any individual leader.” In general, though, well-connected billionaires have <a href="https://www.eurasiareview.com/08052023-under-modis-watch-crony-capitalist-sectors-share-in-indias-gdp-goes-up-from-5-to-8-analysis/">flourished under the BJP</a>. </p>
<p>Modi’s reference to “dynastic politics” is obviously directly aimed at his opponents in the Congress party, the Gandhi/Nehru family. It is significant that the day before his speech, the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (named after India’s first and longest-serving prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru) was renamed Prime Minister’s Museum and Library. </p>
<p>Finally, the word “appeasement” in Indian politics is a dog-whistle which is used to accuse his political enemies of favouring minorities. The BJP’s Hindu nationalism, meanwhile, has effectively and purposefully marginalised minority groups. Modi’s support for a <a href="https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/uniform-civil-code-history-implications-and-minority-perspectives/article67090521.ece#:%7E:text=The%20Uniform%20Civil%20Code%20aims,throughout%20the%20territory%20of%20India%E2%80%9D.">Uniform Civil Code (UCC)</a>, which ostensibly aims to foster equality and unity, has been widely criticised for ignoring and endangering the rights of India’s minority groups.</p>
<p>Modi’s speech was nothing more than a stump speech for the 2024 election aimed firmly at the country’s Hindu majority. Towards the end of his speech, Modi <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/india/prime-minister-narendra-modi-independence-day-speech-2023-full-text-8893141/">expressed his confidence</a> that on August 15 2024, he would again address the country from the Red Fort after being reelected. </p>
<p>Many Indians who care about democratic erosion, decline in media freedoms, institutional capture, pervasive identity-based anti-minority violence, deepening societal divisions and a centralisation of executive power, will hope otherwise.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211389/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nitasha Kaul does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Indian prime minister’s rhetoric strayed a long way from reality.Nitasha Kaul, Director, Centre for the Study of Democracy (CSD), Professor of Politics, International Relations, and Critical Interdisciplinary Studies, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2105072023-08-06T08:47:35Z2023-08-06T08:47:35ZAn expanded BRICS could reset world politics but picking new members isn’t straightforward<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540476/original/file-20230801-18384-y0dg77.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C127%2C2813%2C1757&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">President Cyril Ramaphosa will host the 15th BRICS Summit in Johannesburg.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Government Communication and Information System</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Eager to <a href="https://lmc.icds.ee/lennart-meri-lecture-by-fiona-hill/">escape perceived western domination</a>, <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/more-countries-want-to-join-brics-says-south-africa-/7190526.html#:%7E:text=Argentina%2C%20Iran%2C%20Saudi%20Arabia%20and,nations%20have%20in%20the%20organization.">several countries</a> – mostly in the global south – are looking to join the <a href="https://brics2023.gov.za/#">Brics</a> bloc. The five-country bloc (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) is also looking to grow its global partnerships. </p>
<p>What <a href="https://www.gov.za/events/fifth-brics-summit-general-background">began in 2001</a> as an acronym for four of the fastest growing states, BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China), is projected to account for 45% of global GDP in purchasing power parity terms by 2030. It has evolved into a political formation as well.</p>
<p>Crucial to this was these countries’ decision to form their own club <a href="http://infobrics.org/page/history-of-brics/">in 2009</a>, instead of joining an expanded G7 as envisioned by former Goldman Sachs CEO <a href="https://www.goldmansachs.com/intelligence/archive/building-better.html">Jim O’Neill</a>, who coined the term “Bric”. <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-97397-1">Internal cohesion</a> on key issues has emerged and continues to be refined, despite challenges.</p>
<p>South Africa joined the group after a Chinese-initiated invitation <a href="https://www.gov.za/events/fifth-brics-summit-general-background">in 2010</a>; a boost for then president Jacob Zuma’s administration, which was eager to pivot further to the east. The bloc also gained by having a key African player and regional leader. </p>
<p>Ever since, the grouping has taken on a more pointedly political tone, particularly on the need to <a href="https://www.gov.za/speeches/10th-brics-summit-johannesburg-declaration-27-jul-2018-0000#:%7E:text=We%20recommit%20our%20support%20for,democracy%20and%20the%20rule%20of">reform global institutions</a>, in addition to its original economic raison d’etre.</p>
<p>The possibility of its enlargement has dominated headlines in the run up to its 15th summit in Johannesburg <a href="https://brics2023.gov.za/about-the-summit/">on 22-24 August</a>. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/when-two-elephants-fight-how-the-global-south-uses-non-alignment-to-avoid-great-power-rivalries-199418">When two elephants fight: how the global south uses non-alignment to avoid great power rivalries</a>
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<p>We are political scientists whose <a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-political-economy-of-intra-brics-cooperation-siphamandla-zondi/1140951138">research interests</a> include <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-62765-2">changes</a> to the global order and emerging alternative centres of power. In our view, it won’t be easy to expand the bloc. That’s because the group is still focused on harmonising its vision, and the potential new members do not readily make the cut. </p>
<p>Some may even bring destabilising dynamics for the current composition of the formation. This matters because it tells us that the envisioned change in the global order is likely to be much slower. Simply put, while some states are opposed to western <a href="https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/wjbxw/202302/t20230220_11027664.html">hegemony</a>, they do not yet agree among themselves on what the new alternative should be. </p>
<h2>Evolution of BRICS</h2>
<p>BRICS’ overtly political character <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-62765-2_1">partially draws</a> on a long history of non-alignment as far back as the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Bandung-Conference">Bandung Conference of 1955</a>. It was attended mostly by recently decolonised states and independence movements intent on asserting themselves against Cold War superpowers – the Soviet Union and the United States. </p>
<p>BRICS has come to be viewed as <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/13540661231183352">challenging the counter hegemony</a> of the US and its allies, seen as meddling in the internal affairs of other states. </p>
<p>Reuters estimates that <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/more-than-40-nations-interested-joining-brics-south-africa-2023-07-20/#:%7E:text=South%20African%20officials%20want%20BRICS,Kazakhstan%20have%20all%20expressed%20interest.">more than 40 states</a> are aspiring to join BRICS. South African diplomat Anil Sooklal says 13 had <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/2023/05/28/how-brics-became-a-real-club-and-why-others-want-in/5caecc7e-fdb7-11ed-9eb0-6c94dcb16fcf_story.html">formally applied</a> by May 2023.</p>
<p>Many, though not all, of the aspiring joiners have this overtly political motivation of countering US hegemony. The other important incentive is access to funds from the BRICS’ <a href="https://www.ndb.int/projects/">New Development Bank</a>. This is especially pronounced in the post-COVID climate in which many economies are <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/05/1136727#:%7E:text=Prospects%20for%20a%20robust%20global,Prospects%20report%2C%20released%20on%20Tuesday.">yet to fully recover</a>. Of course the two can overlap, as in the case of Iran.</p>
<p>The notable applicants have <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/belarus-says-it-has-applied-join-brics-club-russian-ria-agency-2023-07-25/">included</a> Saudi Arabia, Belarus, <a href="https://theconversation.com/ethiopia-wants-to-join-the-brics-group-of-nations-an-expert-unpacks-the-pros-and-cons-209141">Ethiopia</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/argentina-says-has-chinas-support-join-brics-group-2022-07-07/">Argentina</a>, <a href="https://www.silkroadbriefing.com/news/2022/11/09/the-new-candidate-countries-for-brics-expansion/">Algeria, Iran</a>, Mexico, and <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/turkiye/turkiye-obvious-nation-for-expanded-brics-says-leading-economist/2896122">Turkey</a>. </p>
<h2>Expanded BRICS</h2>
<p>A strategically expanded BRICS would be seismic for the world order, principally in economic terms. </p>
<p>Key among the club’s reported priorities is <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/04/24/brics-currency-end-dollar-dominance-united-states-russia-china/">reduction of reliance</a> on the US dollar (“de-dollarisation” of the global economy). One of the hurdles to this is the lack of buy-in by much of the world. Though some states may disagree with the dollar’s dominance, they still see it as the most reliable.</p>
<p>Given the extent of globalisation, it’s unlikely that there will be attempts to chip away at the west’s access to strategic minerals and trade routes as happened during the <a href="https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/speech-president-nasser-alexandria-july-26-1956-extract">Suez Crisis of 1956</a>, at the height of the Cold War.</p>
<p>Instead, the new joiners would likely use their new BRICS membership to better bargain with their western partners, having more options on hand.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ethiopia-wants-to-join-the-brics-group-of-nations-an-expert-unpacks-the-pros-and-cons-209141">Ethiopia wants to join the BRICS group of nations: an expert unpacks the pros and cons</a>
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<p>Herein lies the challenge (and the paradox) with BRICS expansion. On one hand, the grouping is not yet offering anything concrete to justify such drastic measures as de-dollarisation. On the other, the current five members also need to be selective about who they admit.</p>
<p>Among the considerations must surely be the track record of the applicants as well as their closeness to the west. The experience of having had a right-wing leader such as former Brazilian president <a href="https://theconversation.com/brazils-jair-bolsonaro-is-devastating-indigenous-lands-with-the-world-distracted-138478">Jair Bolsonaro</a> in its midst must have been a lesson about the need to be circumspect when admitting new members.</p>
<h2>Weighing the likely contenders</h2>
<p>In this regard, aspirants such as Saudi Arabia and Mexico seem the least likely to make the cut in the short term. That’s despite the Saudis’ oil wealth and Mexico’s <a href="https://www.voanews.com/a/obrador-mexico-first-leftist-president-in-decades/4463520.html">leftist-progressive</a> leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Although they might be currently experiencing rocky relations with Washington, they have proven to be capable of rapprochement following previous disagreements with the US, with which they seem inextricably intertwined. </p>
<p>Saudi Arabia has a long-term military relationship with the US, while Mexico is the US’s <a href="https://www.dallasfed.org/research/economics/2023/0711#:%7E:text=and%20border%20region-,Mexico%20seeks%20to%20solidify%20rank%20as%20top,partner%2C%20push%20further%20past%20China&text=Mexico%20became%20the%20top%20U.S.,four%20months%20of%20this%20year.">number-one trading partner</a>. </p>
<p>Of equal importance in the evaluation of potential new members is the relationship the aspirants have with the existing BRICS members. This is because another crucial lesson has been the tiff between two of its largest members, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20578911221108800?icid=int.sj-abstract.citing-articles.1">China and India</a>, over their disputed border. As a result of the uneasy relationship between two of its members, the bloc has become alert to the importance of <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1758-5899.13010">direct bilateral relations and dispute resolution</a> among its constituent leaders.</p>
<p>Among the applicants, Saudi Arabia, which has had a fractious relationship with Moscow in the past, seems to face an uphill climb. It also has difficult relations with Iran, another applicant, despite their recent rapprochement.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-role-as-host-of-the-brics-summit-is-fraught-with-dangers-a-guide-to-who-is-in-the-group-and-why-it-exists-206898">South Africa's role as host of the BRICS summit is fraught with dangers. A guide to who is in the group, and why it exists</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The country which seems the most suitable to join BRICS for ideological reasons, and will expand the bloc’s footing in the Caribbean, is Cuba. It enjoys strong ties with the existing members. It also has solid “counter-hegemonic” credentials, having been the bête noire of the US for more than 60 years. </p>
<p>Cuba is also a leader in the Latin American left and enjoys strong ties with many states in Central and South America (particularly with Guatemala, <a href="https://latinarepublic.com/2022/07/20/honduras-and-cuba-sign-a-memorandum-to-strengthen-bilateral-relations/">Honduras</a>, <a href="https://www.plenglish.com/news/2022/07/27/nicaraguan-fm-described-relations-with-cuba-as-endearing/">Nicaragua</a> and <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/venezuela-and-cuba-ties-bind">Venezuela</a>). Membership would boost its influence. </p>
<h2>Character matters</h2>
<p>If an expanded BRICS is to be an agent for change on the world scene, it will need to be capable of action. Having rivals, or states that are at least ambivalent towards each other, seems anathema to that.</p>
<p>Eager to proceed cautiously and expand strategically, the current BRICS states seems likely, at least in the short term, to pursue a <a href="https://www.silkroadbriefing.com/news/2022/11/09/the-new-candidate-countries-for-brics-expansion/">BRICS-plus</a> strategy. In other words, there may emerge different strata of membership, with full membership granted to states that meet the group’s criteria over time. </p>
<p>It is thus not mere expansion, but the character of the expansion which will guide the five principals on whether they grow from that number.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210507/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Siphamandla Zondi is affiliated with the University of Johannesburg. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bhaso Ndzendze does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It is not mere expansion, but the character of the expansion which will guide the five Brics countries on whether they admit new members.Bhaso Ndzendze, Associate Professor (International Relations), University of JohannesburgSiphamandla Zondi, Acting Director: Institute for Pan-African Thought & Conversation, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2098402023-07-27T20:35:02Z2023-07-27T20:35:02Z‘The Kerala Story’: How an Indian film ignited violence against Muslims and challenges to interfaith marriage<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/the-kerala-story-how-an-indian-propaganda-film-ignited-violence-against-muslims-and-challenges-to-interfaith-marriage" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>A controversial low-budget Indian feature film <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-65481927"><em>The Kerala Story</em>,</a> about a <a href="https://time.com/6280955/kerala-story-movie-india/">discredited anti-Muslim conspiracy theory</a>, has been causing a political storm, going all the way to India’s Supreme Court. </p>
<p>The movie has helped circulate the idea of <a href="https://theconversation.com/indias-love-jihad-anti-conversion-laws-aim-to-further-oppress-minorities-and-its-working-166746">“love jihad,”</a> a right-wing conspiracy theory that Muslim men are predators and out to marry and steal Hindu women. These ideas date back to the British colonial era and have far-reaching implications for people’s everyday lives. </p>
<p>The trailer claimed <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/5/4/kerala-story-film-on-alleged-indian-isil-recruits-gets-pushback">32,000 Hindu girls had been converted to Islam by Muslim men with the intent of recruiting them to ISIS.</a> </p>
<p>Once the film came out, citizens <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1048448/amid-row-the-kerala-story-trailer-changed-from-being-the-story-of-32000-women-to-that-of-3-girls">tried to get it banned by sending a petition to the India’s Supreme Court</a>. </p>
<p>“Love jihad” is a conspiracy theory that claims Muslim men are converting Hindu and Christian women to Islam. Allegedly, the men feign love, get the women pregnant and eventually traffic them. The motive? To increase the Muslim population of India, perpetuate fanaticism and ultimately establish an Islamic state. </p>
<p>According to a recent <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/06/29/religious-segregation/">Pew Report</a>, 99 per cent of married people in India share the same religion as their spouse. Muslims account for approximately <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/projected-population-of-muslims-in-2023-to-stand-at-1975-crore-govt-in-lok-sabha/article67106178.ece">14 per cent</a> of India’s population. </p>
<p>There is no such thing as a “love jihad” and an investigation by India’s National Investigation Agency has said there is <a href="https://thewire.in/politics/nia-love-jihad-kerala-hadiya">no evidence of “love jihad” taking place.</a></p>
<h2>Political fallout</h2>
<p>The figure of 32,000 women in the film’s trailer was immediately <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/movies/movie-the-kerala-story-an-attempt-to-destroy-states-communal-harmony-ruling-cpim-opposition-congress/article66792442.ece">challenged by Indian political leaders</a> and also debunked by <a href="https://www.altnews.in/32000-kerala-women-in-isis-misquotes-flawed-math-imaginary-figures-behind-filmmakers-claim/">fact-checkers from the website, Alt News</a>. </p>
<p>The filmmakers agreed to change the number and a new trailer was released. <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1048448/amid-row-the-kerala-story-trailer-changed-from-being-the-story-of-32000-women-to-that-of-3-girls">It removed and replaced “32,000 girls” with “the true stories of three girls.”
</a> </p>
<p>And the movie went forward with its release, which according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/23/india/indian-film-kerala-story-controversy-intl-hnk/index.html">some news reports, was successful at the box office</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539600/original/file-20230726-15-pfd09i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539600/original/file-20230726-15-pfd09i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=274&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539600/original/file-20230726-15-pfd09i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=274&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539600/original/file-20230726-15-pfd09i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=274&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539600/original/file-20230726-15-pfd09i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539600/original/file-20230726-15-pfd09i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539600/original/file-20230726-15-pfd09i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A cinema in Bangalore, India. (CP)</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Challenges in the Indian Supreme Court</h2>
<p>Some politicians decried the propagandist nature of the movie and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-65523873">in West Bengal, it was banned by the government</a>. Politicians there said the film <a href="https://scroll.in/latest/1049228/the-kerala-story-contains-manipulated-facts-and-hate-speech-west-bengal-tells-sc">“manipulated facts and contains hate speech in multiple scenes”</a> and they banned the film to <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/mamata-banerjee-announces-ban-on-the-kerala-story-in-west-bengal-film-producer-reacts-101683546969420.html">“avoid violence and hatred.”</a> </p>
<p><a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/prohibition-order-not-tenable-sc-stays-west-bengal-governments-ban-on-the-kerala-story/articleshow/100326856.cms">The Indian Supreme Court</a> lifted the state ban though agreed that a disclaimer on the film was necessary. The disclaimer indicated that the film provides “no authentic data” to support the 32,000 figure and that it presents fictionalized accounts.</p>
<p>Other politicians, including some from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, promoted the film. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-65481927">Some of them even offered complimentary tickets or organized free screenings</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://thewire.in/film/kerala-story-prime-minister-modi-misleading-claim">Prime Minister Narendra Modi</a> endorsed the movie, assigning to it a distinct legitimacy. </p>
<h2>Islamophobia from the 19th century</h2>
<p>The idea of “love jihad” is both current and historical with notions coming from Indian and Hindu nationalism as well as 19th-century British colonial narratives. Both streams constructed Muslim men as hypersexual and hyperaggressive. </p>
<p>In the 19th century, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230108196">Hindu scholars and new religious organisations (like Arya Samaj and Hindu Mahasabha)</a> began producing a new Hindu-centric version of Indian history. This history grew in response to British colonialism but <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvzgb88s">at the same time, shared similarities with British colonial ideas</a>.</p>
<p>The British portrayed themselves as just rulers, partly by contrasting themselves with their casting of Muslim kings as hypersexual fanatics. </p>
<p>They pointed to a medieval darkness marked by the lust and tyranny of Muslim rulers. Mughal rulers were <a href="https://dvkperiyar.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/We-or-Our-Nationhood-Defined-Shri-M-S-Golwalkar.pdf">portrayed as rapists attacking both Hindu women and “Mother India”</a>. This portrayal included the Muslim <a href="https://brill.com/display/title/5969?language=en">Prophet Muhammad who was portrayed in some places as sexually perverse</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.448955">These ideas became part of the curriculum</a> in certain Indian states and elite Hindu scholars, educated at colonial schools, <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvzgb88s">perpetuated these narratives in their writing</a>. And the idea of a type of “love jihad” became part of the discourse created through pamphlets, novels, newspapers and magazines — especially in North India.</p>
<p>By the late 19th century, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230108196">India was constructed around Hindu heterosexual relationships and family values</a> in opposition to Muslim sexual deviance and rampant Muslim sexuality.</p>
<p>In 1923, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230108196">Madan Mohan Malaviya, the president of the Hindu Mahasabha</a> said in a speech, “hardly any day passes without our noticing a case or two of kidnapping of Hindu women and children by not only Muslim <em>badmashes</em> (rogues) and <em>goondas</em> (hooligans), but also men of standing and means.” </p>
<h2>Challenges to interfaith marriage</h2>
<p>Today, it’s not just <em>The Kerala Story</em> that has circulated the “love jihad” myth. Reportage in Hindu nationalist media continues to make headlines.</p>
<p><em>Organiser</em>, a magazine run by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a network of Hindu nationalist organizations, recently reported that <a href="https://organiser.org/2023/06/28/181109/bharat/madhya-pradesh-three-cases-of-love-jihad-following-same-pattern-like-film-the-kerala-story-reported-in-a-month/">three cases of love jihad following the same pattern as those in ‘The Kerala Story’ were reported in a month</a>.</p>
<p>Love jihad’s centrality to Hindu nationalist politics has led to specifically stringent laws <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/12/12/1068">focused heavily on sexuality and marriage</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/indias-love-jihad-anti-conversion-laws-aim-to-further-oppress-minorities-and-its-working-166746">India’s 'love jihad' anti-conversion laws aim to further oppress minorities, and it's working</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://theintercept.com/2021/07/03/love-jihad-law-india/">Hindu vigilantes, in partnership with the police,</a> launch missions to separate interfaith couples. Muslim men have been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/21/they-cut-him-into-pieces-indias-love-jihad-conspiracy-theory-turns-lethal">brutalized, killed, forced into hiding and incarcerated</a> using <a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/2018298841/">historic anti-conversion laws</a>. </p>
<p>One response to the chatter about “love jihad,” is an Instagram channel called <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/2/10/countering-love-jihad-by-celebrating-indian-interfaith-couples">India Love Project</a> launched to celebrate stories of interfaith love and marriages. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539606/original/file-20230726-25-5qmkg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539606/original/file-20230726-25-5qmkg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539606/original/file-20230726-25-5qmkg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539606/original/file-20230726-25-5qmkg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539606/original/file-20230726-25-5qmkg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539606/original/file-20230726-25-5qmkg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539606/original/file-20230726-25-5qmkg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This photo of a newlywed couple is from the Instagram account called the India Love Project. The groom is Muslim and the bride is Hindu-Punjabi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CptlucmPFgr/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3Dhttps://www.instagram.com/p/CptlucmPFgr/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D">(India Love Project)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Hopefully, such efforts continue to address Islamophobia and broaden to include a larger public discourse looking at transnational Islamophobic interlinkages, both past and present.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209840/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wajiha Mehdi receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Public Scholars Initiative UBC, International Development Research Centre Canada and the University of British Columbia</span></em></p>A controversial low-budget Indian feature film about a discredited anti-Muslim conspiracy theory has been causing a political storm, going all the way to India’s Supreme Court.Wajiha Mehdi, PhD Candidate, Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2086412023-07-11T12:31:14Z2023-07-11T12:31:14ZModi’s gift of ‘10 danas’ – the 10 donations – to Biden reflects ancient Hindu wisdom and carries a deep symbolism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536641/original/file-20230710-12423-ykj999.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C5%2C1183%2C668&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An image of one of the gifts that Prime Minister Modi gave to President Biden – the '10 danas,' or 10 donations – each with a specific symbolism.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroompost.com/india/pm-modis-gift-to-president-joe-biden/5261962.html">Newsroom Post Press Release</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>During his state visit to the United States in late June 2023, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented several gifts to U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden. Among those were the “10 danas,” items with symbolic importance in Indian traditions. I study these traditions in my work as a <a href="https://www.etown.edu/depts/religious-studies/faculty.aspx">scholar of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism</a>. Each of the danas is believed to have an auspicious meaning.</p>
<h2>What are the 10 danas?</h2>
<p>The 10 danas are (1) til, or sesame seeds; (2) a gold coin; (3) a cow, though Biden received a silver image of a coconut as a substitute; (4) a piece of land, in place of which Biden received a piece of fragrant sandalwood; (5) ghee (clarified butter); (6) cloth - for which Biden received a piece of silk; (7) long-grained rice; (8) a piece of jaggery, a very sweet brown sugar made in India from palm tree sap; (9) a silver coin; and (10) some salt.</p>
<p>What does <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44146016">each substance represent</a>?</p>
<p>Sesame seeds are a symbol of immortality. According to a story in the Puranas, or books of ancient lore about the Hindu deities, during the churning of the ocean, the sweat of Hindu Lord Vishnu dropped to the Earth in the form of sesame seeds. The <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23002226">churning of the ocean</a> was an event, famous in Hindu literature, in which the devas, or deities, and the asuras, or demonic beings, joined forces to acquire a life-giving substance called amrita that had sunk to the ocean floor. This required great exertion, especially on the part of Lord Vishnu, who transformed himself into a giant tortoise to play his role in the process.</p>
<p>Gold is considered purifying and also is symbolic of wealth and prosperity. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1178915">cow is a symbol of life and of nurturing</a>. The substitution of the silver image of a coconut for an actual cow reflects a common Hindu ritual in which an actual coconut is used in a ceremony to substitute for some other object that is unavailable or that would be impractical to include.</p>
<p>The gift of a piece of land also represents wealth. Traditionally, the gift of an actual piece of land is something one could draw upon in times of financial difficulty. It could be cultivated, rented out, and so on.</p>
<p>Ghee, or clarified butter, is an element in Hindu rituals <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24663482">going back to at least the second millennium B.C.</a> It represents both nourishment and healing.</p>
<p>Cloth represents financial security: one’s ability to obtain the necessities of life, such as decent clothing.</p>
<p>Rice, in India, has long been a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Subhash-Ahuja/publication/321334487_Rice_in_Religion_and_Tradition/links/5bf4de87a6fdcc3a8de62413/Rice-in-Religion-and-Tradition.pdf">symbol of fertility</a>. The ability to grow rice has been vital to life in most of India since before recorded history.</p>
<p>The sweetness of the jaggery represents good news. Giving it represents a hope that one will receive good news and hear <a href="https://journalppw.com/index.php/jpsp/article/view/11683/7568">auspicious things in the years ahead</a>.</p>
<p>Silver is connected with the Moon in Hindu symbolism – as gold is connected with the Sun. The gift of silver is a wish that one will <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0972639X.2004.11886506">have good dreams and undisturbed sleep</a>. </p>
<p>Finally, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44146016">salt is a symbol of Lakshmi</a>, the goddess of prosperity. Like salt, she is said to have emerged from the ocean. Salt thus represents lifelong prosperity.</p>
<h2>A thousand full moons</h2>
<p>The 10 danas are given to someone who has seen 1,000 full moons, or “sahasra chandra.” This is an ancient practice first <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00856401.2014.858659">described in a set of texts called the “Grihya Sutras</a>,” which date from roughly 500 B.C. These sutras, or authoritative texts, describe household rituals and regulations. The practices they enjoin are rooted in the culture of the Vedas, the <a href="https://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe29/index.htm">oldest sacred literature of Hinduism</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536638/original/file-20230710-11159-5ln9qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeting first lady Jill Biden and President Joe Biden" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536638/original/file-20230710-11159-5ln9qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536638/original/file-20230710-11159-5ln9qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536638/original/file-20230710-11159-5ln9qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536638/original/file-20230710-11159-5ln9qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536638/original/file-20230710-11159-5ln9qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536638/original/file-20230710-11159-5ln9qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536638/original/file-20230710-11159-5ln9qo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi presents several gifts to President Joe Biden on his recent state visit.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/5447d3c095c04974a667435d389c14f3?ext=true">AP Photo/Evan Vucci</a></span>
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<p>The full moon is an auspicious symbol in many Indian traditions. The full moon day, or Purnima, of each month is a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/soutjanth.20.1.3629413">time when many people engage in religious observances</a>. The full moon day is the culmination of the “bright half,” or the shukla paksha, of each month in the Indian lunar calendar. The bright half is the roughly two-week period during which the Moon is waxing, and is seen as a better time to undertake any important activity. Seeing the full moon is an auspicious act, so having seen a thousand full moons is a particularly auspicious and noteworthy event in one’s life.</p>
<p>The ceremony is typically <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00856401.2014.858659">performed for someone who is between the ages of 81 and 84</a>, though Modi gave the 10 gifts to Biden on the occasion of his reaching the age of 80. Giving these gifts amounts to congratulating the recipient for having lived a long life – itself a sign of virtue and wisdom – and wishing continued good luck, health and prosperity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208641/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeffery D. Long does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>One of the gifts that Prime Minister Modi gave to President Biden symbolizes the recipient’s having seen 1,000 full moons, implying a long and auspicious life.Jeffery D. Long, Professor of Religion and Asian Studies, Elizabethtown CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.