tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/hindu-nationalism-14972/articlesHindu nationalism – The Conversation2024-01-22T16:09:39Ztag: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>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<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>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221635/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<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>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<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>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<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>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
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>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<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>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1311319942453768194"}"></div></p>
<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>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
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>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<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>
</ul>
<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/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/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>
<hr>
<iframe id="noa-web-audio-player" style="border: none" src="https://embed-player.newsoveraudio.com/v4?key=x84olp&id=https://theconversation.com/bharat-why-the-recent-push-to-change-indias-name-has-a-hidden-agenda-213105&bgColor=F5F5F5&color=D8352A&playColor=D8352A" width="100%" height="110px"></iframe>
<p><em>You can listen to more articles from The Conversation, narrated by Noa, <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/audio-narrated-99682">here</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<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>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1698981206040498256"}"></div></p>
<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>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1698933738548126165"}"></div></p>
<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/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/2074852023-06-19T12:26:03Z2023-06-19T12:26:03ZMr. Modi comes to Washington – The Indian prime minister’s visit could strengthen ties with the US, but also raises some delicate issues<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532271/original/file-20230615-27-16e5d7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">President Joe Biden meets with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2021 at the Oval Office. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/1342291519/photo/president-biden-holds-bilateral-meeting-with-indian-prime-minister-narendra-modi.jpg?s=1024x1024&w=gi&k=20&c=ZNXZlPIUQJgwupW2vhYcpnf9V0vTs8Xk_pIIDeoEy2M=">Sarahbeth Maney-Pool/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi plans to attend his first <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/05/10/statement-from-white-house-press-secretary-karine-jean-pierre-on-the-official-state-visit-of-prime-minister-narendra-modi-of-the-republic-of-india/">state visit at the White House</a> on June 22, 2023, marking a historic moment that could <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india/pm-narendra-modis-us-visit-to-decide-contour-of-future-of-indo-us-ties-both-sides-working-on-robust-outcome-document/articleshow/100941101.cms">potentially influence relations</a> between India and the United States for years.</p>
<p>Modi, 72, was first elected prime minister in 2014 and then <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/05/23/726085196/indian-prime-minister-modi-wins-re-election">reelected in 2019</a>. Since then, Modi has earned an international reputation as an <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2022/05/narendra-modi-india-religion-hindu-nationalism/630169/">unyielding Hindu nationalist</a> and <a href="https://theloop.ecpr.eu/narendra-modi-indias-vulnerable-strongman-populist-leader/">a strongman</a> who leads with tight control.</p>
<p>We are <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=nGZRkKoAAAAJ&hl=en">political scientists</a> who <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=VPgc_xUAAAAJ&hl=en">have written extensively</a> on U.S. foreign policy and the relationship between the U.S. and India, as well as democracy.</p>
<p>Over the past few years, particularly since Modi’s 2019 reelection, some scholars and analysts have written about <a href="https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/indias-endangered-democracy/">democracy declining in India</a>. This is partly because of <a href="https://scroll.in/article/1042179/how-the-centres-planned-it-rule-changes-will-empower-it-to-censor-unfavourable-news">new regulations</a> and government pressure to censor news media and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/25/india-ban-on-bbc-modi-film-elon-musk-twitter-free-speech-emergency-laws">free speech critical</a> of Modi. </p>
<p>The U.S. does not routinely give state visit invitations to world leaders. Modi is also <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/bipartisan-leaders-invite-indian-prime-minister-modi-address-congress-rcna87473">set to address Congress</a>, another honor that is rarely granted to a visiting foreign dignitary.</p>
<p>But in our view, the U.S. is courting India because it needs the country to serve as a strategic bulwark against <a href="https://www.economist.com/special-report/2022/10/10/china-is-exerting-greater-power-across-asia-and-beyond">China’s expansionist policies</a> in Asia.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532272/original/file-20230615-15732-4cido6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A brown skinned man with a white beard raises his arm in the air and looks up." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532272/original/file-20230615-15732-4cido6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532272/original/file-20230615-15732-4cido6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532272/original/file-20230615-15732-4cido6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532272/original/file-20230615-15732-4cido6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532272/original/file-20230615-15732-4cido6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532272/original/file-20230615-15732-4cido6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532272/original/file-20230615-15732-4cido6.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">Narendra Modi speaks at an event during a visit to Australia in May 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/1492604046/photo/prime-minister-modi-of-india-visits-australia.jpg?s=1024x1024&w=gi&k=20&c=paMzqmiWKLMChwqE92rOuE74baAP4EgsHhcHqBOSiSM=">Lisa Maree Wiliams/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Understanding Modi</h2>
<p>Modi <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/featured/story/narendra-modi-modi-as-pm-bjp-gujarat-210885-2013-09-12">grew up in India’s western</a> state of Gujarat, in fairly modest circumstances. He had a long career in local and state politics and developed a reputation as <a href="https://sundayguardianlive.com/special-supplement/modi-the-phenomenon">a tough-minded, but able</a>, politician.</p>
<p>A longtime member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a militant Hindu political organization, Modi has been characterized by Indian political observers and foreign analysts alike for his strong <a href="https://thewire.in/politics/narendra-modi-rss-pracharak-politician">Hindu nationalist views</a>.</p>
<p>Hinduism is the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/09/21/key-findings-about-the-religious-composition-of-india/">most popular religion in India,</a>, but people there also practice Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism.</p>
<p>Hindu nationalism has been on the rise in recent years, spawned by some people’s belief that India is and should be a predominantly Hindu nation, and that its <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/04/22/715875298/hindu-nationalism-the-growing-trend-in-india">policies should reflect that.</a></p>
<p>At times, this <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/on-religion/the-violent-toll-of-hindu-nationalism-in-india">rise in Hindu nationalism</a> has taken a violent turn.</p>
<p>When Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat in February 2002, Hindu zealots <a href="https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/india-at-75-epochal-moments-2002-godhra-riots/article65725940.ece">carried out a riot</a> there that killed more than 1,000 people – most of whom were Muslim. Modi has denied any role in this event, but police <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-13170914">have said that the violence</a> happened with tacit approval of the state government, including Modi.</p>
<p>The U.S. subsequently denied Modi a <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-narendra-modi-was-banned-from-the-u-s-1399062010">visitors visa in 2005.</a></p>
<p>But Modi <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/pm-modi-most-popular-leader-with-78-approval-ratings-survey/articleshow/97611376.cms?from=mdr">has been a widely popular</a> prime minister, with a 78% approval rating as of February 2023.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532275/original/file-20230615-19-qgchs9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A crowd of men smile, raise their hands and wear orange, in front of a political poster of an older man with a white beard and hair." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532275/original/file-20230615-19-qgchs9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532275/original/file-20230615-19-qgchs9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532275/original/file-20230615-19-qgchs9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532275/original/file-20230615-19-qgchs9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532275/original/file-20230615-19-qgchs9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532275/original/file-20230615-19-qgchs9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532275/original/file-20230615-19-qgchs9.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">Supporters of Narendra Modi and his political party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, celebrate in Mumbai after his 2019 reelection.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/1145735244/photo/lok-sabha-elections-2019.jpg?s=1024x1024&w=gi&k=20&c=fPjJuNz_MH_ld3YmuvB8FJ-MUyDIA_O5aOWoUdNEh9w=">Himanshu Bhatt/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>US and India ties</h2>
<p>Ties between the U.S. and India <a href="https://www.cfr.org/timeline/us-india-relations">grew under Modi’s</a> leadership, especially around issues of <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2023/01/a-new-chapter-for-india-us-defense-ties/">security and defense cooperation</a>.</p>
<p>India, for example, has purchased a substantial amount of sophisticated <a href="https://www.livemint.com/news/india/india-nears-usd-300-million-weapons-deal-with-us-11680534155582.html">weaponry from the U.S.</a> over the last few years. It has also signed three important <a href="https://theprint.in/defence/the-3-foundational-agreements-with-us-and-what-they-mean-for-indias-military-growth/531795">defense agreements</a> with the U.S. during this same time frame.</p>
<p>Defense analysts say that these agreements will significantly improve <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/beca-india-us-trade-agreements-rajnath-singh-mike-pompeo-6906637/">military cooperation between the two countries</a>. </p>
<p>India has also become, albeit somewhat fitfully, a more active participant in the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, which is a <a href="https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/quad-indo-pacific-what-know">loose, four-country initiative</a> that also involves the U.S., Japan and Australia. The group routinely meets to discuss security and trade, and occasionally carries out military exercises together.</p>
<p>These countries also share concern about China’s <a href="https://www.gmfus.org/news/future-quad-and-emerging-architecture-indo-pacific">growing power in Asia.</a> While India and China have an <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/foreign-trade/india-china-trade-climbs-to-usd-135-98-billion-in-2022-trade-deficit-crosses-usd-100-billion-for-the-first-time/articleshow/96969775.cms">established trading relationship</a>, different security issues – especially related to the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-53062484">disputed Himalayan border</a> between the countries – have dogged diplomatic relations between them <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/files/Gokhale_-_Chinas_India_Policy3.pdf">for nearly a decade.</a></p>
<p>An important point of contention between the U.S. and India involves India’s tepid response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. </p>
<p>India has been reluctant to publicly criticize Russia in part because of its acute dependence on <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/03/03/india-ukraine-russia-war-putin-weapons-un/">Moscow for weapons technology.</a>. Modi has been in regular touch with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but has not condemned the invasion, only going so far as to say that now is <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us-welcomes-modi-telling-putin-now-is-not-an-era-war-2022-09-21/">“not an era for war</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532273/original/file-20230615-15503-jmlx7k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A large group of cameras and other equipment are seen in a pile on the ground, with a group of men sitting nearby, surrounding them materials." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532273/original/file-20230615-15503-jmlx7k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/532273/original/file-20230615-15503-jmlx7k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532273/original/file-20230615-15503-jmlx7k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532273/original/file-20230615-15503-jmlx7k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532273/original/file-20230615-15503-jmlx7k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532273/original/file-20230615-15503-jmlx7k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/532273/original/file-20230615-15503-jmlx7k.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">Photojournalists protest a Delhi police assault of female journalists while covering a march against sexual harassment in 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/938201304/photo/journalists-protest-against-delhi-police.jpg?s=1024x1024&w=gi&k=20&c=75lud-KBPWi7tt_RcK_t3KJqKykTxCgs4dLcZOo32e4=">Sahiba Chawdhary/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Questions dogging the visit</h2>
<p>The Biden administration’s decision to invite Modi for a state visit is clearly designed to send a message to New Delhi about the significance that it attaches to the emerging U.S.-India partnership and India’s potential role in containing China’s growing strategic reach across Asia.</p>
<p>Modi is running for reelection in 2024. So, especially if the visit yields any tangible benefits for India, the meeting could result in some electoral gains at home.</p>
<p>Biden and Modi will likely discuss how to continue growing the countries’ relationships and how to respond to China’s influence – as well as the ticklish question of India’s <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/pm-modi-visit-to-us-whats-all-on-agenda/articleshow/86422409.cms">position on the Ukraine crisis</a>.</p>
<p>The U.S. is aiming to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/us-pushing-india-seal-big-armed-drone-buy-modi-visit-sources-2023-06-13/">sell India armed drones</a>, and Biden is also likely to offer India <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-nears-deal-to-produce-ge-jet-fighter-engine-in-india-9434145d">GE jet engine manufacturing technology</a>. This would give India’s defense capabilities a significant boost and would also lessen its dependence on Russian military technology.</p>
<p>Questions about a <a href="https://www.cfr.org/blog/karuna-nundy-india-has-strong-constitution-its-democracy-weakening">weakening democracy in India</a>, though, as well as violence against minorities, may come to dog the relationship. </p>
<p><a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/14/asia/india-hindu-extremist-groups-intl-hnk-dst/index.html">Hindu extremist groups</a> have increasingly attacked and harassed <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/india-muslims-marginalized-population-bjp-modi">minorities, most notably Muslims</a>, over the last few years. </p>
<p>Modi’s administration has also received international attention for its curbs on the <a href="https://rsf.org/en/bbc-offices-raided-india-latest-modi-assault-press-freedom">freedom of the press</a>, attempts to <a href="https://qz.com/india/1611326/india-has-been-hostile-to-ngos-for-decades-modi-made-it-worse">muzzle nonprofit groups</a> and efforts to <a href="https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/an-illiberal-india/">undermine the political opposition</a>.</p>
<p>Because questions of democracy and the Ukraine war are so fraught, we believe that these issues could stall more political agreements and closer ties between the U.S. and India. How Biden and Modi tackle these various subjects during the visit could help determine the course of U.S-.India relations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207485/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sumit Ganguly receives funding from the US Department of State.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Larry Diamond 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 Biden administration is courting Indian leader Narendra Modi in part to deter China’s rise. But India’s decline in democracy could complicate relations.Sumit Ganguly, Distinguished Professor of Political Science and the Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations, Indiana UniversityLarry Diamond, Mosbacher Senior Fellow of Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2062602023-06-08T15:39:57Z2023-06-08T15:39:57ZListen: Indian PM Modi is expected to get a rockstar welcome in the U.S. How much is the diaspora fuelling him?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530495/original/file-20230607-25-vz3xkq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=245%2C204%2C4299%2C2800&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivers a speech during an event in Sydney, Australia on May 23, 2023.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Mark Baker)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/eefdb202-7c47-4a14-9122-455e228d6c6a?dark=true"></iframe>
<p>On June 22, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/10/us/politics/biden-modi-state-dinner.html?searchResultPosition=4">will make his first official state visit to the United States</a>. And if his visits to Australia last month, to Canada in 2015 and to <a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/09/25/howdy-modi-trump-hindu-nationalism/">Texas in 2019</a> are any indication, he’ll be given a rockstar welcome.</p>
<p>U.S. President Joe Biden has already <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-president-joe-biden-asked-pm-modi-for-an-autograph-what-report-claimed-101684638531088.html">joked that he wants Modi’s autograph</a> because so many people want to see the Indian PM while he’s in the United States.</p>
<p>Of course, Modi has his critics too, who point to the populist leader’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-laws-weaponize-citizenship-in-india-129027">far-right policies</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/india/us-report-lists-significant-human-rights-abuses-india-2023-03-20/">human rights abuses</a>.</p>
<p>Yet, as the prime minister of the world’s largest democracy, Modi remains one of the world’s most popular leaders - not just at home, but among the tens of millions who make up the global South Asian diaspora. </p>
<p>Last week, perhaps in an acknowledgement of the power of the South Asian diaspora on Indian elections, the former leader of the opposition, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-65785138">Rahul Gandhi, also visited the United States</a>. </p>
<p>In the latest episode of <em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em>, we are asking how important is that diaspora? With India having <a href="https://www.financialexpress.com/economy/remittances-to-india-cross-100-billion-in-2022-first-country-to-hit-the-mark/3057688/">one of the highest remittance rates in the world</a>, how much does overseas support contribute to Modi’s popularity and success? And what kind of an impact could a progressive element of that diaspora have on Indian politics? </p>
<p>Anjali Arondekar joins the podcast to sift through all this. She is a professor of feminist studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is also the founding co-director of the university’s Center for South Asian Studies which hosted a discussion last week with Rajiv Gandhi.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/u2VARtV6Unk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Anjali Arondekar was in Conversation with Rahul Gandhi last week at the Center for South Asian Studies, UCSC.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Resources</h2>
<p><a href="https://thewire.in/diplomacy/narendra-modis-first-state-visit-to-the-us-has-both-national-and-global-implications">Narendra Modi’s First State Visit to the US Has Both National and Global Implications</a> (<em>The Wire</em>)</p>
<p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0dkb144">The Modi Question (<em>BBC</em>)
</a>
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/13/world/asia/india-modi-elections.html?searchResultPosition=2">A Defeat for Modi’s Party in South India Heartens His Rivals
</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/8/24/indian-politician-boasts-about-getting-muslims-killed-on-camera">Indian politician boasts about getting Muslims killed – on camera
</a> (<em>Al Jazeera</em>)</p>
<p><a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/09/25/howdy-modi-trump-hindu-nationalism/">The Network of Hindu Nationalists Behind Modi’s Diaspora Diplomacy in the U.S.
</a> (<em>The Intercept</em>)</p>
<h2>From the archives - in The Conversation</h2>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/indias-new-citizenship-act-legalizes-a-hindu-nation-129024">India's new citizenship act legalizes a Hindu nation</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-and-modi-birds-of-the-same-feather-but-with-different-world-views-69090">Trump and Modi: birds of the same feather, but with different world views</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/just-who-is-narendra-modi-indias-man-of-the-moment-26898">Just who is Narendra Modi, India's man of the moment?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-conservative-right-hijacks-religion-109218">How the conservative right hijacks religion</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/narendra-modi-has-won-the-largest-election-in-the-world-what-will-this-mean-for-india-116598">Narendra Modi has won the largest election in the world. What will this mean for India?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Listen and Follow</h2>
<p>You can listen to or follow <em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em> on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/dont-call-me-resilient/id1549798876">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9qZFg0Ql9DOA">Google Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/37tK4zmjWvq2Sh6jLIpzp7">Spotify</a> or <a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com">wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts</a>. </p>
<p><a href="mailto:DCMR@theconversation.com">We’d love to hear from you</a>, including any ideas for future episodes. Join The Conversation on <a href="https://twitter.com/ConversationCA">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TheConversationCanada">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@theconversation">TikTok</a> and use #DontCallMeResilient.</p>
<p><em>Thank you to Sanjay Ruparelia, Jarislowsky Democracy Chair at TMU and Kalpana Jain, Senior Religion Editor at TCUS who contributed to this episode.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206260/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and opposition politicians are courting the diaspora in the run-up to next year’s elections in India. What role does the diaspora play in Indian politics?Vinita Srivastava, Host + Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2040012023-04-20T20:43:01Z2023-04-20T20:43:01ZRecent mosque attacks raise questions about the affinity between white supremacy and far-right Hindu nationalism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521950/original/file-20230419-2235-axsfat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=50%2C50%2C8317%2C5519&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People carry placards and shout anti-government slogans during a protest against Islamophobia in Bengaluru, India in April 2022.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>During Ramadan, <a href="https://www.yorkregion.com/news/update-man-allegedly-tried-to-run-over-worshippers-at-markham-mosque-during-ramadan/article_ff54f3fe-bc6b-5993-8658-3435072a1d19.html">a man attacked a mosque in Markham, Ont.</a> He allegedly yelled slurs, tore up a Qu'ran, and attempted to run down worshippers in his vehicle. </p>
<p>Some people on Twitter have raised the idea that the attacker was connected to Hindu extremist groups; however, the investigation is still ongoing. </p>
<p>This is one of two <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9615942/man-47-charged-in-connection-with-suspected-hate-motivated-incident-at-markham-mosque/">hate-motivated incidents at mosques in Markham</a> in a week. Although police said <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/mosque-suspected-hate-motived-incident-april-9-markham-1.6807097">they don’t believe the incidents are connected,</a> as a researcher of online extremism I can theoretically link these events to a global trend of Islamophobic violence.</p>
<h2>Legal discrimination and violence</h2>
<p>From <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/4/empty-promises-the-us-muslim-ban-still-reverberates">the United States’ Muslim ban</a>, to India’s <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2022/6/10/analysis-islamophobia-is-the-norm-in-modis-india">Citizenship Amendment Act</a>, to <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/bill-21-london-attack-1.6059756">Québec’s Bill 21</a>, Muslims face legal discrimination globally. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/niqab-bans-boost-hate-crimes-against-muslims-and-legalize-islamophobia-podcast-180012">Niqab bans boost hate crimes against Muslims and legalize Islamophobia — Podcast</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521924/original/file-20230419-28-io0ue7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Women wearing hijabs stand on the sidewalk outside a white building." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521924/original/file-20230419-28-io0ue7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521924/original/file-20230419-28-io0ue7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521924/original/file-20230419-28-io0ue7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521924/original/file-20230419-28-io0ue7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521924/original/file-20230419-28-io0ue7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521924/original/file-20230419-28-io0ue7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521924/original/file-20230419-28-io0ue7.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">Muslims have faced legal discrimination globally. Here community members gather outside the Islamic Society of Markham in Ontario.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Alongside these laws, Muslims face physical violence. This includes: the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-58406194">beating</a>, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/6/25/obvious-religious-hatred-muslim-man-in-india-lynched-on-video">lynching</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/01/india-delhi-after-hindu-mob-riot-religious-hatred-nationalists">burning</a> of Muslims in India, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/christchurch-attacks-strike-at-the-heart-of-muslims-safe-places-from-islamophobia-113922">Christchurch massacre in New Zealand in 2019</a>, the <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/quebec-city-mosque-shooting">Québec City mosque shooting in 2017</a>, and more recently the murder of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/muslim-family-killed-in-terror-attack-in-london-ontario-islamophobic-violence-surfaces-once-again-in-canada-162400">Afzaal family</a> in London, Ont.</p>
<p>Collectively, these policies and killings demonstrate a <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/07/01/india-islamophobia-global-bjp-hindu-nationalism-canada/">transnational quality of Islamophobic prejudice and violence</a>. </p>
<p>While the two incidents in Markham may not be directly linked to extremist groups, they have occurred within this <a href="https://iphobiacenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Canada-Report-2022-1.pdf">global ecosystem of Islamophobia.</a> To me, the attacks indicate that these online conspiracies do not occur in a vacuum and can have potentially horrifying real consequences.</p>
<h2>Hindutva-based terrorism in Canada</h2>
<p>Over the last several years, I have carefully examined the digital and transnational connections between <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2018/12/13/why-white-supremacists-and-hindu-nationalists-are-so-alike">white supremacists in North America and far right Hindu nationalists in India</a>.</p>
<p>My preliminary findings show how <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-twitter-investigation-reveals-what-the-freedom-convoy-islamophobes-incels-and-hindu-supremacists-have-in-common-177026">these two seemingly unrelated extremist far-right groups</a> have become increasingly allied on social media platforms as they position Muslims as a “common enemy.” </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/how-a-supremacist-political-ideology-from-india-is-said-to-be-gaining-influence-in-canada-1.6295956">Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)</a>, the right-wing Hindu nationalist organization, promotes the Hindutva ideology which believes India only belongs to Hindus.</p>
<p>A recent published <a href="https://www.nccm.ca/rss-in-canada/">report</a> by the National Council of Canadian Muslims and the World Sikh Organization documents how this organization has gained ground in Canada. Jasmin Zine is a Canadian scholar whose <a href="https://iphobiacenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Canada-Report-2022-1.pdf">recent report</a> also outlines a network of Hindu nationalists that aids in the circulation of ideologies that promote Islamophobia.</p>
<h2>Governments spreading misinformation</h2>
<p>In 2014, the BJP, the most prominent <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/5/23/what-you-need-to-know-about-indias-bjp">Hindu nationalistic right-wing party in India</a> came to power. Like the RSS, the BJP and other Hindu nationalist parties believe that India belongs only to Hindus. </p>
<p>Since elected, the BJP has actively spread <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003052272">misinformation and conspiracies about Muslims through social and mainstream media</a>, intensifying hostilities between Muslims and Hindus.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521947/original/file-20230419-16-oli2no.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Indian prime minister Modi on the back of a car with two other men waving to a crowd of people." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521947/original/file-20230419-16-oli2no.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521947/original/file-20230419-16-oli2no.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521947/original/file-20230419-16-oli2no.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521947/original/file-20230419-16-oli2no.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521947/original/file-20230419-16-oli2no.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521947/original/file-20230419-16-oli2no.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521947/original/file-20230419-16-oli2no.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The BJP and other Hindu nationalists believe that India belongs only to Hindus, not minorities like Muslims.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While seemingly different on the surface from white supremacy, my <a href="http://gmj-canadianedition.ca/current-issue/">research</a> shows how these two movements similarly mobilize emotional rhetoric and visual content to spread their influence. </p>
<p>Twitter, as one of the main platforms for both groups, has been used extensively to perpetuate new <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003052272-11/hindu-nationalism-news-channels-post-truth-twitter-zeinab-farokhi">forms of gendered Islamophobia and to forge surprising alliances</a> and affinities.</p>
<h2>The Love Jihad conspiracy</h2>
<p>One of the conspiracy theories shared by these groups is called Love Jihad. Originating in India by <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/13/3/201">Hindu nationalists in 2013</a>, this conspiracy alleges Muslim men actively seduce non-Muslim women to marry and convert them to Islam. </p>
<p>The #LoveJihad hashtag was quickly picked up on social media by <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/12/12/1083">white extremists</a> and other Islamophobic groups in North America, modulating it to fit their own conspiracies such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13030201">The Great Replacement</a>.</p>
<p>This example demonstrates how anti-Muslim sentiment online spreads quickly and transnationally. </p>
<p>Groups I monitor on Twitter from India constantly talk about the perceived threat of Love Jihad. One such Hindu nationalist group, Hindu Jagruti Org, warns Hindu women against “dangerous, sexually aggressive” Muslim men. The tweet below is an example:</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"746233106445668353"}"></div></p>
<p>These tweets portray Muslim men as “deceitful, sexual monsters” who view Hindu women as “objects to fulfill their lust.” Hindu extremists argue that to combat these “Muslim monsters,” precautionary measures are needed. </p>
<h2>#LoveJihad travels to North America</h2>
<p>The #LoveJihad conspiracy was quickly taken up by Islamophobic groups in North America. For example, Robert Spencer, who runs <a href="https://hindutvawatch.org/hindu-nationalisms-intense-hatred-for-christians-why-does-robert-spencer-ally-with-them/">Jihad Watch which has a large following among Hindu nationalists</a>, tweeted the following:</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1424415135423156228"}"></div></p>
<p>The tweet includes an article that claims the Islamic State encourages Love Jihadis to target non-Muslim women and “abduct,” “forcibly convert, and marry” them.</p>
<p>Love Jihad has been proven a farce. </p>
<p>Yet, Spencer continues to claim there are “real cases that show how Muslim men have duped Hindu women into toxic romantic relations year after year.” </p>
<p>Responses from users to Spencer’s post demonstrate his success in establishing #LoveJihad as fact. For instance:</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521978/original/file-20230419-26-hm4792.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A screenshot of two tweets supporting the idea of a love jihad conspiracy." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521978/original/file-20230419-26-hm4792.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521978/original/file-20230419-26-hm4792.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=304&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521978/original/file-20230419-26-hm4792.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=304&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521978/original/file-20230419-26-hm4792.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=304&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521978/original/file-20230419-26-hm4792.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521978/original/file-20230419-26-hm4792.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521978/original/file-20230419-26-hm4792.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Screenshot of tweets responding to Robert Spencer’s comments on Love Jihad.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As these posts indicate, Love Jihad easily reinforces belief in Muslim men as “terrorists” and “groomers” — that is, men who create trust with girls and young women in order to exploit them.</p>
<h2>Transnational alignment of hate</h2>
<p>This shared intense hatred of “monstrous” Muslim men brings Hindu and white extremists into a “transnational affective alignment.” That is, the mutual hate of Muslims and a mutual love for Hindu and white national ideals.</p>
<p>Social media platforms such as Twitter are important in creating these alignments and perpetuating related conspiracies, gaining considerable traction through their repetition.</p>
<p>This alignment is produced through the demonization of Muslim men and extremists’ shared hate and fear of them across borders. Through transnational responses and retweets, extremists forge a layered and cumulatively condensed affective message: Muslim men are dangerous. We fear them. Thus, we hate them.</p>
<p>While it remains to be seen whether or not the recent mosque attackers were directly influenced by online, transnational and affective Islamophobia, recurring incidences such as this should remind us that hate does not abide by international borders. </p>
<p>Misinformation and conspiracies find fertile ground in the echo chambers of social media. </p>
<p>Our response to such crimes — and their online equivalents — must consider that the fear and hate of Muslims does not happen by accident. </p>
<p>As the #LoveJihad conspiracy demonstrates, strange bedfellows are easily made when there is a perceived common enemy. Conspiracies and acts of anti-Muslim hate impact us all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204001/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Zeinab Farokhi receives funding from SSHRC. </span></em></p>While the two incidents in Markham may not be directly linked to extremist groups, they have occurred within a global ecosystem of Islamophobia.Zeinab Farokhi, Assistant Professor (limited term appointment), Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, University of Toronto Mississauga, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2013692023-03-10T05:00:28Z2023-03-10T05:00:28ZAlbanese visit hopes to strengthen ties with India amid China’s rise. But differences remain<p>Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has made a landmark visit to India this week in the hopes of boosting ties in trade, education and security.</p>
<p>Australia’s relationship with India has been marked by short bursts of enthusiasm, interspersed with long periods of <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41311-020-00278-w">disinterest</a>.</p>
<p>For a long time, Australia and India shared only superficial similarities captured by the belaboured phrase “<a href="https://www.afr.com/policy/foreign-affairs/our-ties-to-india-must-go-beyond-cricket-curry-and-the-commonwealth-20220112-p59nrq">cricket, curry, Commonwealth</a>”.</p>
<p>Though cricket remains a mainstay, in the past few years the relationship has deepened. In large part this is due to the flare-up of India’s border dispute with China, and the general deterioration of Australia’s relationship with China. </p>
<p>Australia is now looking to India as both a <a href="https://www.orfonline.org/research/china-driving-closer-australia-india-security-ties/">geopolitical</a> and economic partner as it seeks to diversify its markets and shape regional order in the Indo-Pacific.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, India looks to Australia for resources, investments and support in its ongoing disputes with China.</p>
<p>So what are the two sides seeking from Albanese’s visit, and what does it mean for Australia-India relations?</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1633699738863427586"}"></div></p>
<h2>What we know so far</h2>
<p>Albanese’s first official visit to India comes with a packed itinerary and a diverse agenda. There are as many as 25 business leaders accompanying him in the hope of securing lucrative agreements on economic cooperation and making some headway in negotiations for a full free-trade agreement, building on the <a href="https://www.pmc.gov.au/news/two-way-trade-spotlight-pms-visit-india">interim agreement</a> signed last year. </p>
<p>A key area is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/mar/07/deakin-university-to-become-first-foreign-tertiary-institution-with-campus-in-india">education</a>. India has been hoping to improve its performance on higher education by encouraging foreign universities to <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/foreign-universities-ugc-norms-earlier-bids-stalled-why-this-one-most-ambitious-8364293/">build campuses in India</a>.</p>
<p>The two countries signed agreements this week for the mutual recognition of qualifications, and to establish a Deakin University campus in India. This would be the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/mar/07/deakin-university-to-become-first-foreign-tertiary-institution-with-campus-in-india">first foreign university with a campus in India</a>.</p>
<p>The two sides are also keen to increase cooperation and investment <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australia-ramps-up-fossil-fuel-exports-to-india-but-also-lithium-for-renewables-20230306-p5cps3.html">in critical minerals</a> such as lithium, which is used in batteries, as India seeks to lower emissions. This comes despite Albanese saying in February he wanted to keep more critical minerals onshore in response to questions about <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/albanese-keep-critical-minerals-in-australia-make-our-own-batteries-20230222-p5cmnn.html">China seeking approval to invest in new mines</a> in Australia. </p>
<p>Albanese this week also declared India a “<a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/india-confirmed-as-top-tier-security-partner-for-australia-20230309-p5cqpe">top-tier security partner</a>”. This comes ahead of Australia hosting the Malabar naval exercise in August, traditionally a joint exercise between India, Japan and the US, from which it had been excluded until a few years ago.</p>
<p>In turn, India will step up its participation in joint military exercises with Australia. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1633811653572829186"}"></div></p>
<h2>Differences endure</h2>
<p>However, challenges and contradictions remain, most notably the two countries’ differences over Ukraine.</p>
<p>Australia has strongly condemned the Russian invasion, committing hundreds of millions of dollars in military support to Ukraine, and joining Western countries in sanctioning Russia.</p>
<p>But India maintains its traditionally strong military and economic links with Russia. India relies on Russia for <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/russian-arms-supplies-to-india-worth-13-bln-in-past-5-years/articleshow/97852332.cms?from=mdr">advanced military equipment</a> and has recently increased its oil imports from the latter.</p>
<p>While Australia has <a href="https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3212125/australia-understands-why-india-cant-be-vocal-about-russias-invasion-ukraine-analysts">never been outwardly excessively critical</a> of India’s position on the Ukraine war, it will remain a thorn in the side of long-term cooperation.</p>
<p>A full free-trade agreement would involve reconciling different interests in key areas. Australia is focused on improving market access for agricultural and dairy products, while India’s focus is services and labour mobility. Both are <a href="https://www.eastasiaforum.org/2022/05/28/india-australia-trade-agreement-doesnt-signal-indias-return-to-rcep/">sensitive political issues</a> that will be difficult to overcome even with the large contingent of business leaders accompanying Albanese.</p>
<h2>Shared values?</h2>
<p>As he landed in India, Albanese <a href="https://theprint.in/world/australian-pm-anthony-albanese-emplanes-for-india-on-visit-to-deepen-links-with-counterpart/1426770/">declared</a> that Australia and India had a rich friendship underpinned by “shared democratic values”. His trip began with a visit to Sabarmati Ashram, where Mahatma Gandhi once lived.</p>
<p>Yet, India is much further away from Gandhi today than it has ever been. In the past ten years, India has displayed increasing intolerance for <a href="https://monitor.civicus.org/updates/2022/11/22/government-agencies-used-silence-dissent-india-its-rights-record-scrutinised-un/">dissent</a> and has curtailed <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/08/opinion/india-kashmir-modi-media-censorship.html">media freedom</a>.</p>
<p>Minorities have been <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/india-muslims-marginalized-population-bjp-modi">marginalised</a>, discriminated against, and <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/on-religion/the-violent-toll-of-hindu-nationalism-in-india">attacked</a>, as the government and its affiliates assert Hindu nationalist politics.</p>
<p>Australian universities hoping to build campuses in India could face curbs on <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2023/01/19/india-issues-draft-rules-foreign-university-branches">academic freedom</a>. India’s <a href="https://www.ugc.gov.in/pdfnews/9214094_Draft-Setting-up-and-Operation-of-Campuses-of-Foreign-Higher-Educational-Institutions-in-India-Regulations-2023.pdf">draft guidelines</a> for foreign universities prohibits activities that are “contrary to the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency, or morality”.</p>
<p>While Australia has expressed <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/australia-urges-us-to-push-back-on-digital-authoritarianism-20211208-p59fu0.html">concerns</a> about digital authoritarianism, India has used <a href="https://globalvoices.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Unfreedom_Monitor_India_Country_Report_2022.pdf">technology</a> to curb dissent. It has also allegedly used technology to surveil opposition leaders, minorities and critics.</p>
<p>The frequently <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/old-rich-opinionated-and-dangerous-jaishankar-hits-out-at-george-soros-101676730447027.html">acrimonious responses</a> of India’s leadership to any criticism of itself in the Western world is probably why Australia, which is anxious to cultivate India as a bulwark against China, has been loath to publicly criticise India.</p>
<p>The government may also be hoping that emphasising democratic values will put some pressure on India’s leadership to halt its further slide toward authoritarianism. But recent events suggest this is wishful thinking. Evidence for this includes government <a href="https://www.spectator.com.au/2023/01/indias-war-on-the-bbc/">raids</a> on BBC India offices after it aired a documentary critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.</p>
<p>Rather, Australia risks being seen as turning a blind eye to India’s model of <a href="https://thewire.in/rights/india-among-top-10-autocratising-nations-democratic-slide-to-continue-v-dem-institute">electoral autocracy</a>. This includes the persecution of academics, students, journalists, and activists who <a href="https://thewire.in/rights/jail-bail-hearings-court-delhi-riots-elgar-parishad">languish in jail</a> on dubious charges of sedition and terrorism.</p>
<p>It’s important Australia bases its relationship with India on a realistic estimation of the latter’s political and economic credentials, rather than being driven almost entirely by the strategic urgency to create a regional counterweight to China.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201369/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><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Janhavi Rajiv Pande 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>What are the two sides seeking from Albanese’s visit, and what does it mean for Australia-India relations?Priya Chacko, Senior Lecturer in International Politics, University of AdelaideJanhavi Rajiv Pande, PhD student, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1854572022-07-13T13:57:05Z2022-07-13T13:57:05ZNew book challenges whiteness: a review through the cover image<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472840/original/file-20220706-15-x1igkj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Detail of the cover of the new book featuring art by Norman Catherine.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Routledge Handbook of Critical Studies in Whiteness/Routledge</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The cover of <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Handbook-of-Critical-Studies-in-Whiteness/Hunter-Westhuizen/p/book/9780367403799">The Routledge Handbook of Critical Studies in Whiteness</a> carries a striking image courtesy of South African artist <a href="https://www.normancatherine.com/">Norman Catherine</a>. The image was created in 2015 as <a href="https://www.normancatherine.com/gicle-prints">one of a set of digital prints</a> and, typical of Catherine’s work, contrasts dark and light to present a cynical view of the world <a href="https://www.normancatherine.com/about">informed by society and politics</a>. </p>
<p>This image can be interpreted as expressing some of the ideas in the Handbook. It gives me a way to approach this book review because my teaching, research and writing deal with understanding how graphic images can convey ideas and carry meaning. I am not proposing that Catherine deliberately set out to visualise whiteness in his image, and acknowledge that my interpretation is my subjective opinion.</p>
<p>Titled “Show & Tell”, it shows a stylised male figure in profile, with slicked back black hair and a skin colour ranging from pale pink, green and grey to a hot magenta and shining yellow.</p>
<p>Catherine’s choice of skin colours illustrates the most obvious thing about people called white, and that is that they are not actually white. As noted by English academic Richard Dyer in his analysis of racial imagery of white people in his 1997 book <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/white/oclc/34547959">White</a>, white people are not literally nor symbolically white.</p>
<p>The figure’s profile lacks a forehead and is dominated by an enormous yellow nose and forward jutting chin, between which a grimacing mouth encircled by a row of blocky white teeth gapes. His black-clad torso is transformed into a similar profile, with glaring white teeth and a flapping pink tongue. I interpret the figure as showing what Dyer identified as “a divided nature and internal struggle between mind (God) and body (man)”, “a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Manichaeism">Manichean</a> (dualism of black:white”, “the presence of the dark within the white man”).</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472842/original/file-20220706-14-ztzj6a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472842/original/file-20220706-14-ztzj6a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/472842/original/file-20220706-14-ztzj6a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=854&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472842/original/file-20220706-14-ztzj6a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=854&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472842/original/file-20220706-14-ztzj6a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=854&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472842/original/file-20220706-14-ztzj6a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1073&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472842/original/file-20220706-14-ztzj6a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1073&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/472842/original/file-20220706-14-ztzj6a.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1073&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Routledge</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Such a divided way of seeing and knowing the world contributed to centuries of racism and white supremacy that continues into the present with devastating impact. Challenging and dismantling racism and white supremacy is part of the purpose of the book, edited by academics <a href="https://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/staff/dr-shona-hunter/">Shona Hunter</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/christi-van-der-westhuizen-240334">Christi van der Westhuizen</a>.</p>
<p>Critical Studies in Whiteness matter as it forms, in the words of the editors, part of a “broader project towards racial and social justice, and the end of heteropatriarchy and coloniality”. The editors describe whiteness as (page 3)</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a dynamic, shifting, but durable system of domination through, under, against and within which people live, work, and relate. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Whiteness can be overt and highly visible, as was the case in apartheid South Africa, or operate invisibly. This book succeeds well in describing and criticising, through many examples, how whiteness works.</p>
<h2>Whiteness across time and space</h2>
<p>To make whiteness visible is a frequently stated goal of whiteness studies and this is shown on the cover in the clearly defined figure. However, Hunter and Van der Westhuizen argue in Chapter 1 that whiteness shifts between invisibility and visibility, to the point of becoming “hyper-visible”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/afrikaner-identity-in-post-apartheid-south-africa-remains-stuck-in-whiteness-87471">Afrikaner identity in post-apartheid South Africa remains stuck in whiteness</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The arguments the editors make in their introductory chapter are complex, layered and not easily summarised. This is not surprising as the book is aimed at researchers, scholars and advanced students in a variety of academic fields. </p>
<p>The Handbook, consisting of 28 chapters, a preface and an epilogue, analyses the operation of whiteness across time and space. It does so through the contributions of a variety of scholars from various disciplinary, geographic and national contexts. A wide range of topics are covered from different perspectives. From histories of whiteness in India, Japan and South Africa, to a critique of trans-racial adoption in Sweden, and the harm done to grassroots organisations in the United States by foundations created by “white, corporate elitists”.</p>
<p>Contributions point to whiteness as being positioned at the heart of a “global colonial world system” and as being implicated with capitalist relations, <a href="https://www.masterclass.com/articles/understanding-heteronormativity">heteronormativity</a> – the belief that heterosexuality is the only natural expression of sexuality – and patriarchy. This is signified in Catherine’s figure with its pinstriped trousers and shiny black lace-ups.</p>
<p>Across the figure’s torso wounds strain against stitches through which various colours show, presumably of the skin beneath the black clothing. This brings to mind an objective of Critical Whiteness Studies which is identified by the editors as</p>
<blockquote>
<p>dissect(ing) whiteness as a distinct power formation within the structures of race, racism, and white supremacy, that rose with and sustained colonialism, and today forms an essential part of coloniality (page xx).</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The backlash</h2>
<p>The inflicting of wounds on and sustained critique of whiteness has, however, not been without counterattacks. The wounded figure responds angrily, mouthing off, dynamic lines swirling around him, indicating that he has been forcefully lashing out.</p>
<p>The defence of whiteness is visible in the rise of the <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/alt-right">Alt-Right</a>, neo-fascism and various forms of nationalism in recent years. The volume contains incisive critiques of such phenomena. This includes the backlash against feminism — in the form of the active promotion of traditional femininity through <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780429355769-7/tradculture-reproducing-whiteness-neo-fascism-gendered-discourse-online-ashley-mattheis">#TradCulture</a> — and the embracing of whiteness as a form of resistance by the Alt-Right.</p>
<p>The rise of such phenomena underscores the fact that the social justice and anti-racist intent of the volume is now needed more than ever. While aimed at an academic audience, many of the chapters are very readable and I hope it finds a broader audience as the arguments it contains must be more widely debated.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185457/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Deirdre Pretorius is related to Christi van der Westhuizen and knows Shona Hunter through her affiliation with the University of Johannesburg.</span></em></p>This book succeeds well in describing and criticising, through many examples, how whiteness works.Deirdre Pretorius, Associate Professor in the Graphic Design Department, University of JohannesburgLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1691302021-11-08T13:42:41Z2021-11-08T13:42:41ZHow one atheist laid the foundation of contemporary Hindu nationalism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430383/original/file-20211104-19858-16kqm1y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=59%2C0%2C3934%2C2646&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Members of the Hindu nationalist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh take part in a march in Ahmedabad, India.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/members-of-the-hindu-nationalist-group-rashtriya-news-photo/1235931212?adppopup=true">Sam Panthaky/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>India’s position as a secular nation is under threat. </p>
<p>Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pro-Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, the country’s <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/india-muslims-marginalized-population-bjp-modi">200 million Muslim minority</a> population has been increasingly targeted. Over the past few years, so-called cow vigilante groups have attacked Muslims for <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-36518974">consuming beef</a>, an act that many Hindus consider to be sacrilegious. </p>
<p>The ruling party has also <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-politics-media-analysis/indian-journalists-say-they-intimidated-ostracized-if-they-criticize-modi-and-the-bjp-idUSKBN1HX1F4">come down heavily</a> on free speech. </p>
<p>Concerned by these developments, 53 American universities, including Harvard, Stanford, Princeton and Columbia, co-sponsored a three-day conference, “<a href="https://dismantlinghindutva.com/">Dismantling Hindutva</a>” in September 2021 in which scholars discussed the rise of Hindu nationalism.</p>
<p>India is the <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/toi-edit-page/hold-on-to-that-idea-of-india-the-worlds-largest-democracy-celebrates-its-75th-independence-day-tomorrow-where-are-we-as-a-nation-two-views/">world’s biggest democracy</a>. But according to several experts, that democracy is <a href="https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2021/02/02/global-democracy-has-a-very-bad-year">under threat</a>.</p>
<p>As a scholar of <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/saba-sattar-797766224/">South Asian affairs</a>, I’d argue that it is important to understand that India’s move to a Hindu identity has roots in the early 20th century, when it was part of the British colonial empire.</p>
<p>In 1923, an anti-colonial revolutionary, <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Hindutva/XEdEQgAACAAJ?hl=en">Vinayak D. Savarkar</a>, first invented the term Hindutva, which loosely translates to “<a href="https://archive.org/stream/hindutva-vinayak-damodar-savarkar-pdf/hindutva-vd-savarkar_djvu.txt">Hindu-ness</a>.” This view emphasized that a native of India, even if not a Hindu, could fully embrace the geography, languages, and religions of “Mother India.” </p>
<h2>A movement inspired by a non-believer</h2>
<p><a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/spotlight/Atheist-fundamentalists/articleshow/6014430.cms">Savarkar was an atheist</a>, with little interest in religion, other than for political use. In 1910, he was <a href="https://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/makingbritain/content/vinayak-damodar-savarkar">sentenced to life imprisonment</a> for his participation in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt7s415.5">plot to assassinate</a> the British Assistant Secretary of State Curzon Wyllie. </p>
<p>It was during his <a href="https://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/makingbritain/content/vinayak-damodar-savarkar">imprisonment</a> that Savarkar wrote his foundational treatise, “Hindutva: Who is a Hindu?”</p>
<p><a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/experts/692">Christophe Jaffrelot</a>, one of the most noted scholars on Hindu nationalism, calls Savarkar’s work “<a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt15zc7zj.45">the first charter of Hindu nationalism</a>.” Savarkar sought to unite religions native to India against Muslims and Christians, who were considered to be outside invaders. </p>
<p>Back then, Savarkar wanted to call the Indian subcontinent <a href="https://theprint.in/pageturner/excerpt/veer-savarkar-hindutva-india/38073/">the great Hindu Rashtra</a>, or nation encompassing a common geography, religion and culture. Adherents of other religions, such as Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs, would simply need to pay homage to Hindu culture and accept a national identity within the larger Hindutva framework. The same would apply to “foreigners,” such as Muslims and Christians, as long as they did not attempt to impose their own rule.</p>
<p>At first, the concept of a Hindu identity did not include a religious creed. Instead, it espoused bringing forward identity politics based on the perceptions of dominant ethnicity and nationalism.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Khilafat-movement">Khilafat movement</a>, a 1919 pan-Islamist campaign that encompassed the Islamic world and had a profound impact in uniting the Indian Muslim community, radicalized Savarkar. </p>
<p>The unity of Indian Muslims during this period in contrast to the divided caste-based Hindu community amounted to a threat, according to Savarkar, and <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt7s415.5">gave rise</a> to a political party, the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/hindu-nationalism-and-indian-politics/2E218CFDC1A1052F511A311C45D5A3D2">Hindu Mahasabha</a>, in 1921, in which he was a leading figure.</p>
<p>Following his release from prison, <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Hindutva/ezS6SHt0hPwC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=vinayak+savarkar+more+radical+after+prison+against+muslims&pg=PA143&printsec=frontcover">Savarkar’s rhetoric</a> became less inclusive and grew correspondingly hostile toward Muslims. </p>
<p>In his 1963 book “<a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Six_Glorious_Epochs_of_Indian_History/IajTDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">Six Glorious Epochs</a>,” written shortly before his death, Savarkar stated that Muslims and Christians wanted to destroy Hinduism. He also contended that India <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/4408848">should enforce the kind of authoritarian rule</a> that was imposed in totalitarian Germany, Japan and Italy during World War II. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430384/original/file-20211104-21790-1xwm8cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a man bows before a statue and a mural of a man." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430384/original/file-20211104-21790-1xwm8cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/430384/original/file-20211104-21790-1xwm8cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430384/original/file-20211104-21790-1xwm8cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430384/original/file-20211104-21790-1xwm8cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430384/original/file-20211104-21790-1xwm8cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430384/original/file-20211104-21790-1xwm8cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/430384/original/file-20211104-21790-1xwm8cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A man pays homage to the leader of Hindu nationalism, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, in Pune, India.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/man-visit-to-the-hostel-room-of-veer-savarkar-on-the-news-photo/1146939046">Milind Saurkar/Hindustan Times via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Savarkar also believed Muslims in law enforcement and the military were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S1479244310000144">potential traitors</a> and their numbers needed to be kept in check.</p>
<p>Savarkar’s views became the foundation of contemporary Hindu nationalism. </p>
<p>[<em>Explore the intersection of faith, politics, arts and culture.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/this-week-in-religion-76/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=religion-explore">Sign up for This Week in Religion.</a>]</p>
<h2>The new shade of nationalism</h2>
<p>In 1925, another leader, K.B. Hedgewar, emerged near Mumbai and created the <a href="https://www.rss.org/Timeline.html">Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or the RSS</a>. Today, the RSS is the umbrella organization of the <a href="https://www.bjp.org/en/ourphilosophy">BJP</a>, the ruling party.</p>
<p>By the 1940s, RSS membership base grew to <a href="https://www.business-standard.com/article/politics/in-its-91st-year-rss-plans-to-reach-each-of-600-000-villages-of-india-115102101117_1.html">600,000 volunteers</a>. Today, it has well over <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/05/03/706808616/the-powerful-group-shaping-the-rise-of-hindu-nationalism-in-india">5 million</a>. Under Modi, Hindu nationalism has been <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/rss-has-benefited-greatly-under-modi-government-1187765-2018-03-12">brought</a> to mainstream politics, and Hindu nationalists now hold prominent cabinet- and ministerial-level positions in government.</p>
<p>The RSS was twice banned as a political party. Once was after <a href="https://southasia.ucla.edu/history-politics/hindu-rashtra/nathuram-godse-rss-murder-gandhi/">Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated in 1948 by former member RSS Nathuram Godse</a>. The second time was more recent, following the <a href="https://thewire.in/communalism/rss-sangh-parivar-babri-masjid">demolition</a> of Babri mosque – a holy site in the north Indian city of Ayodhya – in <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/harsh-mander-on-bans-and-organisations-in-the-name-of-national-security/article7770177.ece">1992</a>. The demolition led to nationwide riots where 1,000 people, <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/babri-masjid-bloody-aftermath-across-india-147823-2011-12-05">mostly Muslims, were killed</a>. Hindu nationalists claim that the site is the birthplace of Lord Rama. In 2019, the Indian Supreme Court <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/ayodhya-verdict-understanding-the-supreme-court-judgment/story-G7mzXfBFEDJ88PmuLj8CpL.html">allowed a Rama temple</a> to be constructed at the contested site.</p>
<p>After the first ban, the RSS and Mahasabha created their own political party called the <a href="https://theprint.in/politics/on-this-day-69-years-ago-200-leaders-formed-jana-sangh-it-is-now-the-bjp/528070/">Bharatiya Jana Sangh</a> – the predecessor to the current BJP – in 1951. The Jana Sangh ran on a platform of “<a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt7s415.5">Indianizing</a>,” or assimilating, all minorities into a unified Hindu nation.</p>
<p>For centuries, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/24590025">Muslims were perceived</a> by many Hindus as another ethnic group or a subcaste within South Asia, not as an external threat that needed to be warded off. But Savarkar did not believe so. He wanted to bring about an <a href="https://theprint.in/opinion/savarkar-wanted-to-smash-caste-system-cooked-prawns-and-didnt-worship-the-cow/161016/">internal cohesion</a> among various Hindu groups to protect against any external invasion.</p>
<p>Savarkar’s treatise was the <a href="https://www.thequint.com/news/politics/maharashtra-bjp-manifesto-proposes-bharat-ratna-for-veer-savarkar">foundation</a> for the <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/archive/01830/BJP_election_manif_1830927a.pdf">2014 BJP manifesto</a>, which set the party’s agenda to mend the “discarded vision” of a Hindu nation.</p>
<p>Secularism is written in India’s <a href="https://www.india.gov.in/my-government/constitution-india">constitution</a>, but the BJP’s <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/elections/lok-sabha-2019/analysis-highest-ever-national-vote-share-for-the-bjp/article27218550.ece">reelection</a> in 2019 demonstrates that India may be undergoing a fundamental change and embracing a Hindu identity. </p>
<p>The Rama temple construction is expected to be <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/national/north-and-central/ram-temple-may-open-to-devotees-ahead-of-2024-lok-sabha-poll-1016182.html#:%7E:text=The%20Ram%20Temple%2C%20which%20is,elections%2C%20due%20in%20May%202024.&text=Prime%20min">ready before the next parliamentary election in 2024</a>. The building and celebration of a Hindu temple on the grounds of a destroyed Muslim mosque is, I believe, emblematic of India’s transition.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169130/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr. Saba Sattar 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 on South Asian affairs traces the growth of Hindu nationalism, started by an atheist anti-colonial revolutionary, to the one adopted under Modi’s government.Dr. Saba Sattar, PhD Student in Statecraft and National Security, The Institute of World PoliticsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1444412020-09-03T13:54:40Z2020-09-03T13:54:40ZIndian Matchmaking: a show about arranged marriages can’t ignore the political reality in India<p>Sima Aunty, the central figure in Netflix’s Indian Matchmaking, facilitates the tradition of the arranged marriage by finding suitable matches. As she meets with clients and their families, the programme outlines the parameters of what constitutes a suitable and desirable match and how to find one. According to her:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If you want a good and happy family, you have to adjust, have to compromise </p>
</blockquote>
<p>While men are told to lower their standards and women to be less “choosey”, the show’s biggest compromise is not made by those looking for their ideal match. Instead, it comes with how it glosses over the politics of contemporary India to fit the format of a reality dating show and appeal to a wide international audience. </p>
<p>The programme gives the appearance of prioritising how well people get on rather than how socially (and politically) acceptable matches are. Instead, social conservatism and <a href="https://scroll.in/global/970262/casteism-continues-to-thrive-among-indians-abroad-through-surnames">casteism</a> (a system of social stratification, based on a hierarchy of social status and ritual purity or pollution) are surreptitiously promoted to an unaware international audience. These ideas are shrouded within notions of family love, cultural affinity and desires for children to be happy. </p>
<p>While advertised as a dating show, it is questionable whether Indian Matchmaking should wade into this territory at all. However, with the unsightly social context and political reality in India omitted from the discussion, Indian Matchmaking covertly upholds the ideas of Hindu nationalism.</p>
<h2>The family lines of authoritarianism</h2>
<p>Indian Matchmaking was filmed and aired during a time of deep fascism in India.</p>
<p>The last two years have seen <a href="https://scroll.in/article/966775/from-planning-murder-to-praising-modi-whatsapp-chats-offer-a-window-into-the-minds-of-delhi-rioters">violent pogroms</a>, far-reaching <a href="https://scroll.in/article/962526/in-delhi-violence-investigation-a-disturbing-pattern-victims-end-up-being-arrested-by-police">state orchestration and complicity</a> and <a href="https://thewire.in/education/jnu-public-university-system">the dismantlement of liberal institutions</a>.</p>
<p>The <em>Sangh Parivar</em>, or the “family” of Hindu nationalist organisations in India, includes the ruling far-right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The party, led by Narendra Modi, has been implementing its vision of a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/23/opinion/modi-india-election.html">Hindu nation</a> since its electoral landslide in 2014. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aZS2KbLAy5Y?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-50670393">Exclusionary citizenship laws</a>, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-51382414">anti-Muslim hate speech</a>) and <a href="https://time.com/5617161/india-religious-hate-crimes-modi/">hate crimes</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/aug/05/devastating-siege-kashmir-colony-india-crushing-dissent">the illegal abolition of Kashmir’s special status</a> are some of the key features of the BJP’s platform. It has welded social conservatism, caste ideology, territorial sovereignty and Hindu supremacy together to create India’s brand of fascism and authoritarianism called <em>Hindutva</em>. </p>
<p>By not featuring any conversations about the fraught politics of this time, the programme by default contributes to the denial of the violence being <a href="https://www.trtworld.com/opinion/73-years-on-violence-is-reimagined-in-modi-s-india-38919">perpetrated against minorities</a>. These groups are also excluded from the show to present a quaint and simplistic picture of love in India and the diaspora. </p>
<p>It could be understood that such omissions were made to fit within the genre of reality TV. The protocols and idiosyncrasies of this system of matchmaking provide a source of entertainment for viewers – such as first dates where parents and other relatives are embarrassingly present. However, while it might seem odd for what is essentially a dating show to wade into such political territory, these omissions propagate and normalise some of the dangerous thinking espoused by <em>Hindutva</em>.</p>
<h2>Love and hate in a time of fascism</h2>
<p>The programme’s honesty lies in how it exposes how social boundaries and preferences are brazenly stated at the onset. Clients name their traits and then identify those they desire in potential matches. Going against the wishes of parents or crossing social boundaries by considering a match outside of the categories of acceptability is beyond the realm of possibility. </p>
<p>Instead, <a href="https://www.hloom.com/resume/templates/biodata">biodatas</a>, which function as dating profiles or personal CVs, are shared and examined in great detail. Religion, education, regional or ethnic background, height, age, profession and more are listed for participants and viewers to scrutinise.</p>
<p>In this process, viewers come to understand the codes and categories of suitability and desirability. Personal and parental foibles distract viewers from considering which groups are missing and what traits are placed on a pedestal. </p>
<p>The stigmatisation of inter-community cohesion and relationships under <em>Hindutva</em> has been a key feature of the BJP government’s social agenda. Many of these ideas lurk across the episodes of the programme. </p>
<p>One particular desire that repeatedly comes up is for a “fair skin” match. This is an idea of beauty that can be <a href="https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/unfair-love-skin-colour-and-caste-bias/cid/1784266">traced back to caste ideology</a> and a desire to move upward or maintain status in a society where caste oppression is a daily reality.</p>
<p>Marriages across caste or religion are predominantly frowned upon in India. According to the India Human Development Survey, only around <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-47823588">5% of Indian marriages are across caste</a>.</p>
<p>This deeply held and entrenched idea of maintaining caste “purity” is part of the BJP’s social agenda for a Hindu nation. The party loudly seeks to stigmatise and stoke violence against those who transgress caste and religious boundaries. </p>
<p>One popular conspiracy theory shared by the Hindu right is “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1057/s41305-018-0120-0?casa_token=duvcP3dSvggAAAAA:w0NgK4Or1WgkmoSMVRJ6U5djrFwO2XgS3ddFnmojrzhVzr6S2ClFJYD03EMefpATNVQ-NVPyilHr">Love Jihad</a>”. This is the idea that Muslim men target women belonging to non-Muslim communities to convert them to Islam by feigning love. It is an invention to incite suspicion and hatred against Muslims in India. </p>
<p>Love Jihad is based on the idea that mixed relationships between Muslims and Hindus will threaten the “purity” of the Hindu nation. In Indian Matchmaking, <em>Hindutva</em> as a social and political project prevails as an international and subtle follow-up to Love jihad.</p>
<p>Social conservatism’s preference for and adherence to categories go hand in hand. Many viewers would have laughed at the behaviour of anxiety-ridden Preeti from Mumbai whose unabashed ambition is to settle her younger son Akshay with a “homely” match who will look after the family. Despite his reluctance, towards the end of the programme her son admits that he wants a wife who will not only please his mother but also be like her. He, like many other clients, are looking for someone just like him and his kin. </p>
<p>All in all, the programme is disingenuous for suggesting that a system of matchmaking in an era of fascism, without naming or referring to the broader political backdrop, can do anything but collude with the forces of <em>Hindutva</em>. Instead, the implicit social conservatism of the family, which actively fuels supremacist politics, goes completely unexplored and unchecked.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144441/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Navtej K Purewal 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>While a lighthearted dating show, can Indian matchmaking get away with not exploring the turbulent politics of caste oppression and violence against Muslims in India?Navtej K Purewal, Professor of Political Sociology and Development Studies, SOAS University of London, SOAS, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1426962020-07-29T11:05:07Z2020-07-29T11:05:07ZKashmir: new domicile rules spark fresh anger a year after India removed region’s special status<p>One year since Narendra Modi’s government scrapped the special status that Kashmir had held for decades, Kashmiris remain deeply concerned about their future. In late March, while India was under a coronavirus lockdown, the government of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/domicile-rules-for-jk/article31660363.ece">redefined domicile rules</a> for Kashmir. This made it easier for non-Kashmiris to obtain permanent residency and jobs in the region.</p>
<p>Reports in June suggested <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/06/kashmir-muslims-fear-demographic-shift-thousands-residency-200627103940283.html">25,000 people</a> had already been granted domicile certificates under the new rules. These people now have the ability to apply for jobs, buy land, vote and own property in Kashmir. </p>
<p>Since <a href="https://apdpkashmir.com/120-days-5th-august-to-5th-december-a-report-by-apdp/">August 2019</a>, the Indian government has clamped down on life in Kashmir by imposing curfews and limiting communications. The extension of a de-facto state of emergency in Kashmir has <a href="https://thewire.in/rights/jammu-and-kashmir-lockdown-human-rights-violations">resulted in</a> the harassment of journalists, additional military checkpoints, a surge in search operations and increased reports of detention and torture under the draconian <a href="https://search.proquest.com/openview/6c0deee4b169dc77bd76d4b8fc35d4dd/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=54734">Public Safety Act</a>. A coronavirus lockdown has <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-kashmir-military-lockdown-and-pandemic-combined-are-one-giant-deadly-threat-142252">added further restrictions</a> on movement. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/kashmiris-are-living-a-long-nightmare-of-indian-colonialism-121925">Kashmiris are living a long nightmare of Indian colonialism</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>New access for non-Kashmiris</h2>
<p>Until August 2019, <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6PQtDwAAQBAJ&dq=Article+370&lr=&source=gbs_navlinks_s">Article 370</a> and Article 35A of India’s constitution protected Kashmir’s right to self-determination and provided the state with its own autonomy and legislature. Having the ability to define its permanent residents prevented non-Kashmiris from applying for jobs or scholarships in the region, and from buying land. This meant that indigenous Kashmiris had certain benefits and <a href="http://pu.edu.pk/images/journal/studies/PDF-FILES/Article-1_v18_1_jun17.pdf">privileges</a> as permanent residents.</p>
<p>A domicile certificate has become mandatory for education, employment and housing in Kashmir – whereas before, Kashmiris only needed a permanent residence certificate (PRC).</p>
<p>However, India redefined domicile via the <a href="https://pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1609804">Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Order (2020)</a>. Under the new law, non-Kashmiris and their children are now <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/flooding-india-introduces-kashmir-domicile-law-200401100651450.html">eligible</a> for domicile if they have served as government officials in the region, or worked in the public sector, including banks and universities for a period of 10 years. They can also claim Kashmir as their place of domicile if they have lived in the region for 15 years, or have studied for seven years in educational institutions located in Kashmir and have taken their exams there. Non-Kashmiri eligibility also covers members of the <a href="https://joshuaproject.net/people_groups/16399/IN">Valmiki</a> community, a lower-caste Hindu community who were promised a PRC in 1957, and refugees from West Pakistan who are registered as migrants under the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission.</p>
<h2>Different sets of rules</h2>
<p>Kashmiris who want to prove they are domiciled have to provide an affidavit and a PRC, which can be a lengthy procedure – especially under curfew. The new rules have put pressure on permanent residents to obtain a new domicile certificate now that a PRC is no longer sufficient to access education, employment or buy property.</p>
<p>But to achieve domicile status and prove their eligibility, non-Kashmiris now only have to provide either a ration card, educational records, or an employer certificate, all of which can be obtained with relative ease. There are few checks and balances for non-Kashmiris, who can now be granted a domicile certificate by a <em>tehsildar</em> <a href="https://thekashmirwalla.com/2020/05/jammu-and-kashmir-domicile-law-meaning-and-ramifications/">(junior bureaucrat)</a>. Tehsildars can be <a href="https://thewire.in/law/kashmir-domicile-certificate-rules">fined</a> if they don’t issue certificates within 15 days. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Listen to an <a href="https://theconversation.com/india-tomorrow-part-3-kashmir-115733">episode on the history of Kashmir</a> from The Conversation’s 2019 India Tomorrow series on The Anthill Podcast.</em> </p>
<hr>
<h2>Rising tensions</h2>
<p>The new domicile law met with mixed reaction from <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/centres-amendments-to-jk-domicile-laws-draws-flak-from-local-parties/article31259695.ece">Kashmir’s political parties</a>. While the BJP claimed that the new law was part of its efforts to secure jobs in Kashmir, it actually acts against the interests of unemployed youth in Kashmir. Indian citizens who obtain domicile in Kashmir will now be able to <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/kashmir-gets-a-new-domicile-law-sets-off-a-political-firestorm-10-facts/story-QVFG9AzUVfVV2n4dBjY3YP.html">apply for jobs</a> that have previously been reserved for permanent Kashmiri residents.</p>
<p>I’ve been speaking with local Kashmiris as part of my own ongoing PhD research on the changing nature of conflict in Kashmir. My interviewees believe that the new laws are a method of converting a Muslim majority region into a Hindu majority region by encouraging Hindus from mainland India to move to Kashmir. </p>
<p>One told me this will have “grave implications” for Kashmir if widespread demographic change occurs. He was concerned that if Kashmir ever has the referendum on self-determination it was <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08865655.2016.1174607">promised</a> back in 1947, Kashmir will sway towards India because it will have a Hindu majority. Others said the change was completely unconstitutional, would incite systematic exclusion of Kashmiri Muslims, and encourage further human rights abuses because it disregards the rights of indigenous Kashmiris who had no say in the rule change. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/india-a-year-after-narendra-modis-re-election-the-countrys-democracy-is-developing-fascistic-undertones-135604">India: a year after Narendra Modi's re-election the country's democracy is developing fascistic undertones</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>An uncertain future</h2>
<p>The timing of India’s decision was strategic. <a href="https://discoversociety.org/2020/03/30/is-covid-19-worsening-the-already-fraught-situation-in-kashmir/">COVID-19</a> has acted as the perfect smokescreen to divert attention away from the human rights situation in Kashmir. Due to the lockdown rules and repressive measures imposed to combat the pandemic, Kashmiris cannot voice their dissent with the new law. </p>
<p>Unless Kashmiris are given the right to self-determination and the ability to vote on such new laws, India will continue to have full autonomy over Kashmir’s indigenous population and will achieve its goal of creating a “<a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/people-of-jammu-and-kashmir-will-not-face-difficulties-in-celebrating-eid-says-pm-modi-1578925-2019-08-09">Naya</a>” – new – Kashmir, which was part of Modi’s election manifesto and is part of the wider BJP Hindu nationalist agenda. This is the start of a very dark chapter for Kashmir indeed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142696/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leoni Connah 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>Non-Kashmiris can now apply for domicile in the region, giving them access to jobs and property that were previoulsy reserved for Kashmiris.Leoni Connah, PhD Candidate in International Relations, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1352782020-04-06T22:09:03Z2020-04-06T22:09:03ZCoronavirus versus democracy: 5 countries where emergency powers risk abuse<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/325758/original/file-20200406-51213-oubkg8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C31%2C5304%2C3504&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hungarian police officers check cars at the closed Austria-Hungary border, March 18, 2020.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/hungarian-police-officers-check-cars-at-the-nickelsdorf-news-photo/1207611670?adppopup=true">Alex Halada/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Editor’s note: Emergencies like the coronavirus pandemic set the conditions for political leaders to use expansive powers. They are, as a result, a test of the government’s commitment to human rights and civil liberties.</em> </p>
<p><em>Most of the travel bans, stay-at-home orders and business closures <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/coronavirus-travel-restrictions.html">taking effect worldwide</a> follow health experts’ advice on curbing the spread of this highly infectious disease. But other restrictions governments say are meant to protect people seem designed to curtail human rights, suppress dissent and consolidate authoritarian power.</em></p>
<p><em>We asked political scientists for a non-exhaustive list of where they’re watching the state of democracy.</em> </p>
<h2>1. Hungary</h2>
<p><strong>John Shattuck, Tufts University</strong></p>
<p>The global pandemic claimed its first democracy on March 30 when Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban won approval from his parliament to <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/31/rule-by-decree-in-hungary-reopens-wounds-on-european-center-right-158366">rule Hungary indefinitely by decree</a>, bypassing lawmakers.</p>
<p>Orban’s new powers give him unlimited authority to fight the coronavirus by suspending parliament and all future elections, overriding the Hungarian constitution and imprisoning people for the new crimes of “violating a quarantine” and “spreading false information.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/325767/original/file-20200406-104477-1vjjsng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/325767/original/file-20200406-104477-1vjjsng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/325767/original/file-20200406-104477-1vjjsng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325767/original/file-20200406-104477-1vjjsng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325767/original/file-20200406-104477-1vjjsng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325767/original/file-20200406-104477-1vjjsng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325767/original/file-20200406-104477-1vjjsng.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325767/original/file-20200406-104477-1vjjsng.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">Orban is using coronavirus to maximize his power.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/hungarys-prime-minister-viktor-orban-gives-a-joint-press-news-photo/1205043650?adppopup=true">MICHAL CIZEK/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Orban has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-viktor-orban-degraded-hungarys-weak-democracy-109046">working toward authoritarianism for a decade</a>. Soon after coming to power in 2010, he announced that Hungary would become something unheard of: an “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/23/world/europe/tusk-orban-migration-eu.html">illiberal democracy</a>.” He has since used his leadership to undermine democratic institutions, including the media, the judiciary and civil society. </p>
<p>To mobilize support for this agenda, Orban has skillfully presented himself as the protector of Hungarians from real and exaggerated external threats. Today’s public health crisis is very real – but Orban is using coronavirus to suspend democracy in ways that will outlast the current emergency.</p>
<h2>2. India</h2>
<p><strong>Ramya Vijaya, Stockton University</strong></p>
<p>For two months before the coronavirus outbreak, India had seen <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/27/opinion/india-constitution-protests.html">sustained nationwide protests</a> against the efforts by the Hindu Nationalist ruling party to <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-modis-india-has-become-a-dangerous-place-for-muslims-132591">marginalize religious minorities</a>. These included an iconic <a href="https://theconversation.com/indian-women-protest-new-citizenship-laws-joining-a-global-fourth-wave-feminist-movement-129602">peaceful sit-in</a> spearheaded largely by Muslim women in the Shaheen Bagh section of Delhi. </p>
<p>On March 23 the Shaheen Bagh sit-in was <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-52015464">cleared by police</a> – part of India’s national COVID-19 lockdown. </p>
<p>Some Indians are nervous that Indian police will enforce the shelter-in-place rule. In February, officers used <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/police-stormed-a-university-in-india-muslim-students-say-the-violence-was-an-act-of-revenge/2020/02/16/6727aa24-37e8-11ea-a1ff-c48c1d59a4a1_story.html">brutal force against anti-government demonstrators</a> and turned a blind eye to – and <a href="https://scroll.in/article/957517/month-after-video-of-delhi-police-assault-sparked-outrage-four-survivors-have-no-hope-for-justice">in some cases seemingly abetted</a> – a wave of mob violence that <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/02/what-happened-delhi-was-pogrom/607198/">terrorized Muslim neighborhoods in Delhi</a>. </p>
<p>More law enforcement on the streets during the coronavirus shutdown leaves many minority communities in India <a href="https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/opinion-what-india-has-now-is-a-clone-emergency-just-ask-the-police/349605?fbclid=IwAR1FNanFZvZMFOOZ12hrTwXm3kosks05xUU1i28Gf_Pl0XM3lv-xtRglxHo">feeling less safe</a>, not more. </p>
<p>India is continuing to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/he-is-a-prominent-anti-modi-intellectual-the-indian-government-wants-him-behind-bars/2019/02/20/e2b5dbe4-2e47-11e9-8781-763619f12cb4_story.html">harass</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/24/destruction-indias-judicial-independence-is-almost-complete/">arrest</a> its most vocal critics, raising fears that the government will use the pandemic chaos to suppress protests and civil society activism in the foreseeable future.</p>
<h2>3. Zimbabwe</h2>
<p><strong>Paul Friesen, University of Notre Dame, and Chipo Dendere, Wellesley University</strong></p>
<p>While reported cases of coronavirus are not yet significant in Africa, the pandemic is already <a href="https://nehandaradio.com/2020/03/31/human-rights-group-concerned-about-army-and-police-abuses-during-lockdown/">emboldening several governments on the continent</a> to flex their state powers in the name of protecting citizens. </p>
<p>Zimbabwe’s authoritarian-leaning government already inspired <a href="http://www.afrobarometer.org">fear</a> and <a href="http://afrobarometer.org/publications/ad240-ill-prepared-health-care-service-delivery-zimbabwe">distrust among citizens</a>. Then, on March 30, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who came to power after the removal of Robert Mugabe in 2017, issued a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-zimbabwe/zimbabwe-locks-down-to-fight-coronavirus-amid-economic-crisis-idUSKBN21H2DF">sudden and strict 21-day lockdown</a>, clamping down on nearly all movement and activities. </p>
<p>The total shutdown comes with no government bailout, and Zimbabwe is already in <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/31/africa/zimbabwe-economic-crisis-intl/index.html">economic crisis</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/325763/original/file-20200406-191235-1061kdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/325763/original/file-20200406-191235-1061kdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/325763/original/file-20200406-191235-1061kdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325763/original/file-20200406-191235-1061kdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325763/original/file-20200406-191235-1061kdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325763/original/file-20200406-191235-1061kdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325763/original/file-20200406-191235-1061kdb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325763/original/file-20200406-191235-1061kdb.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">A man is arrested after resisting orders to vacate a vegetable market area in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, March 31, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/man-is-arrested-by-police-officers-after-resisting-orders-news-photo/1208727087?adppopup=true">ZINYANGE AUNTONY/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Fear of government forces has so far proven effective in motivating most of Zimbabwe’s <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/zimbabwe-launches-21-day-nationwide-lockdown0-200330174200621.html">15 million people to stay at home</a>. But inevitably, many people will have to violate the lockdown to get food, water and other basics goods that are <a href="https://afrobarometer.org/sites/default/files/publications/Dispatches/ab_r7_dispatchno349_pap14_water_and_sanitation_in_africa.pdf">hard to access even in normal times</a>. </p>
<p>Mnangagwa recently <a href="https://www.zimeye.net/2020/03/29/useless-obadiah-moyo-loses-key-position-to-chiwenga-oppah-muchinguri/">ousted</a> Zimbabwe’s health minister as COVID-19 czar and appointed his military hardliner vice president to manage the pandemic response. That was a signal about the potential for use of force. With Zimbabwe forcing citizens to choose between eating and facing the wrath of the military, there could be a flare-up of violence. </p>
<h2>4. Peru</h2>
<p><strong>Anthony Bebbington, Clark University, and Gisselle Vila Benites, University of Melbourne</strong></p>
<p>Peruvian President Martín Vizcarra’s rapid response to COVID-19 – which includes a <a href="https://elpais.com/economia/2020-04-04/peru-aplica-el-plan-economico-mas-ambicioso-de-la-region-para-enfrentar-la-pandemia.html">$26 billion stimulus package to aid both businesses and families</a> passed shortly after <a href="https://busquedas.elperuano.pe/normaslegales/decreto-supremo-que-declara-estado-de-emergencia-nacional-po-decreto-supremo-n-044-2020-pcm-1864948-2/">a March 15 state of emergency decree</a> – has been <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2020/04/04/the-wisdom-and-witlessness-of-latin-americas-leaders">praised domestically and internationally</a> for its sensitivity to the social and economic impacts of the pandemic. </p>
<p>Vizcarra is unlikely to use coronavirus to consolidate authoritarian power, but Peru’s history of impunity during previous states of emergency raises other concerns. </p>
<p>Civil society, <a href="http://cooperaccion.org.pe/el-uso-de-la-fuerza-en-los-tiempos-del-covid-19/">human rights groups</a>, journalists and even the Justice Ministry have <a href="https://ojo-publico.com/1723/ley-de-proteccion-policial-oportunismo-en-tiempos-de-crisis">flagged</a>, for example, the risks of a new <a href="https://ojo-publico.com/1723/ley-de-proteccion-policial-oportunismo-en-tiempos-de-crisis">“police protection” law</a> passed by the president of the Congress, Manuel Merino. It exempts officers and soldiers from criminal responsibility for any death or injury caused during the state of emergency.</p>
<p>Peru’s government also has a track record of using <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-34400831">emergency powers to protect its mining industry against protests</a>. Mined silver, gold, copper, zinc and other precious metals account for <a href="https://elperuano.pe/noticia-mef-apoyara-proyectos-inversion-mineria-90798.aspx">12% of Peru’s gross domestic product</a>, though many local people and environmental groups oppose these massive projects.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/325769/original/file-20200406-74220-g7u05q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/325769/original/file-20200406-74220-g7u05q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/325769/original/file-20200406-74220-g7u05q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325769/original/file-20200406-74220-g7u05q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325769/original/file-20200406-74220-g7u05q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325769/original/file-20200406-74220-g7u05q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325769/original/file-20200406-74220-g7u05q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/325769/original/file-20200406-74220-g7u05q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Peruvian mine workers protest a court decision allowing companies to lower their salaries in 2016, Lima, Peru.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/workers-from-shougang-iron-mining-along-with-thousands-of-news-photo/630286434?adppopup=true">Fotoholica Press/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The possibility that the COVID-19 state of emergency could be abused by Peruvian police and mining elites to repress civil liberties merits monitoring.</p>
<h2>5. United States</h2>
<p><strong>Austin Sarat, Amherst College</strong></p>
<p>While the <a href="https://scholarship.law.missouri.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1417&context=facpubs">American Constitution says</a> nothing about emergency powers, Congress has historically <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/01/presidential-emergency-powers/576418/">authorized executive action</a> in response to financial, national security and health crises. These disaster-time measures, once passed, are <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/declared-national-emergencies-under-national-emergencies-act">seldom curtailed when these crises end</a>. </p>
<p>As a result, President Donald Trump can now use <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/guide-emergency-powers-and-their-use">136 different statutory powers</a> to deal with coronavirus. They include <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/03/27/coronavirus-latest-news/">directing private companies</a> to produce surgical equipment, taking “measures to prevent the entry and spread of communicable diseases <a href="https://www.phe.gov/Preparedness/legal/Pages/phedeclaration.aspx">from foreign countries … and between states</a>,” physically confining the ill and <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/606">shutting down or taking control of</a> communications centers. </p>
<p>Civil liberties groups like <a href="https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/aclu-comment-us-response-coronavirus">the American Civil Liberties Union</a> and <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2020/03/23/white-house-contemplates-coronavirus-asylum-ban-hate-groups-urge-trump-seize-moment">Southern Poverty Law Center</a> have flagged certain uses of these powers, criticizing Trump for, among other things, imposing international travel bans and banning asylum-seekers. </p>
<p>They say the president is abusing the coronavirus crisis to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/23/he-bungles-this-crisis-trump-turns-familiar-scapegoat-immigration/">stoke xenophobia and hostility against immigrants</a>. As evidence, critics point to Trump’s insistence on <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/17/politics/trump-china-coronavirus/index.html">calling COVID-19</a> the “Chinese virus.” </p>
<p>Emergency powers can be dangerous. They are, as the U.S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson once noted, “a loaded weapon, ready for the hand of any authority that can bring forward a plausible claim of an urgent need.” </p>
<p>[<em>You’re too busy to read everything. We get it. That’s why we’ve got a weekly newsletter.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybusy">Sign up for good Sunday reading.</a> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/135278/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthony Bebbington receives or has received funding from: Ford Foundation; Climate and Land Use Alliance; SESYNC; National Science Foundation; Australian Research Council; SSHRC. Anthony Bebbington is on the Board of Directors of Oxfam America and a Research Associate of RIMISP-Centro Latinoamericano para el Desarrollo Rural.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gisselle Vila Benites receives or has received funding from the IFEA (Andean Scholarship). She is also an adjunct researcher at the the Center for Mining and Sustainability Studies at Peru's Pacifico University.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Shattuck was the president and rector of the Central European University, in Hungary, from 2009 to 2016. He is currently affiliated with the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, at the Harvard Kennedy School. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Austin Sarat, Chipo Dendere, Paul Friesen, and Ramya Devan do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>National emergencies allow for the purest expressions of sovereign power, testing the government’s commitment to human rights. Some leaders are failing the coronavirus test, experts say.Ramya Devan, Professor of Economics, Stockton UniversityAnthony Bebbington, Milton P. and Alice C. Higgins Professor of Environment and Society, Professor of Geography, Clark UniversityAustin Sarat, Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, Amherst CollegeChipo Dendere, Assistant Professor, Africana Studies, Wellesley CollegeGisselle Vila Benites, PhD Candidate in Geography, The University of MelbourneJohn Shattuck, Professor of Practice in Diplomacy, Tufts UniversityPaul Friesen, PhD Candidate in Political Science, University of Notre DameLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1325912020-03-03T00:28:17Z2020-03-03T00:28:17ZWhy Modi’s India has become a dangerous place for Muslims<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317989/original/file-20200302-18299-1n6xaj9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">HARISH TYAGI/EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last week, India’s capital, New Delhi, experienced its worst <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/delhi-north-east-violence-police-investigation-arrests-detained-fir-probe-forensic-tahir-hussain-1651034-2020-02-29">communal violence</a> targeting a religious minority in more than 30 years. The <a href="https://theprint.in/india/list-of-those-killed-in-delhi-communal-riots/372170/">death toll</a> currently stands at 43 and parts of northeast Delhi remain under lock-down.</p>
<p>As per usual after incidents of violence against minorities in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi responded with days of silence. Finally commenting on <a href="https://twitter.com/narendramodi/status/1232581653916155912">Twitter</a>, he said, “peace and harmony are central to our ethos” and appealed for “peace and brotherhood at all times”. </p>
<p>But under Modi, India’s ethos is Hindu, and peace and brotherhood requires religious minorities to know their place. It is this sort of Hindu nationalism that led to the <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/mail-today/story/how-riots-ravaged-northeast-delhi-1651246-2020-03-01">attacks</a> on Muslims, their homes, schools and their places of worship.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317992/original/file-20200302-18295-86f4nf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317992/original/file-20200302-18295-86f4nf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317992/original/file-20200302-18295-86f4nf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317992/original/file-20200302-18295-86f4nf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317992/original/file-20200302-18295-86f4nf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317992/original/file-20200302-18295-86f4nf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317992/original/file-20200302-18295-86f4nf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Angry people across India are protesting against the communal violence in Delhi last week.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">PIYAL ADHIKARY/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The Gujarat model goes national</h2>
<p>Modi was elected in 2014 on the promise he would bring his “<a href="https://www.businesstoday.in/magazine/case-study/case-study-strategy-tactics-behind-creation-of-brand-narendra-modi/story/206321.html">Gujarat model</a>” of high growth rates driven by private-sector-led manufacturing to national prominence. </p>
<p>But the Gujarat model also involved the promotion of a vicious <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00472336.2018.1446546?scroll=top&needAccess=true&journalCode=rjoc20">right-wing populist politics</a>, which sought to create and elevate a Hindu majority out of a socially and economically diverse population to act as a voting bloc for Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). </p>
<p>This strategy relied on the creation of a common enemy in Muslims and secular liberals. It involved the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/keeping-the-peace/political-logic-of-violence-antimuslim-pogrom-in-gujarat/0A8EE7F75DBAE27EAB69815062F9AA77">strategic use of violence</a> to polarise communities in areas where the BJP faced the most electoral competition.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/may/16/what-next-india-pankaj-mishra">Critics</a> warned that although Modi had seemingly adopted a technocratic focus on governance and development during the election campaign, his right-wing populist politics of division <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/modi-fears-a-pink-revolution/article5864109.ece">bubbled</a> just below the surface and would be unleashed if the BJP came to power.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/indias-plan-to-identify-illegal-immigrants-could-get-some-muslims-declared-foreign-127652">India's plan to identify 'illegal immigrants' could get some Muslims declared 'foreign'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>As polarisation has intensified over the past six years, the critics were proven right. </p>
<p>Muslims and Dalits have been the targets of <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/lynching-the-scourge-of-new-india/article29693818.ece">lynchings</a> by Hindu activists in the name of protecting cows, a long-standing Hindu nationalist preoccupation. </p>
<p>University <a href="https://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/editorials/2020/mar/02/kanhaiya-kumar-sedition-nod-changes-the-narrative-on-kejriwal-2110823.html">students</a>, <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/who-is-anand-teltumbde-and-why-was-he-arrested-recently/article26292219.ece">activists</a>, <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/chandrashekhar-azad-arrested-1630326-2019-12-21">opposition politicians</a> and <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india-today-insight/story/how-the-sedition-law-has-become-a-weapon-to-muzzle-dissent-1650030-2020-02-26">protestors</a> who challenge the government have been charged with sedition or incitement to violence. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/06/fall-rise-india-yogi-adityanath-170622133909959.html">Yogi Adityanath</a>, a militant Hindu monk, was also appointed as chief minister of India’s largest state, Uttar Pradesh.</p>
<p>Since being <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/23/world/asia/india-election-narendra-modi.html">reelected in May with an even bigger majority</a>, the Modi government has claimed a mandate to fulfil long-standing Hindu nationalist demands to further marginalise minorities in India. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317995/original/file-20200302-18303-1oijm27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317995/original/file-20200302-18303-1oijm27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317995/original/file-20200302-18303-1oijm27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317995/original/file-20200302-18303-1oijm27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317995/original/file-20200302-18303-1oijm27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317995/original/file-20200302-18303-1oijm27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317995/original/file-20200302-18303-1oijm27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Indian paramilitary soldiers stand in a vandalised area in northeastern Delhi after last week’s deadly clashes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Stringer/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/indian-constitution-citizenship-amendment-act-modi-govt-6181761/">Citizenship Amendment Act</a> was one of these demands. The act violates the non-discriminatory spirit of India’s constitution by allowing persecuted Hindus, Parsis, Jains, Buddhists, Sikhs and Christians from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan – but not persecuted Muslims – a fast-tracked route to citizenship. </p>
<p>Modi’s government has also promised a <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/what-is-nrc-all-you-need-to-know-about-national-register-of-citizens-1629195-2019-12-18">National Register of Citizens</a> that will require Indians to provide documentary evidence of their citizenship.</p>
<p>A version of this exercise was conducted in the state of Assam, with <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-49520593">disastrous</a> effects. About 1.9 million Assamese were declared non-citizens and will now have to go through a long appeals process in special courts that function poorly.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/indian-citizenship-has-now-been-reduced-to-us-versus-them-130422">Indian citizenship has now been reduced to 'us' versus 'them'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Human rights groups have called the proposed NRC an <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/nrc-is-anti-poor-and-dehumanises-an-out-group-say-former-ias-officers/article30131566.ece">anti-poor</a> measure. Indian Muslims fear the government will also rob them of their <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/">citizenship</a> and constitutional rights.</p>
<p>The joint CAA-NRC agenda of the Modi government has stirred millions of Indians into <a href="https://gulfnews.com/photos/news/pictures-anti-caa-protests-continue-in-indian-cities-1.1577291422651">peaceful protests</a> around the country, showcasing a spirit of collective resistance not witnessed since India’s independence movement in the 1940s.</p>
<p>The most powerful protests have been led by Muslim women – a first in Indian history – in Delhi’s <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-50902909">Shaheen Bagh</a> area. The protesters have occupied a public space here for two and a half months, braving the bitter cold of northern Indian winters. </p>
<p>Shaheen Bagh has also inspired over a hundred other women-led permanent <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/inspired-by-shaheen-bagh-protests-women-in-ranchi-begin-anti-caa-stir/story-L4z7gl6KnEKVIzmxdllV3N.html">protests</a> around India.</p>
<h2>Rhetoric leads to violence</h2>
<p>Last week’s violence in New Delhi is a consequence of the ruling regime’s campaign against the protests. This campaign intensified during the BJP’s election campaign when the party <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/elections/assembly-elections/delhi/shaheen-bagh-protesters-will-rape-and-kill-says-bjp-mp/articleshow/73723116.cms">mobilised</a> public support against the protesters by accusing them of fomenting violence and disrupting public order. </p>
<p>Travelling to Delhi to energise voters, Adityanath, the militant Hindu monk in Uttar Pradesh, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/06/feed-them-bullets-not-biriyani-bjp-uses-delhi-elections-to-stoke-religious-hatred">said</a> the protesters should be fed “bullets”. Anurag Thakur, a BJP member of parliament and minister of state, <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/columns/bjp-is-getting-its-messaging-wrong/story-grlf18YwCtPmdVeciaPmjI.html">chanted</a> “shoot the traitors” at an election rally, referring to protesters. </p>
<p>This was followed by <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/second-shooting-by-radical-hindus-on-eve-of-delhi-poll-hdgjg93gl">two incidents</a> of shootings at students and protesters by individuals who identified as Modi supporters.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/narendra-modi-has-won-the-largest-election-in-the-world-what-will-this-mean-for-india-116598">Narendra Modi has won the largest election in the world. What will this mean for India?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Despite being roundly defeated in the Delhi election, BJP leaders have continued their campaign of polarisation in preparation for future elections. </p>
<p>Last week’s violence was sparked when BJP leaders and supporters <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/26/world/asia/delhi-riots-kapil-mishra.html">mobilised</a> to break up protests against the CAA and NRC in Delhi. It was no accident the violence was <a href="https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/delhi-violence-a-curious-pattern-emerges/cid/1749010?ref=more-from-india_story-page">concentrated in fiercely contested electorates</a> where BJP leaders had urged voters to show their anger against the Shaheen Bagh women by voting for the party.</p>
<p>The perpetrator of the hate speech that sparked the violence, BJP leader Kapil Mishra, continues to <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/goli-maaro-slogans-at-march-attended-by-mishra/story-37ajzxsJP5FdErKxZ1ojCJ.html">make provocative statements</a> against opponents. The police, who are accused of being <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/27/world/asia/india-violence-hindu-muslim.html">indifferent and complicit</a> in the violence, have yet to charge him with an offence. </p>
<h2>Nothing to see here</h2>
<p>While parts of Delhi burned, Modi was entertaining <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-india-modi-citizenship-law-muslims/2020/02/25/9358aef8-57b5-11ea-ab68-101ecfec2532_story.html">US President Donald Trump</a>, who praised India’s tolerance. Australian Trade Minister <a href="https://www.trademinister.gov.au/minister/simon-birmingham/transcript/interview-radio-national-drive-patricia-karvelas">Simon Birmingham</a> was also visiting India with a large trade mission and touted India’s rule of law and tolerance as its strengths. Both declared the violence to be a matter for India.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317994/original/file-20200302-18291-1n94hwt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/317994/original/file-20200302-18291-1n94hwt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317994/original/file-20200302-18291-1n94hwt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317994/original/file-20200302-18291-1n94hwt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317994/original/file-20200302-18291-1n94hwt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317994/original/file-20200302-18291-1n94hwt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/317994/original/file-20200302-18291-1n94hwt.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">Trump and Modi addressing a ‘Namaste Trump Rally’ during the US president’s visit.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">White House</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The tide is beginning to turn, however. Potential Democratic presidential nominees <a href="https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/1232763321163579395?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">Bernie Sanders</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/ewarren/status/1232462840230903810?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">Elizabeth Warren</a> have both criticised the Modi regime. (The BJP president, BL Santhosh, responded by threatening to <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/delhi-violence-bjp-leader-threatens-bernie-sanders-with-us-election-interference_in_5e573f59c5b66137fb5d90d1">interfere</a> in the 2020 US presidential election.)</p>
<p>The Greens’ Mehreen Faruqi, meanwhile, has moved a <a href="https://mehreen-faruqi.greensmps.org.au/articles/motion-indian-citizenship-act">motion</a> in the Australian Senate that is critical of the Indian government. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1232934029093040128"}"></div></p>
<p>Mounting international criticism is unlikely to alter the BJP’s policies or approach, which are rooted in its Hindu nationalist raison d’etre. </p>
<p>But international support will bolster resistance within India against a regime striving for political domination through violent polarisation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132591/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>India’s leader has appealed for ‘peace and brotherhood’ after last week’s violence left 43 dead in Delhi. In Modi’s India, however, brotherhood requires religious minorities to know their place.Priya Chacko, Senior Lecturer in International Politics, University of AdelaideRuchira Talukdar, PhD, Social and Political Sciences (SPS), University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1323012020-02-25T13:52:08Z2020-02-25T13:52:08Z100,000 Indians say ‘Namaste Trump’ and the president ignores some key human rights concerns<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316893/original/file-20200224-24676-1n1wfoq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=224%2C30%2C3174%2C2369&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">President Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Ahmedabad, India.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/India-Namaste-Trump/3ffb90d2076047c8bf66a6ddb94213d4/24/0">AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>President Donald Trump <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-usa-trump/namaste-trump-modi-holds-huge-rally-for-presidents-visit-idUSKCN20I0B6">kicked off his first official</a> visit to India by addressing a rally of more than 100,000 people on Feb. 24 in Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state of Gujarat. </p>
<p>Trump <a href="https://in.reuters.com/article/india-usa-trump/namaste-trump-modi-holds-huge-rally-for-us-presidents-india-visit-idINKCN20I0BA">promised</a> the thousands of cheering Indians who greeted him “an incredible trade deal” and “the most feared military equipment on the planet.” </p>
<p>Accompanied by first lady Melania Trump, he then toured Sabarmati ashram, where Mahatma Gandhi lived for 13 years. Afterwards, Trump visited the Taj Mahal, a 17th-century mausoleum built by an Indian emperor for his beloved wife. </p>
<p>Trump and Modi have built a <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/indias-modi-seeks-personal-rapport-with-donald-trump-on-us-visit/a-39387071">personal rapport</a>. The U.S. president’s 36-hour visit to India – named “Namaste Trump” – is seen as India returning the favor for “<a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/02/23/807481509/india-set-to-welcome-trump-whose-first-stop-will-be-in-modis-home-state-of-gujar">Howdy Modi</a>” – a rally in Texas in fall 2019, where the two leaders appeared together. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-india-visit-opens-with-more-symbolism-than-substance-as-he-celebrates-ties-with-a-fellow-nationalist/2020/02/24/4396ea2c-56d1-11ea-ab68-101ecfec2532_story.html">few news reports</a> had suggested that Modi and Trump could discuss <a href="https://time.com/5617161/india-religious-hate-crimes-modi/">rising violence</a> and <a href="https://theintercept.com/2020/01/30/india-citizenship-act-caa-nrc-assam/">discrimination against religious minorities in India</a>. However, media reports noted that President Trump later <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/02/24/trump-india-live-updates-2/">defended Prime Minister Modi</a> on religious freedom in India, even as riots broke out in New Delhi, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-51612461">leaving at least 10 people dead</a>. </p>
<p>I am a scholar <a href="https://polisci.indiana.edu/about/faculty/ganguly-sumit.html">who studies U.S. foreign policy</a> toward India. In the past, U.S. administrations concerned with boosting trade with India have celebrated the two countries’ <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/security/reports/2018/01/14/444786/united-states-india-forging-indispensable-democratic-partnership/">shared commitment to democracy and human rights</a>. Under the Trump administration, I argue, the relationship is in danger of becoming purely transactional. </p>
<h2>Departing from the past</h2>
<p>Over the past several decades, American presidents, regardless of political affiliation, have reaffirmed the shared values that have bound the two states.</p>
<p>Despite the <a href="https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199354863.001.0001/acprof-9780199354863">ebbs and flows in the India-U.S. relationship</a>, both sides have long seen democracy as an important link. </p>
<p>In 1977, President Jimmy Carter visited India shortly after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi lost an election. Gandhi had declared a <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691186726/emergency-chronicles">state of emergency</a> in India, ruthlessly curtailing civil rights and personal liberties. Carter opposed providing U.S. nuclear fuel to India because India had conducted a nuclear test in 1974, arguing that it had violated the spirit of a prior agreement.</p>
<p>Nevertheless Carter went out of his way to <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Hope_and_the_reality.html?id=4Cp2AAAAMAAJ">laud India</a> for its ability to restore democratic practices, following the state of emergency. Several decades later, a president of a wholly different ideological leaning, George W. Bush, adopted a markedly similar stance when hosting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for a state visit in Washington.</p>
<p>When introducing his visitor to his wife Laura Bush, the U.S. president famously <a href="https://time.com/3817133/india-muslim-assimilation-islam-us/">celebrated the absence of religious extremism in India</a>, calling it “a democracy which does not have a single al-Qaeda member in a population of 150 million Muslims.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316898/original/file-20200224-24655-1u83b57.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316898/original/file-20200224-24655-1u83b57.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316898/original/file-20200224-24655-1u83b57.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316898/original/file-20200224-24655-1u83b57.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316898/original/file-20200224-24655-1u83b57.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316898/original/file-20200224-24655-1u83b57.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316898/original/file-20200224-24655-1u83b57.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=595&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">U.S. President George W. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, with first lady Laura Bush and Singh’s wife, Gursharan Kaur.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-Domestic-News-Dist-of-Columbi-/3134807c36e1da11af9f0014c2589dfb/13/0">AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Bush went on to attribute the absence of Islamic extremism in India to its commitment to democracy. </p>
<p>By the time of the first George W. Bush administration, the Indo-U.S. bilateral relationship had opened up a significant market for American goods. </p>
<p>A big reason for this growing trade relationship was a <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/asia/1964-01-01/pakistan-american-alliance">shift in India’s U.S. foreign policy</a>. Even as trade grew, the U.S. presidents have not <a href="https://www.cfr.org/event/conversation-prime-minister-dr-manmohan-singh">shied away</a> from criticizing India. </p>
<p>After President Barack Obama’s second visit to India in 2015, he <a href="https://www.bokus.com/bok/9781526135018/the-united-states-in-the-indo-pacific/">criticized</a> India’s failure to uphold human rights during Prime Minister Modi’s first term in office. </p>
<p>“Every person has the right to practice his religion or not to practice it if they choose so without persecution,” <a href="https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2015/01/27/remarks-president-obama-address-people-india">Obama stated</a> in a speech in Mumbai shortly before his departure from India on Jan. 27, 2015. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316903/original/file-20200224-24685-4t7zkq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316903/original/file-20200224-24685-4t7zkq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316903/original/file-20200224-24685-4t7zkq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316903/original/file-20200224-24685-4t7zkq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316903/original/file-20200224-24685-4t7zkq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316903/original/file-20200224-24685-4t7zkq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316903/original/file-20200224-24685-4t7zkq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Barack Obama during his second visit to India in 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/APTOPIX-India-US-Obama/dc7fc29d076149dc91a6293b9213f988/31/0">AP Photo/Saurabh Das</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A transactional relationship?</h2>
<p>Trump’s visit diverges from this past of U.S. presidents alternately celebrating and critiquing democracy in India. Trump seems to be focused on material issues – primarily India’s increasing spending on U.S. military supplies. </p>
<p>In recent years, defense and military sales relationship with India have been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/20/world/asia/india-military-exercises-trump.html">burgeoning</a>, growing some 557% between 2013 and 2017 over the previous five-year period and now reaching <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/20/world/asia/india-military-exercises-trump.html">almost US$20 billion</a>. In early February of this year India announced it would <a href="https://theprint.in/defence/cabinet-clears-2-4-billion-deal-for-mh-60-romeo-helicopters-for-navy-ahead-of-trump-visit/368061/">purchase</a> $2.4 billion in Sikorsky naval helicopters from the U.S. </p>
<p>These military acquisitions, in considerable part, stem from <a href="https://www.defensenews.com/global/asia-pacific/2020/02/04/new-weapons-purchases-suffer-under-indias-latest-defense-budget/">India’s growing apprehensions</a> about China. These fears stem from China’s military capabilities arrayed along much of India’s Himalayan border and the failure to resolve a border dispute. </p>
<p>Indeed Trump has adopted a hard line stance toward India when it comes to business transactions. On the eve of his departure to New Delhi, Trump <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/article/India-US-struggle-to-bridge-trade-disputes-as-15076132.php">ended</a> India’s preferential trade status as a developing country. The move could impose as much as $260 million in new duties and is meant to induce India to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/31/business/trump-india-trade.html">open up its markets</a> to a <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-18/india-offers-concessions-on-u-s-farm-goods-to-reach-trade-deal">range of American manufactured and agricultural products</a>. </p>
<h2>A requiem for human rights?</h2>
<p>Missing from Trump’s visit is any allusion whatsoever to recent disturbing political developments in India. </p>
<p>In early August 2019, India <a href="https://time.com/5706847/what-happens-now-kashmir/">ended the special status</a> of the portion of the state of Kashmir, under India’s control. It also placed a number of prominent politicians under house arrest, blocked telephone and internet services and dramatically bolstered its military presence in the region.</p>
<p>In December 2019, India passed the Citizenship Amendment Act, a law that allows the immigration of a range of minorities to India from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan but <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/12/11/india-citizenship-bill-discriminates-against-muslims">bars Muslim migrants</a>. Protests that erupted across the country in opposition to the new law have been brutally repressed by police.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316905/original/file-20200224-24680-19dwuud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316905/original/file-20200224-24680-19dwuud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316905/original/file-20200224-24680-19dwuud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316905/original/file-20200224-24680-19dwuud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316905/original/file-20200224-24680-19dwuud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316905/original/file-20200224-24680-19dwuud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316905/original/file-20200224-24680-19dwuud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Indian Muslims participate in a protest against a new citizenship law.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/India-Citizenship-Law-Protest/935d58615f0f44ea8da39b4ae6bee104/39/0">AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>India is also drafting a National Register of Citizens, an effort to document all voting-age Indians that could in effect <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/12/they-will-lock-us-up-or-just-kill-us-muslims-fearful-in-west-bengal">disenfranchise</a> millions of poor minorities because of their inability to produce appropriate papers.</p>
<p>All of these policy initiatives have been undertaken since Prime Minister Modi was re-elected in April 2019. Several members of U.S. Congress, most notably U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Seattle, have been outspoken about India’s <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/05/12/indian-born-u-s-congresswoman-asks-modi-to-rein-in-cow-vigilantes/">human rights challenges</a>. But Trump has stayed silent – and he seems unlikely to break that silence on his first-ever official visit to India.</p>
<p>As I see it, Trump’s message is clear: As long as India opens up its markets to American products, and is willing to make common cause with the United States on some foreign policy issues, the shared commitment to democratic values and civil rights of minorities can be set aside. </p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132301/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sumit Ganguly receives funding from the US Department of State, the US Army War College and is affiliated with the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia. </span></em></p>A shared commitment to democracy was always key to the India-US relationship – until Trump. A foreign policy expert explains what’s on the agenda for Trump’s trip to India and what’s missing.Sumit Ganguly, Distinguished Professor of Political Science and the Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations, Indiana UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1296022020-02-24T13:47:44Z2020-02-24T13:47:44ZIndian women protest new citizenship laws, joining a global ‘fourth wave’ feminist movement<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316652/original/file-20200221-92507-1jqxinr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5764%2C3831&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Women in Delhi's Shaheen Bagh neighborhood are protesting a new Indian citizenship law that they say will discriminate against Muslims, women – and, particularly, Muslim women.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/women-protesters-raise-slogans-ahead-of-their-march-to-home-news-photo/1201747107?adppopup=true">Burhaan Kinu/Hindustan Times via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Women are among the strongest opponents of two new laws in India that <a href="https://theintercept.com/2020/01/30/india-citizenship-act-caa-nrc-assam/">threaten the citizenship rights of vulnerable groups like Muslims</a>, <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/02/04/india-citizenship-law-women/">poor women</a>, oppressed castes and LGBTQ people.</p>
<p>The Citizenship Amendment Act, passed in December 2019, fast-tracks Indian citizenship for <a href="https://theconversation.com/indias-new-citizenship-act-legalizes-a-hindu-nation-129024">undocumented refugees from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan</a> – but only those who are non-Muslim. Another law - the National Register of Citizens – will require all residents in India to furnish extensive legal documentation to prove their citizenship as soon as 2021. </p>
<p>Critics see the two laws as part of the government’s efforts to redefine the <a href="https://theconversation.com/indias-plan-to-identify-illegal-immigrants-could-get-some-muslims-declared-foreign-127652">meaning of belonging in India</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/indias-prime-minister-modi-pursues-politics-of-hindu-nationalism-what-does-that-mean-117794">make this constitutionally secular country a Hindu nation</a>. </p>
<p>Since Dec. 4, 2019, Indians of all ages, ethnicities and religions have been <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/01/campus-attacks-nationalists-and-police-alarm-india-s-scientific-community">protesting the new citizenship initiatives</a> in scattered but complementary nationwide demonstrations. The uprisings have persisted through weeks of <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/12/23/india-deadly-force-used-against-protesters">arrests, beatings and even killings</a> across India by the police.</p>
<p>But the most enduring pocket of resistance is an around-the-clock sit-in of mostly hijab-wearing women in a working-class Delhi neighborhood called Shaheen Bagh.</p>
<h2>Women take charge</h2>
<p>Since Dec. 15, 2019, women of all ages – from students to 90-year-old grandmothers – have abandoned their daily duties and braved <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-50902909">near-freezing temperatures</a> to block a major highway in the Indian capital. </p>
<p>This is a striking act of resistance in a patriarchal country where women – but particularly <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/analysis/the-rise-of-the-new-indian-muslim-woman-analysis/story-NA2GeOguvZn9ETT1NtsDaJ.html">Muslim women</a> – have historically had <a href="https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-news-bust-the-patriarchy-masquedaring-as-religion-women-activists-shatter-taboos-about-female-sexuality/340784">their rights denied</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316486/original/file-20200220-92533-dcthsj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316486/original/file-20200220-92533-dcthsj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316486/original/file-20200220-92533-dcthsj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316486/original/file-20200220-92533-dcthsj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316486/original/file-20200220-92533-dcthsj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316486/original/file-20200220-92533-dcthsj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316486/original/file-20200220-92533-dcthsj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316486/original/file-20200220-92533-dcthsj.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"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Shaheen Bagh movement uses both novel and traditional forms of protests, including marches, silent sit-ins and musical performances.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/demonstrators-hold-placards-as-they-sit-during-a-silent-news-photo/1200296283?adppopup=true">Biplov Bhuyan/Hindustan Times via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Shaheen Bagh protests are as novel in their methods as they are in their makeup. Protesters are using <a href="https://scroll.in/article/948440/the-art-of-resistance-ringing-in-the-new-year-with-anti-caa-protesters-at-shaheen-bagh">artwork, book readings, lectures, poetry recitals, songs, interfaith prayers and communal cooking</a> to explain their resistance to citizenship laws that, they say, will discriminate against not just Muslims but also women, who usually don’t have state or property papers in their own names. </p>
<p>On Jan. 11, women in the Indian city of Kolkata performed a <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_in/article/m7qenq/the-rapist-is-you-women-sang-the-bengali-version-of-the-chilean-feminist-anthem-to-oppose-the-caa">Bengali-language</a> version of a Chilean feminist anthem called “The Rapist is You.” This choreographed public flash dance, first staged in Santiago, Chile in November 2019, calls out the police, judiciary and government for <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-rapist-is-you-why-a-viral-latin-american-feminist-anthem-spread-around-the-world-128488">violating women’s human rights</a>.</p>
<h2>A dangerous place for women</h2>
<p>India is the world’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/jun/28/poll-ranks-india-most-dangerous-country-for-women">most dangerous</a> country for women, according to the <a href="http://news.trust.org/spotlight/the-worlds-most-dangerous-countries-for-women-2011">Thompson Reuters Foundation</a>. One-third of married women are <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/07/halting-blow-domestic-violence-india-160701121800822.html">physically abused</a>. Two-thirds of rapes <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/12/29/791734411/what-headlines-and-protests-get-wrong-about-rape-in-india">go unpunished</a>. </p>
<p>Gender discrimination is so pervasive that <a href="https://www.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/resource-pdf/UNFPA_Publication-39857.pdf">around 1 million</a> female fetuses are <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20879612">aborted</a> each year. In some parts of India, there are <a href="https://wiki.ubc.ca/Sex_Selective_Abortion_in_India#Sex_Ratios">126 men for every 100 women</a>.</p>
<p>Indian women have <a href="https://theswaddle.com/a-brief-history-of-indian-women-protesting-gender-inequality/">come together in protest</a> before, to speak out against <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0719-03.htm">these and other issues</a>. But most <a href="https://www.academia.edu/24968867/Women_Are_Not_For_Burning_The_Anti-Dowry_Movement_in_Delhi_1">prior women’s protests</a> were limited in scope and geography. The 2012 <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/women-front-lines-india-citizenship-law-protests-191223061447173.html">brutal gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old Delhi woman</a> – which sparked nationwide protests – was a watershed moment. All at once, the country witnessed the power of women’s rage. </p>
<p>The current women-led <a href="https://www.liberationnews.org/largest-ever-strike-indian-workers-show-strength-against-the-far-right-government/">anti-citizenship law demonstrations</a> are even greater in number and power. Beyond Shaheen Bagh, Indian women across caste, religion and ethnicity are putting their <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/india-women-rescued-friend-police-attack-viral-video-191216150934526.html">bodies</a> and reputations on the line. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/e25KmRTb5RM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A Shaheen Bagh protest song.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Female students are intervening to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3wtJ8oHpFQ">shield fellow students</a> from <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/dozens-injured-india-police-storm-universities-191216033648272.html">police violence</a> at campus protests. <a href="https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/entertainment-news-swara-riteish-taapsee-shabana-azmi-and-other-bollywood-celebrities-react-to-jnu-violence/345266">Actresses</a> from <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/india/jnu-violence-attack-deepika-padukone-aishe-ghosh-chhapaak-6211979/">Bollywood</a>, India’s film industry, are <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/movies/celebrities/story/priyanka-chopra-on-caa-protests-each-voice-will-work-towards-changing-india-1629553-2019-12-19">speaking out against gender violence</a>, too.</p>
<h2>Women’s secular agenda</h2>
<p>With their non-violent tactics and inclusive strategy, the Shaheen Bagh women are proving to be effective critics of the government’s <a href="https://www.boell.de/en/2014/02/26/patriarchal-politics-struggle-genuine-democracy-contemporary-india">Hindu-centric agenda</a>. Their leaderless epicenter of resistance raises up <a href="https://scroll.in/article/948440/the-art-of-resistance-ringing-in-the-new-year-with-anti-caa-protesters-at-shaheen-bagh">national symbols</a> like the Indian flag, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3J2i8l3AVY">the national anthem</a> and the Indian Constitution as reminders that India is secular and plural – a place where people can be both Muslim and Indian. </p>
<p>The Shaheen Bagh movement’s novel and enduring strategy has triggered activism <a href="https://www.siasat.com/every-place-shaheen-bagh-nandita-das-joins-caa-nrc-protest-1803853/">elsewhere in the country</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/shaheen-bagh-inspires-many-protests-across-the-country/cid/1736089">Thousands of women</a> in the northern Indian city of Lucknow started their own <a href="https://thewire.in/communalism/lucknow-women-anti-caa-sit-in-protest">sit-in</a> in late January. Similar “Shaheen Baghs” have sprung up since, in the cities of <a href="https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/shaheen-bagh-inspires-many-protests-across-the-country/cid/1736089">Patna</a> and even <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/inspired-by-shaheen-bagh-women-lead-protests-against-caa/article30832555.ece">Chennai</a>, which is located 1,500 miles from Delhi. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316481/original/file-20200220-92512-hass67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316481/original/file-20200220-92512-hass67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/316481/original/file-20200220-92512-hass67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316481/original/file-20200220-92512-hass67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316481/original/file-20200220-92512-hass67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316481/original/file-20200220-92512-hass67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316481/original/file-20200220-92512-hass67.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/316481/original/file-20200220-92512-hass67.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">Anti-citizenship law protests in India’s Assam State, Feb. 16, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/demonstrators-attend-a-protest-against-a-new-citizenship-news-photo/1201476342?adppopup=true">Anuwar Ali Hazarika/Barcroft Media via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Global women’s spring</h2>
<p>India’s Shaheen Bagh protests form part of a broader global trend in <a href="https://theconversation.com/urban-unrest-propels-global-wave-of-protests-126306">women’s movements</a>. Worldwide, female activists are combining attention to women’s issues with a wider call for social justice across gender, class and geographic borders. </p>
<p>In January 2019 alone, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/19/womens-march-london-against-austerity-protesters-worldwide">women in nearly 90 countries took to the streets</a> demanding equal pay, reproductive rights and the end of violence. Young women were also at the forefront of the 2019 <a href="https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3025146/protesttoo-women-forefront-hong-kongs-anti-government-movement">pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/08/lebanese-women-demand-new-rights-amid-political-turmoil">Lebanon</a>, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/04/sudan-women-protesters-leading-pro-democracy-movement-190423134521604.html">Sudan</a>, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/11/brazil-women-bolsonaro-haddad-election/574792/">Brazil</a> and <a href="https://colombiareports.com/women-take-the-lead-on-5th-day-of-colombias-anti-government-protests/">Colombia</a>.</p>
<p>As I write in my <a href="https://www.routledge.com/New-Feminisms-in-South-Asian-Social-Media-Film-and-Literature-Disrupting/Jha-Kurian/p/book/9781138668935">2017 book</a>, such inclusive activism is the defining characteristic of what’s called “fourth wave feminism.” </p>
<p>There <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/3/20/16955588/feminism-waves-explained-first-second-third-fourth">isn’t a common definition</a> of the first three feminist waves. In the United States, they generally refer to the early 20th century suffragette movement, the radical women’s movement of the 1960s and 1970s and the more mainstream feminism of the 1990s and early 2000s. </p>
<p>Fourth wave feminism appears to be more universal. Today’s activists fully embrace the idea that women’s freedom means little if other groups are still oppressed. With its <a href="https://www.deccanherald.com/national/west/caa-to-divert-peoples-attention-from-economic-crisis-793876.html">economic critique</a>, disavowal of <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/chandrashekhar-azad-shaheen-bagh-caa-nrc-protests-bhim-army-constitution-1639238-2020-01-22">caste oppression</a> and solidarity across <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/478570-protesting-women-in-india-are-uniting-muslims-hindus-and-religious">religious divides</a>, India’s Shaheen Bagh sit-in shares attributes with the women’s uprisings in Chile, Lebanon, Hong Kong and beyond. </p>
<p>The last time women came together in such numbers worldwide was the <a href="https://thewire.in/gender/metoo-campaign-brings-the-rise-of-fourth-wave-feminism-in-india">#MeToo movement</a>, a campaign against sexual harassment which <a href="https://theconversation.com/metoo-campaign-brings-conversation-of-rape-to-the-mainstream-85875">emerged on social media in the United States in 2017</a> and quickly spread across the globe. </p>
<p>Shaheen Bagh and similarly far-reaching women’s uprisings underway in other countries take #MeToo to the next level, moving from a purely feminist agenda to a wider call for social justice. Women protesters want rights – not just for themselves, but human rights for all.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129602/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alka Kurian has been awarded the 2020-2021 Fulbright U.S. Scholar award.
She volunteers for Tasveer, a South Asian non-profit dedicated to social change through thought-provoking South Asian films, art and storytelling.</span></em></p>A round-the-clock strike of Muslim women in a working-class neighborhood of Delhi is India’s most enduring pocket of resistance to religious discrimination, inequality and gender violence.Alka Kurian, Senior Lecturer, School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, University of Washington, BothellLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1288952019-12-19T18:36:10Z2019-12-19T18:36:10ZReligious minorities around the world face an uncertain future: 5 essential reads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307530/original/file-20191217-58302-12o33wu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Relatives light candles for victims who died during a bomb blast at St. Sebastian Church in Negombo, Sri Lanka, on April 22, 2019. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Sri-Lanka-Church-Blasts/0d89c21f316740728df9f0c16b99137e/50/0">AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Around the world, religious minorities are facing violence because of their beliefs. </p>
<p>Noting that attacks on places of worship had increased, this year the United Nations declared Aug. 22 as an <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/08/1044751">International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion and Belief</a>.</p>
<p>Speaking on Aug. 22, 2019, UN Secretary General António Guterres <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/08/1044751">said</a>, “Jews have been murdered in synagogues, their gravestones defaced with swastikas; Muslims gunned down in mosques, their religious sites vandalized; Christians killed at prayer, their churches torched.”</p>
<p>The Conversation followed global events throughout 2019 to put the spotlight on how religious minorities were being targeted or driven from their homelands. </p>
<h2>1. Persecution in China</h2>
<p>Reports of religious suppression in China have been particularly troubling this year. Over a million Uighurs, a Muslim minority ethnic group, are being held in detention centers in Xinjiang region, in northwest China. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307255/original/file-20191216-124009-1hc0scc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307255/original/file-20191216-124009-1hc0scc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307255/original/file-20191216-124009-1hc0scc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307255/original/file-20191216-124009-1hc0scc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307255/original/file-20191216-124009-1hc0scc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307255/original/file-20191216-124009-1hc0scc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307255/original/file-20191216-124009-1hc0scc.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">Surveillance in China: Residents of Uighur majority area in Xinjiang region pass through a police checkpoint.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/China-Digital-Police-State/d88358fd6ab142148254af5185eed95c/68/0">AP Photo/Ng Han Guan</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Anthropologist <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/darren-byler-755196">Darren Byler</a>, who conducted research in the area between 2011 and 2018, writes that Chinese authorities have been <a href="https://theconversation.com/i-researched-uighur-society-in-china-for-8-years-and-watched-how-technology-opened-new-opportunities-then-became-a-trap-119615">using technology since 2016 to track Uighurs</a>.</p>
<p>Chinese authorities, he notes, “began to collect biometric data, such as DNA, high-fidelity voice recordings and face scans, from the entire population of the region in order to track the activities of people on WeChat and in their daily lives using their voice signature and faceprint.” </p>
<p>For many Uighurs such online forums were a way to exchange “cultural knowledge, political events and economic opportunities.” However, as Byler explains, the Chinese authorities used these private communications to detain Uighurs they believed were “untrustworthy.” </p>
<h2>2. Anti-Christian violence in Sri Lanka</h2>
<p>On Easter in Sri Lanka, at least 290 Christians inside churches were killed as bombs went off across several cities.</p>
<p>Approximately 7% of Sri Lanka’s 21 million people are Christian, most of them Roman Catholics, writes Catholic studies scholar <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/mathew-schmalz-318095">Mathew Schmalz</a>, who lived in Sri Lanka while doing his research on Catholicism in the island country’s southwest and northern parts. Today, explains Schmalz, these Christians have become targets of a newly emerging “<a href="https://theconversation.com/who-are-sri-lankas-christians-115799">militant form of Buddhism</a>.” </p>
<p>The long history of tensions with Christians in Sri Lanka goes back to the country’s colonial past, starting in the 16th century, as well as present-day ethnic and religious tensions. Following independence, tensions started in the 1960s with the Sri Lankan government taking over church schools.</p>
<p>In recent years, Sri Lanka’s ultra-nationalist Buddhist organization, the Bodu Bala Sena – also known as Buddhist Power Force – has demanded that Pope Francis apologize for the “atrocities” committed by colonial powers.</p>
<h2>3. Exclusion of Muslims in India</h2>
<p>In India, historian <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/haimanti-roy-397614">Haimanti Roy</a> found evidence of religious discrimination in a <a href="https://theconversation.com/indias-plan-to-identify-illegal-immigrants-could-get-some-muslims-declared-foreign-127652">citizen documentation process</a> recently completed in India’s northeastern state of Assam. The process declared approximately 1.9 million out of 30.5 million people “foreign.” </p>
<p>“Most were women, members of oppressed castes, religious minorities or poor,” Roy writes. </p>
<p>She adds that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party now plan a national extension of the citizen registration process, though “it is unclear when it would begin, how long it would take and which government agency would lead the process.” </p>
<p>But, she explains, Modi’s commitment to Hindu nationalism – an ideology that promotes India as a Hindu nation – has already raised concern that any national citizen ID effort will target Muslims, India’s largest majority.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307256/original/file-20191216-124036-2us8z8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307256/original/file-20191216-124036-2us8z8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307256/original/file-20191216-124036-2us8z8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307256/original/file-20191216-124036-2us8z8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=389&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307256/original/file-20191216-124036-2us8z8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307256/original/file-20191216-124036-2us8z8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307256/original/file-20191216-124036-2us8z8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Indian students protest against a new citizenship law on their campus in Hyderabad in southern India.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/India-Citizenship-Law-Protest/eaabe233aed1495aa74bb9ff8332ceeb/29/0">AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Sparking violence, India’s parliament on Dec. 10 passed the Citizenship Amendment Act, a law that aims to fast-track citizenship for persecuted religious minorities who’ve fled Bangladesh, Pakistan or Afghanistan. The law includes Hindus, Christians and other religious minorities but excludes Muslims. </p>
<h2>4. Uncertain future of Turkish Christians</h2>
<p>Christians have lived in the region that is modern-day Turkey since the first century when Christianity emerged, writes scholar <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ramazan-k-l-nc-687682">Ramazan Kılınç</a>. But their numbers are declining. The percentage of Turkey’s population that identifies as Christian <a href="https://theconversation.com/christians-have-lived-in-turkey-for-two-millennia-but-their-future-is-uncertain-127296">has dropped</a> from nearly 25% in 1914 to less than 0.5% today.</p>
<p>Kılınç explains that after the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, in 1922, Christians suffered discrimination from time to time. But under President Recep Erdogan, who took office in 2014, a “rising populist nationalism” is worsening attitudes toward Christian minorities. </p>
<p>Conspiracy theories about non-Muslim minorities circulate in the country. Christians, Kılınç writes, are “depicted as collaborators with foreign powers” who are set to “undermine the Turkish identity.”</p>
<h2>5. Rohingya Muslims’ ‘genocide’</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307258/original/file-20191216-124027-esx6op.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307258/original/file-20191216-124027-esx6op.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307258/original/file-20191216-124027-esx6op.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307258/original/file-20191216-124027-esx6op.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307258/original/file-20191216-124027-esx6op.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307258/original/file-20191216-124027-esx6op.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307258/original/file-20191216-124027-esx6op.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Three-quarters of Rohingya refugees comprise women and children.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Bangladesh-Rohingya/62e3c79efd484e7481e6061341afcde0/8/0">AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Myanmar, a Buddhist-majority country, thousands of Rohingya Muslims were massacred by military forces in 2017. The future of the roughly 1 million Rohingya refugees who escaped to neighboring Bangladesh <a href="https://theconversation.com/without-school-a-lost-generation-of-rohingya-refugee-children-face-uncertain-future-118805">is now at considerable risk</a>, writes scholar <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/rubayat-jesmin-615973">Rubayat Jesmin</a>.</p>
<p>Jesmin visited the refugee camps in Bangladesh in early July 2019. At one such camp in Cox’s Bazar, she learned that no formal schooling was offered for Rohingya refugee adolescents aged 15 to 18.</p>
<p>“Some teenagers, mostly boys, have turned to madrasas, or Islamic learning centers, where they can receive a religious education,” she writes. </p>
<p>However, Jesmin found, many children were left to “simply left to fill their own day.” </p>
<p>The Bangladeshi refugee camps were particularly dangerous for young women, Jesmin writes, who could be targeted by traffickers promising them jobs. Rohingyas are now stateless people – the world’s largest, she notes.</p>
<p><em>This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/128895/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Violence against religious minorities around the world prompted the United Nations to mark a day for the victims in 2019. Here is a roundup of some key events around the world.Kalpana Jain, Senior Religion + Ethics Editor/ Director of the Global Religion Journalism InitiativeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1276522019-12-05T12:42:56Z2019-12-05T12:42:56ZIndia’s plan to identify ‘illegal immigrants’ could get some Muslims declared ‘foreign’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304998/original/file-20191203-67002-mqcwgz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C43%2C5760%2C3785&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">All voting-age Indians may soon be asked to submit government-issued ID to prove citizenship. That may be a challenge for women, religious minorities and members of oppressed castes.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/APTOPIX-India-Elections/bab13a5bfac44e63a85c503f6ad3fcad/39/0">AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Indian government will <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/nrc-will-be-conducted-across-india-repeated-in-assam-shah/articleshow/72151491.cms">soon ask</a> its 870 million voting-age citizens for documentation that they are legal citizens with ancestral ties to India. </p>
<p>On Nov. 20, Indian Home Minister Amit Shah <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/nrc-process-to-be-carried-out-in-entire-country-says-amit-shah-in-rajya-sabha/article30027083.ece">announced</a> a plan to expand the National Registry of Citizens, a four-year documentation effort that recently <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-49520593">concluded in India’s northeastern state of Assam</a>, to the entire country. Shah claims that the effort will help identify illegal immigrants in a “<a href="https://time.com/5409604/india-aadhaar-supreme-court/">nondiscriminatory</a>” fashion. </p>
<p>The news was met with some dismay. After Assam finished tallying its 30.5 million people in August, about <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/columns/how-nrc-is-legitimising-exclusion/story-PsRyh4VZkYCPRhTFwUOthM.html">1.9 million were declared “foreign.”</a> Some were Bangladeshi immigrants living in Assam illegally. Others were refugees who <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/india/2015-09-22/when-refugees-were-welcome">migrated to India</a> after Bangladesh’s independence war in 1971. Most were women, members of oppressed castes, religious minorities or poor. </p>
<p>Even some people with paper ID were rejected from the register <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/in-indias-citizenship-test-a-spelling-error-can-ruin-a-family/articleshow/65434885.cms">because of misspelled names or incorrect formats</a>. </p>
<p>As a historian who studies <a href="https://ecommons.udayton.edu/hst_fac_pub/21/">identity and exclusion in India</a>, I know that when governments try to determine who belongs and who does not, the most marginal are inevitably left out. </p>
<h2>India’s many IDs</h2>
<p>India, which was under British rule from the 18th century until 1947, has seen many different governments try to define citizenship.</p>
<p>The British Indian Passport, implemented in the early 20th century, was the first large-scale attempt. The British used their passport to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0019464613494621?journalCode=iera">give “respectable” Indians</a> the right to travel across British colonies and prevent travel by groups deemed “undesirable” by the colonial government – indentured and migrant workers, anti-colonial and communist dissidents, among others.</p>
<p>After the arbitrarily drawn partition of the British-ruled subcontinent into the sovereign nations of India and Pakistan in 1947, new systems of documentary control were invented to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00856401.2016.1164022">control the ensuing refugee flows</a> between two new countries. </p>
<p>Some of these would later come to serve as evidence of nationality in India. The India-Pakistan Passport, which enabled people to cross freely between the two countries, did double duty as a certificate of citizenship. India’s ration cards, which entitled Indians to welfare distribution in the post-colonial era, also served to verify residency and <a href="https://www.epw.in/author/tarangini-sriraman">allowing inclusion into electoral rolls</a>.</p>
<p>In 2009, India launched the ambitious <a href="https://time.com/5409604/india-aadhaar-supreme-court/">Aadhar project</a>. The goal of this project was to provide a biometric identity and unique identification number to all of India’s 1.3 billion people.</p>
<p>Though critics have raised concerns regarding privacy and surveillance, most Indians <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/99-of-indians-over-18-now-have-aadhaar/articleshow/56820818.cms">now have an Aadhar card</a>. </p>
<p>Yet, in Assam, this card was not considered valid for the state’s citizenship registry. Anyone who has been in India for six months can apply, so the state considered the Aadhar card insufficient proof of residency.</p>
<h2>‘Weaponization of paper’</h2>
<p>Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party have released few details about the planned national extension of the citizen registration process. It is unclear when it would begin, how long it would take and which government agency would lead the process.</p>
<p>But the Indian Ministry of External Affairs stated that it will follow the Assam method of determining citizenship. A spokesman says the state used a <a href="https://www.mea.gov.in/Speeches-Statements.htm?dtl/31782/Statement+by+MEA+on+National+Register+of+Citizens+in+Assam">“fair,” “nondiscriminatory” and “scientific”</a> way to identify illegal immigrants. </p>
<p>To register officially as an Indian citizen, people across the country will have to submit a combination of documents that confirm residence and establish links to India. These include birth certificates, land deeds, prior inclusion within electoral rolls or evidence of government service.</p>
<p>But documentary proof of identity requires access to state services and financial privilege. In India, <a href="https://www.eluniversal.com.mx/english/more-1-million-people-mexico-without-birth-certificate">as in</a> other <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3998/mpub.16208">emerging economies</a>, many people lack government-issued <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/25-of-Indian-births-not-registered/articleshow/12104158.cms">birth certificates</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/25/land-grab-tribal-people-india-adivasi">land deeds</a>. </p>
<p>Traditionally, long-time residence, kinship, language and religion have been sufficient proof of belonging in India. </p>
<p>Critics call Assam’s citizen registry initiative a “<a href="https://thepolisproject.com/suddenly-stateless-conversation-series-refusing-citizenship/#.XdiljS2ZOL8">weaponization of paper</a>” that <a href="https://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/2019%20India%20Issue%20Brief%20-%20Religious%20Freedom%20Implications.pdf">targets religious minorities</a> and marginalized communities.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305011/original/file-20191203-67034-mup0z5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305011/original/file-20191203-67034-mup0z5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305011/original/file-20191203-67034-mup0z5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305011/original/file-20191203-67034-mup0z5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305011/original/file-20191203-67034-mup0z5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305011/original/file-20191203-67034-mup0z5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305011/original/file-20191203-67034-mup0z5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305011/original/file-20191203-67034-mup0z5.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">A protest organized by West Bengal activists in Kolkata, India, against Assam state’s citizen registry, Sept. 12, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/India-Citizenship-Protest/dcc0b2d8a7ac48c0a68b8b443c4369f1/1/0">AP Photo/Bikas Das</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Religious discrimination</h2>
<p>Modi’s commitment to <a href="https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195399318/obo-9780195399318-0040.xml">Hindu nationalism</a> – a political stance that <a href="https://theconversation.com/indias-prime-minister-modi-pursues-politics-of-hindu-nationalism-what-does-that-mean-117794">promotes India as a Hindu nation</a> – has raised concern that any national citizen ID effort will target Muslims, India’s largest majority.</p>
<p>Since entering office in 2014, Modi has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/08/world/asia/kashmir-india-modi.html">revoked the special status of Kashmir</a>, the only Muslim-majority state in India. He has overseen legislation that <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/on-religion/the-violent-toll-of-hindu-nationalism-in-india">economically and socially excludes Muslims</a> and watched silently as <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/12/09/blood-and-soil-in-narendra-modis-india">hate crimes against Muslims</a> surge.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305007/original/file-20191203-67017-1wsxkds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305007/original/file-20191203-67017-1wsxkds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305007/original/file-20191203-67017-1wsxkds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305007/original/file-20191203-67017-1wsxkds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305007/original/file-20191203-67017-1wsxkds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305007/original/file-20191203-67017-1wsxkds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305007/original/file-20191203-67017-1wsxkds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305007/original/file-20191203-67017-1wsxkds.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An Indian woman displays her inclusion in Assam state’s final register of citizens, in Pabhokati village, Morigaon district, Assam, Aug. 31, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/India-Citizenship-Assam/f981f4a4fbe148eebdcba880ab2c51a6/6/0">AP Photo/Anupam Nath</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A particular reason for concern about religious discrimination in the citizen identification process is a separate citizenship bill <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/winter-session-of-parliament-from-monday-govt-set-to-push-citizenship-bill/article29997970.ece">likely to be approved by the Indian Parliament</a>. </p>
<p>It promises to grant Indian citizenship to all Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs and Christians who have fled religious persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh or Afghanistan. Their citizenship would be automatic after a short residency in India and would require no documentary proof. </p>
<p>If that bill passes, the results of any future national citizen documentation process would in effect <a href="https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/the-nrc-is-part-of-the-bjp-s-attempt-to-redefine-india-s-identity/cid/1721784">apply solely to Muslims who cannot prove residency</a>. </p>
<h2>Trauma of exclusion</h2>
<p>Many countries have stumbled during efforts to identify all their citizens. </p>
<p>Periodic U.S. efforts to identify and expel undocumented migrants in the 20th century at times led the government to mistakenly <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-long-running-immigration-problem-the-government-sometimes-detains-and-deports-us-citizens-119702">detain and even deport American citizens</a> who lacked the proper ID.</p>
<p>The 1.9 million Assam residents unable to prove their Indian citizenship may now appeal to the Foreigners’ Tribunals, quasi-judicial bodies created by the Assam government for this purpose. </p>
<p>Those confirmed as “foreign” face potentially lengthy confinement in <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/assam-nrc-detention-camps-for-illegal-migrants-bangladeshi-1596968-2019-09-08">detention centers</a> now under construction to hold newly stateless people. </p>
<p>Deportation is not an option for the majority of people excluded from Assam’s citizenship rolls. They do not have residency elsewhere. Neighboring Bangladesh says it will not accept Assam residents declared to be Bangladeshi immigrants <a href="https://thewire.in/rights/bangladesh-border-assam-nrc">without proof of Bangladeshi citizenship</a>.</p>
<p>For many, the pain of not qualifying as Indian has started taking its toll. At least 30 people excluded from the Assam registry <a href="https://caravanmagazine.in/communities/nrc-exclusion-drove-teenager-suicide-video">have killed themselves</a> this year. </p>
<p>[ <em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127652/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Haimanti Roy 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>Many women, Muslims and members of oppressed castes in India lack government-issued ID. Yet these documents may soon be required to prove their citizenship.Haimanti Roy, Associate Professor of History, University of DaytonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1269012019-11-18T14:04:00Z2019-11-18T14:04:00ZWhy Hindu nationalists are cheering moves to build a temple, challenging a secular tradition<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301817/original/file-20191114-26202-ggkyxm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Hindu woman prays to the bricks that are expected to be used in constructing the Ram temple in Ayodhya, following a verdict from the Indian Supreme Court.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/India-Temple-Dispute/894390c5b6aa44d6bd2e1f9d31e2f364/2/0">AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A five-judge panel of the Indian Supreme Court has delivered its much-awaited verdict on the destruction of the Babri Masjid, a 16th-century mosque in the town of Ayodhya in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. </p>
<p>The court case had been lodged after a mob of Hindu zealots attacked and destroyed the Babri Mosque on Dec. 16, 1992. They <a href="https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/A/bo20847609.html">believed</a> that the mosque had been <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Ayodhya_City_of_Faith_Demy_Hb.html?id=s8mPwgEACAAJ">constructed on the ruins of a Hindu temple</a> during the reign of Babur, the founder of the Mughal dynasty in India in the 16th century. Hundreds were killed in a spate of riots that followed the demolition of the mosque.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/08/asia/ayodhya-dispute-india-ruling-intl-hnk/index.html">The court ruled</a> on Nov. 8 that the 2.77-acre site of the mosque should be handed over to the government, which could then form a trust to build a Hindu temple on that site. Simultaneously, it granted five acres of land in another part of the town for the construction of a mosque. </p>
<p>The court also conceded that the destruction of the mosque by a mob was unlawful and that the five acres granted for a mosque constituted a form of restitution. </p>
<p>This controversial ruling is considered a win for Prime Minister Modi and his party, which has come to be associated with rise in Hindu nationalism. As a <a href="https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/indias-watershed-vote-the-risks-ahead/">political scientist</a>, I believe the question now is whether India will remain committed to secularism, which is enshrined in its Constitution.</p>
<h2>A history of the dispute</h2>
<p>The dispute itself goes back to a time when India was emerging from British colonial rule. In 1949, Hindu activists surreptitiously entered the mosque and placed religious idols within it, claiming that Lord Rama had <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nation-world/ram-mandir-babri-masjid-issue-the-history-behind-the-dispute/dec-22-1949/slideshow/57774099.cms">returned to reclaim</a> his birthplace. The government, in an attempt to quell discord, had the doors to the mosque locked.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301822/original/file-20191114-26211-14yxoc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301822/original/file-20191114-26211-14yxoc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301822/original/file-20191114-26211-14yxoc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301822/original/file-20191114-26211-14yxoc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301822/original/file-20191114-26211-14yxoc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301822/original/file-20191114-26211-14yxoc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301822/original/file-20191114-26211-14yxoc2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Indian Muslims in Ayodhya read about the Ayodhya verdict delivered on Nov. 8.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/APTOPIX-India-Temple-Dispute/39a3d6f573c94c0c873cc51476906ba5/11/0">AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This ruling has brought these past divides to the fore. While the Sunni Waqf Board, a government-supported body that was the litigant on the side of the mosque, <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/respect-ayodhya-verdict-but-not-satisfied-says-sunni-waqf-board-lawyer-calls-for-review-1617324-2019-11-09">expressed disappointment</a> with the Supreme Court’s ruling, the right-wing ruling Bharatiya Janata Party expressed happiness.</p>
<p>As Lal Krishna Advani, a senior member of the Bharatiya Janata Party who had spearheaded the movement to build the temple in the 1980s, <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/lk-advani-supreme-court-ayodhya-verdict-1617442-2019-11-09">stated</a>:</p>
<p>“This is a moment of fulfillment for me because God Almighty had given me an opportunity to make my own humble contribution to the mass movement, the biggest since India’s Freedom Movement, aimed at the outcome which the Supreme Court’s verdict today has made possible.” </p>
<p>Advani’s statement reflects the broader sentiments of many in the ruling party.</p>
<h2>Crucial to ideological identity</h2>
<p>Why is the construction of Ram temple so important for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party? </p>
<p>The answer can be traced to Bharatiya Janata Party’s <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Brotherhood_in_Saffron.html?id=AVRuAAAAMAAJ">ideology and political developments in India</a> following independence from British colonial rule in 1947.</p>
<p>The Bharatiya Janata Party is a successor to the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, a political party founded in 1951. It sought from the outset to <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/hindu-nationalism-and-indian-politics/2E218CFDC1A1052F511A311C45D5A3D2">serve as a right-of-center, Hindu majoritarian alternative</a> to the dominant, secular, nationalist party, the Indian National Congress. </p>
<p>However, for several decades the Bharatiya Jana Sangh failed to make much headway. Its opposition, the Congress Party, was quite popular and remained electorally dominant. In 1980 the Bharatiya Jana Sangh was <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Hindu_Nationalist_Movement_in_India.html?id=Y2buDDwdgIsC">reincarnated as the Bharatiya Janata Party</a>. </p>
<p>The Bharatiya Janata Party, like its predecessor, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, shared an identical Hindu chauvinist ideological orientation. Not until the late 1980s did it embrace an overtly pro-Hindu ideology focused on the building of a temple at the site of the Babri Masjid. And it began to see electoral success. </p>
<p>Since then, the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party has been nothing short of extraordinary. In 1984 the party had two seats in the 543-seat Indian Parliament. Today it has a commanding majority of 303. Much of this can be attributed to the successful mobilization and consolidation of the Hindu vote in the 1980s.</p>
<h2>Challenge to pluralism</h2>
<p>In an attempt to win back the Hindu vote the Indian National Congress Party in 1986 arranged to have the locks to the Babri mosque in Ayodhya removed to enable Hindu worshipers to <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/Role-of-Arun-Nehru-Rajiv-in-opening-masjid-ignored/article16894059.ece">enter the premises</a> for the first time in 35 years. Hindu miscreants had placed idols in this site in 1949.</p>
<p>Following this decision, the Bharatiya Janata Party started a steady drumbeat of sentiment to construct a Hindu temple at the site in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Specifically, in September and October 1990, senior leader of Bharatiya Janata Party Lal Krishna Advani took out a “rath yatra,” or a chariot consecrating Lord Rama across much of the country. This movement, which gathered steam over the course of a decade, culminated in the destruction of the mosque. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301819/original/file-20191114-26217-17cg2xa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301819/original/file-20191114-26217-17cg2xa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301819/original/file-20191114-26217-17cg2xa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301819/original/file-20191114-26217-17cg2xa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301819/original/file-20191114-26217-17cg2xa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301819/original/file-20191114-26217-17cg2xa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301819/original/file-20191114-26217-17cg2xa.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">Sweets are distributed after a verdict in over a disputed structure in Ayodhya, India, on Nov. 9, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/India-Temple-Dispute/718af55ba1824e1fab9d55a33580c61a/33/0">AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>After the destruction of the mosque, the electoral fortunes of the Bharatiya Janata Party continued to improve. By 1998, it had become the dominant partner in a coalition government composed of a <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/India_Government_and_Politics_in_a_Devel.html?id=pSyRgcSQhuIC">range of political parties</a> to form a government. </p>
<p>When the Bharatiya Janata Party returned to power under Prime Minister Modi in 2014, it focused on other matters while occasionally paying some attention to the question of the mosque even though it had <a href="https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/indias-democracy-at-70-growth-inequality-and-nationalism/">been part of its election manifesto</a>. In effect, the Bharatiya Janata Party kept this issue alive in the public arena but did not undertake an active efforts to change the status quo at the site. </p>
<p>Now, in its second term, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has been handed an unexpected victory with the Supreme Court judgment. I believe building a Hindu temple on the site of the destroyed Ayodhya mosque will bolster its following among the most fervid Hindu followers. </p>
<p>[ <em>You’re smart and curious about the world. So are The Conversation’s authors and editors.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=youresmart">You can read us daily by subscribing to our newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126901/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sumit Ganguly receives funding from the US Department of State. I am a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and. Senior Fellow of the Foreign Policy Research Institute.</span></em></p>India’s Supreme Court has allowed a Hindu temple to be built on the disputed site of a 16th-century mosque. The verdict could have long-term ramifications for India’s tradition of religious diversity.Sumit Ganguly, Distinguished Professor of Political Science and the Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations, Indiana UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1177942019-05-27T17:13:47Z2019-05-27T17:13:47ZIndia’s Prime Minister Modi pursues politics of Hindu nationalism – what does that mean?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276474/original/file-20190526-187143-1591cv5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is garlanded after winning the elections.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/India-Elections-Fresh-Mandate/084e245a09ec4254860de8ec291ad491/19/0">AP Photo/Manish Swarup</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Almost immediately after winning a second term in office on May 23, India’s Prime Minister Modi gave a speech <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/23/asia/india-election-modi-gandhi-bjp-congress-intl/index.html">making light</a> of parties and individuals who had espoused secularism over the past five years. </p>
<p>During the five years while the Indian government has been led by Modi and the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party – or BJP – several <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2019/02/18/violent-cow-protection-india/vigilante-groups-attack-minorities">Muslims were lynched</a> on allegations of eating beef or even just transporting cattle for slaughter. As the number of attacks on Muslims grew, Modi mostly remained <a href="http://time.com/5586415/india-election-narendra-modi-2019/">silent</a>. </p>
<p>The consumption of beef in India has long been a divisive issue because many Hindus believe that <a href="https://theconversation.com/hinduism-and-its-complicated-history-with-cows-and-people-who-eat-them-80586">the cow is a sacred animal</a>. <a href="http://ijlpp.com/cow-slaughter-in-india/">Cow slaughter</a> and <a href="https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2088866/why-world-needs-sit-and-take-notice-indias-war-meat">consumption of beef</a> have long been banned in 24 out of 29 states across India. </p>
<p>Despite this concession to orthodox Hindu sentiments, India has a constitutional commitment to secularism. Unlike in the West, where secularism calls for a strict separation of church and state, Indian secularism is based on the premise of respect toward all faiths. </p>
<p>However, Modi and the political party he represents are adherents of Hindutva. What exactly is Hindutva and how is it different from the beliefs and practices of Hinduism?</p>
<h2>Colonial roots</h2>
<p>Hindutva is an ideology that states that India is the homeland of the Hindus. According to believers, those who profess other faiths can live in the country only at the sufferance of Hindus. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://polisci.indiana.edu/about/faculty/ganguly-sumit.html">scholar of contemporary Indian politics</a>, I find this proposition to be profoundly disturbing and deeply antithetical to the the central tenets of Hinduism. </p>
<p>The roots of this ideology can, in considerable part, be traced to the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7s415">growth of Hindu anxieties</a> in colonial India. In 1906, a Muslim political party – the <a href="http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t125/e1646">All-India Muslim League</a> – was created. Later, a charismatic politician, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, became its standard-bearer and subsequently the <a href="http://www.pakistan.gov.pk/Quaid/governor_general.html">first governor-general of the state of Pakistan</a> following the British partition of India in 1947. Partition led to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-road-to-indias-partition-82432">division of the former British India</a> into the two independent states of India and Pakistan. </p>
<p>The creation of the All-India Muslim League caused some serious misgivings on the part of some segments of the Hindu population, leading to their political mobilization along religious lines, pitting Hindus against Muslims. In 1921, an organization emerged in northern India called the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/hindu-nationalism-and-indian-politics/2E218CFDC1A1052F511A311C45D5A3D2">Hindu Mahasabha</a>. </p>
<p>It brought together people who opposed the secular outlook of the major political party at the time, the Indian National Congress, led by Mahatma Gandhi and others. The Mahasabha’s ideology <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/india/hindu-mahasabha-the-waning-fringe-outfit-shouting-to-stay-politically-relevant-5563082/">espoused the education and uplift of Hindus</a> and also the conversion of Muslims to Hinduism.</p>
<p>The ideology has its roots in the ideas of an important but controversial Indian nationalist, <a href="http://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/makingbritain/content/vinayak-damodar-savarkar">Vinayak Damodar Savarkar</a>, who was not only ardently opposed to British rule in India, but advocated violence to end colonial domination and argued that India was the sole preserve of Hindus. </p>
<p>His ideas were fundamentally at odds with the principals of the Indian nationalist movement, Mahatma Gandhi and his disciple Jawaharlal Nehru, who would become the first prime minister of a free India. Gandhi, though deeply religious, had advocated Hindu-Muslim amity. Nehru, a staunch secularist, had supported religious pluralism. He died at the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/2230807516633617">hands of a fanatic</a>, Nathuram Godse, a member of the Hindu Mahasabha, in 1948. </p>
<h2>Growth of the BJP</h2>
<p>The Hindu nationalists sought to make Hinduism, an ancient religion which has no common holy text, no overarching set of beliefs and no single place of pilgrimage, into a homogeneous, organized faith based upon a set of common religious tenets. </p>
<p>During the early years of the Indian republic, following its independence from British colonial rule in 1947, the ideology of Hindutva and its adherents found little appeal among the Indian electorate. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276476/original/file-20190526-187157-18hpwu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276476/original/file-20190526-187157-18hpwu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276476/original/file-20190526-187157-18hpwu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276476/original/file-20190526-187157-18hpwu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276476/original/file-20190526-187157-18hpwu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276476/original/file-20190526-187157-18hpwu0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276476/original/file-20190526-187157-18hpwu0.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">BJP gained in strength since the 1990s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/India-Elections/a08957f2b0ee482f8622012a6c34c751/39/0">AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, since the 1990s the <a href="https://www.orfonline.org/research/44401-understanding-the-rise-of-the-bharatiya-janata-party/">BJP has gathered strength</a> in both the electoral and social arenas. Electorally, it was in power as the dominant partner in a coalition regime from 1998 to 2004. Later, in 2014, it emerged as a majority party in Parliament. </p>
<p>It has also attracted substantial numbers of followers. In considerable part their disaffection stems from the willingness of secular governments to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/in-modis-india-shrinking-space-for-muslims/2019/05/12/7e6e47e2-5bb1-11e9-98d4-844088d135f2_story.html">pander to the Muslim minority</a>.</p>
<p>The Indian National Congress, on a number of occasions, especially in the 1980s, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3174402?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">made a series of concessions</a> to orthodox Muslim sentiment in its quest for their votes. Among other matters, a Congress government <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-19566894">banned</a> Salman Rushdie’s “The Satanic Verses,” even before Iran had issued the fatwa against Rushdie. On another occasion, it overturned an Indian Supreme Court judgment that had <a href="https://theprint.in/opinion/who-really-influenced-rajiv-gandhi-to-act-against-shah-bano-judgment/87263/">granted alimony to a Muslim woman</a>. Members of the Muslims orthodoxy were outraged with the decision, as they deemed it to be an affront to their religious beliefs.</p>
<p>The BJP deftly dealt with the myriad concessions made to sectarian Muslim demands. They argued that the majority Hindu community was being short-changed and that only the BJP would adequately protect the interests of the majority Hindu population. </p>
<p>These sentiments, it appears, struck a resonant chord with significant segments of the electorate and played a not inconsiderable role in propelling the BJP to victory.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117794/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sumit Ganguly receives funding from the following: The Smith Richardson Foundation, the US Department of State, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.</span></em></p>Modi and the political party he represents are adherents of Hindutva, an ideology. It is fundamentally different from the faith, Hinduism.Sumit Ganguly, Distinguished Professor of Political and the Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations., Indiana UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1177692019-05-24T18:32:51Z2019-05-24T18:32:51ZIndia Tomorrow part 7: what Narendra Modi’s landslide victory means for India<p>After the world’s largest ever democratic exercise, Narendra Modi has been re-elected as prime minister of India for another five year term. His Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured an <a href="https://theconversation.com/india-election-how-narendra-modi-won-with-an-even-bigger-majority-117476">even bigger majority</a> than in 2014. </p>
<p>In this, the final part of our <a href="https://theconversation.com/india-tomorrow-a-podcast-series-from-the-anthill-episode-guide-114654">India Tomorrow</a> series from The Anthill podcast, we analyse the results with a panel of academics to find out what such a large majority – of <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/05/indian-general-elections-2019-latest-updates-190521080547337.html">more than 300 seats</a> – means for India.</p>
<hr>
<iframe src="https://player.acast.com/5e3bf1111a6e452f6380a7bc/episodes/5e3bf133659d595770f8b90c?theme=default&cover=1&latest=1" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="110px" allow="autoplay"></iframe>
<p><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-anthill/id1114423002?mt=2"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321534/original/file-20200319-22606-q84y3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=182&fit=crop&dpr=1" alt="Listen on Apple Podcasts" width="268" height="68"></a> <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/265Bnp4BgwaEmFv2QciIOC?si=-WMr1ecDTsO_6avrkxZu8g"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321535/original/file-20200319-22606-1l4copl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=183&fit=crop&dpr=1" width="268" height="70"></a> </p>
<hr>
<p>Mujibur Rehman, assistant professor at the Centre for the Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy at Jamia Milia Islamia University in New Delhi, says the size of the victory has taken many analysts in the media by surprise. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The question is not about winning 300 seats, but the huge margin through which the BJP candidates defeated their nearest rivals … that is a huge, huge surprise.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Nikita Sud, associate professor of development studies at the University of Oxford, says the fact that Modi ran an almost presidential campaign, harks back to the slogans of the 1970s, when prime minister Indira Gandhi ran on the slogan, “Indira is India and India is Indira”.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is to be commended on the part of the BJP that we are back to this very, person-centric politics where (in) every constituency people are talking about Modi … In 2014, people were testing him, but now that he’s a known entity, I think this personality-centricness can go both ways … because everything now centres even more on him, especially after this thumping victory. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The opposition Congress Party, suffered a crushing defeat at the polls, winning fewer than 50 seats and its leader Rahul Gandhi <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/05/rahul-gandhi-loses-amethi-seat-biggest-upset-2019-polls-190523134545989.html">even lost his own parliamentary seat</a> in Amethi, a traditional stronghold of India’s Nehru-Gandhi dynasty and the Congress in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Rehman said the defeat was “massive” for Gandhi and the Congress party:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It signals that they are almost a non-entity today in the northern India politics, the heartland of Indian politics. Because he has a huge victory in (the southern state of) Kerala, but in the north they are almost a non-entity now.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Indrajit Roy, co-host of The Anthill’s India Tomorrow series and lecturer in politics at the University of York, says that while Modi’s victory is an example of populism, it also a victory for what he calls a “politics of passion”. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I think if you look at the results, you just look at the huge majorities that the BJP has won, not only at the country level, but in the constituencies that they’ve won … that’s not possible unless you’ve touched people’s hearts.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>He stresses how different Modi’s journey to power is from that of US President Donald Trump, or Jair Bolsonaro, the newly elected president of Brazil – though he says there are similarities with Reccip Tayip Erdoğan, the president of Turkey. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Like Erdoğan, Modi very much belongs to the political system. He’s not an outsider. He was a chief minister of a state, he’s a fully fledged member of the party. He was groomed by the RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh], which is the ideological mentor of the BJP, so he’s very much a part and parcel of the political system. I do think that these elections were of course about Modi, but it was also about the ideas that Modi holds and that the ideas that he expressed, which is something which his party and the RSS have been working on for nearly 90 years – the ideas of India being a Hindu nation. </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266588/original/file-20190329-71003-uc9saw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266588/original/file-20190329-71003-uc9saw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266588/original/file-20190329-71003-uc9saw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266588/original/file-20190329-71003-uc9saw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266588/original/file-20190329-71003-uc9saw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266588/original/file-20190329-71003-uc9saw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266588/original/file-20190329-71003-uc9saw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/podcasts/the-anthill">Subscribe to The Anthill podcast.</a></em></p>
<p>To find out more about the big issues facing India as Modi settles into his second term as prime minister, check out our <a href="https://theconversation.com/india-tomorrow-a-podcast-series-from-the-anthill-episode-guide-114654">episode guide</a> for this series. Do get in touch with any questions via podcast@theconversation.com or reach out on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/anthillpod">@anthillpod</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Credits</strong></p>
<p><em>The Anthill is produced by Gemma Ware and Annabel Bligh. Editing by Alex Portfelix. Thank you to City, University of London’s Department of Journalism for letting us use their studios to record The Anthill.</em></p>
<p><em>Picture source: BJP handout/EPA</em></p>
<p><em>Music: <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Tranko/VA_-_Clinical_Jazz_excerpt_3/Flying_Cat_amp_Sitar">Flying Cat & Sitar by Tranko</a> via <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/">Free Music Archive</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>News clips:</em></p>
<p><em>India PM Modi wins landslide victory in world’s largest election, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odvN_nuJTzI&t=31s">France 24</a></em></p>
<p><em>Election Results: Total BJP Sweep, India Chooses Modi 2.0, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuYpojVJirM">NDTV</a></em></p>
<p><em>Narendra Modi thanks voters for ‘historic mandate’, <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-48389130">BBC News</a></em></p>
<p><a href="https://pca.st/5Hul"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321533/original/file-20200319-22598-afljnr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=212&fit=crop&dpr=1" alt="Listen on Pocket Casts" width="268" height="68"></a> <a href="https://castbox.fm/channel/The-Anthill-id2625863?country=gb"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/321531/original/file-20200319-22632-t8ds9t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=232&fit=crop&dpr=1" width="268" height="70"></a> </p>
<p><a href="https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly90aGVjb252ZXJzYXRpb24uY29tL3VrL3BvZGNhc3RzL3RoZS1hbnRoaWxsLnJzcw%3D%3D"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233720/original/file-20180827-75978-3mdxcf.png" alt="" width="268" height="68"></a> <a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-conversation/the-anthill"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233716/original/file-20180827-75981-pdp50i.png" alt="Stitcher" width="300" height="88"></a> </p>
<p><a href="https://tunein.com/podcasts/Technology-Podcasts/The-Anthill-p877873/"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233723/original/file-20180827-75984-f0y2gb.png" alt="Listen on TuneIn" width="318" height="125"></a> <a href="https://radiopublic.com/the-anthill-GOJ1vz"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-152" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233717/original/file-20180827-75990-86y5tg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=268&fit=clip" alt="Listen on RadioPublic" width="268" height="87"></a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117769/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
A panel of academic experts assess Narendra Modi's victory in the final episode of our India Tomorrow series.Annabel Bligh, Business & Economy Editor and Podcast Producer, The Conversation UKGemma Ware, Head of AudioLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1174762019-05-23T16:08:27Z2019-05-23T16:08:27ZIndia election: how Narendra Modi won with an even bigger majority<p>The stunning majority for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2019 Indian election is a massive political achievement for its leadership: the prime minister, Narendra Modi, and the party’s president, Amit Shah. Early results from the world’s biggest democratic exercise show the BJP is <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-48347081">likely to win</a> more than 300 seats in India’s parliament, the Lok Sabha, more than the 282 it won in 2014 and the 272 needed for a majority. </p>
<p>In early 2019, such a result had looked uncertain in the wake of state election <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/dec/11/modi-bjp-election-defeats-hindi-heartland-rajasthan-chhattisgarh-madhya-pradesh">defeats</a> in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan – part of the Hindi heartland that had helped Modi to victory in 2014. Opponents of the BJP dared to think that the Congress Party – the former “Grand Old Party of India” which had been reduced to only 44 seats in 2014 – was sufficiently revitalised to mount a credible challenge in 2019. </p>
<p>As the early months of 2019 dawned, scandals about the allocation of a defence contract as well as rising unemployment figures – and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/economic-growth-inequality-and-jobs-india-tomorrow-part-5-podcast-transcript-116688">suppression of these figures</a> – made a bad start to the campaign. The <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/web-exclusive/story/20190204-motn-poll-nda-seat-share-lok-sabha-election-2019-1439262-2019-01-25">Mood of the Nation</a> survey conducted in December 2018 and January 2019 concluded that the National Democratic Alliance, the coalition the BJP heads, would not win a majority in the general elections. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266588/original/file-20190329-71003-uc9saw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/266588/original/file-20190329-71003-uc9saw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266588/original/file-20190329-71003-uc9saw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266588/original/file-20190329-71003-uc9saw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266588/original/file-20190329-71003-uc9saw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266588/original/file-20190329-71003-uc9saw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/266588/original/file-20190329-71003-uc9saw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/india-tomorrow-a-podcast-series-from-the-anthill-episode-guide-114654">Read our episode guide for India Tomorrow, a podcast series from The Anthill.</a></em></p>
<h2>Security</h2>
<p>We will have to wait for results from post-election surveys to get detailed analysis of the segments of society that voted for the BJP, but several points are clear about Modi’s victory.</p>
<p>Modi benefited tremendously from the fallout from a suicide attack in <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-47302467?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/cgmkz7g3xn0t/pulwama-attack&link_location=live-reporting-story">Pulwama</a> in Jammu and Kashmir that killed 40 Indian soldiers in February 2019. Although responsibility for the attack was claimed by a Pakistani terrorist group, it was carried out by a local Kashmiri. One reading of this could have been that Modi’s policies in the Kashmir valley, such as the increase <a href="http://time.com/longform/pellet-gun-victims-kashmir/">in the use of pellet guns</a>, <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/IN/DevelopmentsInKashmirJune2016ToApril2018.pdf">blinding hundreds</a> and killing at least 14, had led to the attack. But Modi swiftly turned it to his advantage. </p>
<p>Not only did he pursue an aggressive course of action with airstrikes against militants on Pakistani territory, he also successfully sold it as a huge success, <a href="https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/indias-strike-on-balakot-a-very-precise-miss/">despite some evidence</a> that the fighters had missed their target. The national security narrative took centre stage in the 2019 election, something that the opposition parties were unable to counter. </p>
<h2>Opposition failings</h2>
<p>The second factor was the Congress campaign. The party’s leader, Rahul Gandhi, has come a long way since his debut in a national election in 2014. But the Congress campaign failed on two fronts. The first was the messaging: it was a mistake to try and attack Modi on <a href="https://www.bloombergquint.com/politics/congress-vs-bjp-on-rafale-deal-four-key-questions-answered">allegations of corruption</a> rather than focusing on the economic failures of his first term. Focusing on corruption only served to remind the electorate of the Congress party’s involvement in previous (very large) corruption scandals. </p>
<p>Yet, even had Congress focused solely on the economy, this may not have led to a very different result. The BJP <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/12/bjp-landslide-in-uttar-pradesh-a-boost-for-india-prime-minister-narendra-modi">swept the board</a> in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh state elections, held only a few months after Modi’s disastrous demonetisation policy which saw <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/08/india-withdraws-500-1000-rupee-notes-fight-corruption">the withdrawal of 86%</a> of India’s currency. The second failure was the high-handedness with which Congress approached the formation of its own political alliances. The BJP was extremely accommodating of its alliance partners in states such as Bihar and Maharashtra, but Congress did not manage to agree a deal with its potential partners in <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/elections/lok-sabha-2019/story/arvind-kejriwal-rahul-gandhi-congress-aap-alliance-failed-inside-story-1511415-2019-04-27">Delhi</a> and in <a href="https://www.bloombergquint.com/politics/congress-out-of-sp-bsp-alliance-in-up-but-theres-little-reason-for-bjp-to-cheer">Uttar Pradesh</a>.</p>
<h2>NaMo appeal</h2>
<p>The third factor was the presidential nature of the campaign. Modi successfully portrayed the campaign as Modi v Rahul. Such a framing benefited Modi – a fantastic campaigner. He built on the national security narrative by framing himself as a <a href="https://twitter.com/narendramodi/status/1131539657794183168"><em>Chowkidar</em>, or watchman</a>, who would protect India. This built on his reputation as someone who would make India great – something that played extremely well in the campaign. </p>
<p>Modi’s profile in India is huge – he takes personal credit for all initiatives, and his picture appears multiple times in the same editions of the daily newspapers when government initiatives are flagged.</p>
<p>But curiously, for such an effective campaigner, he held his first <a href="https://thewire.in/media/narendra-modi-press-conference">press conference</a> as prime minister in the final weeks of the 2019 campaign. And even then it was dominated by Shah – and Modi didn’t <a href="https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-news-the-narendra-modi-press-conference-that-really-wasnt/330509">answer a single question</a>.</p>
<p>The BJP has had extraordinary control of the political narrative during this election, aided by its extremely <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/india-election-spending-bjp-congress/modis-war-chest-leaves-india-election-rivals-in-the-dust-idUSKCN1S7390">large war chest</a> which has helped it penetrate even deeper into traditional and social media. While only a <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/9fe88fba-6c0d-11e9-a9a5-351eeaef6d84">quarter of Indians</a> use WhatsApp – still 300m people – the creation of promotional material <a href="https://qz.com/india/1553765/bjps-whatsapp-ops-is-what-cambridge-analytica-can-only-dream-of/">specifically targeted</a> at different segments of society has played a huge role in advancing a particular political narrative. </p>
<p>In addition, the Election Commission has been criticised <a href="https://scroll.in/article/924268/the-silent-army-10-reasons-why-public-trust-in-the-election-commission-stands-eroded">for clearing</a> BJP leaders of many alleged election code violations, and only <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/elections/news/election-commission-bans-screening-of-biopic-on-pm-modi-during-election-period/articleshow/68810315.cms">belatedly banning</a> the showing of a biopic about Modi on the eve of the elections. It also allowed the BJP’s TV channel, NaMo TV, to run without challenge <a href="https://thewire.in/media/as-polls-draw-to-a-close-namo-tv-slips-off-air">throughout the campaign</a>. It has now gone off air. </p>
<h2>Concerns for minorities</h2>
<p>The final point to make relates to the opinions of voters. The BJP ran a very <a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/south-asia/modi-party-chief-raises-anti-muslim-rhetoric-as-polls-kick-off">polarising campaign</a>. In 2014, 51% of those who responded to India’s <a href="https://www.lokniti.org/media/PDF-upload/1536130357_23397100_download_report.pdf">National Election Studies</a> said they believed that democracy meant that the will of the majority community should prevail – a steep rise from 2009. This demonstrates a move towards the right and an acceptance of <a href="https://theconversation.com/india-tomorrow-part-2-the-politics-of-hindu-nationalism-115494">Hindu majoritarianism</a> in Indian politics – a position that questions whether religious minorities, particularly Muslims, should have special rights within India. This trend of Hindu majoritarianism is higher among the young – a growing demographic within India – who have grown up in an era in which the BJP has been a national player. </p>
<p>This does not bode well for religious minorities in the world’s largest democracy, 20% of whom are non-Hindu. Although Modi <a href="https://twitter.com/narendramodi/status/1131488026247323648">tweeted</a> after the results that “together we will build a strong and inclusive India”, the attacks on Muslims, both <a href="https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/what-is-the-citizenship-amendment-bill-2016/article23999348.ece">political</a> and <a href="https://www.indiaspend.com/2017-deadliest-year-for-cow-related-hate-crime-since-2010-86-of-those-killed-muslim-12662/">actual</a> during his first term cast doubt over the second part of this promise.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117476/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katharine Adeney has received funding from the Leverhulme Trust and the Economic and Social Research Council for her work on India in the past.</span></em></p>The Bharatiya Janata Party of Narendra Modi has claimed victory in the world’s biggest democratic exercise.Katharine Adeney, Professor of Politics and Director of the Asia Research Institute, University of NottinghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1165982019-05-23T11:06:44Z2019-05-23T11:06:44ZNarendra Modi has won the largest election in the world. What will this mean for India?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276014/original/file-20190523-187176-jwpi7y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Narendra Modi's image was ubiquitous on the campaign trail – a sign of how much Indians have gravitated toward his cult of personality and nationalist rhetoric.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Harish Tyagi/AAP </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The resounding victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coalition in India’s federal election represents a key marker in the modern history of India. It was the <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/publications/interactive/india-elects-2019">most extensive</a> and probably most expensive election campaign in the country’s history, with <a href="https://qz.com/india/1591214/indian-election-2019s-voters-polling-booths-and-candidates/">900 million voters</a> casting their votes in one million polling stations over 38 days. Some 83 million Indians were first-time voters, with 15 million of them aged 18 and 19. </p>
<p>The great Indian festival of democracy - as the elections are often called - is seen as the most challenging exercise in making all Indians feel they have a say in the running of the government. </p>
<p>And the return of Narendra Modi as prime minister is both an opportunity and challenge for the country.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/india-election-2019-millions-of-indian-youth-are-underemployed-and-going-to-the-polls-113563">India election 2019: millions of Indian youth are underemployed and going to the polls</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The 2019 parliamentary elections were the most “presidential” since the era of Prime Minister <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Indira-Gandhi">Indira Gandhi</a> four decades ago, with a focus more on the personality of one leader (and his track record) than the candidates standing for office and their respective parties. </p>
<p>I travelled across India to the hustings in as many as 50 parliamentary constituencies and witnessed firsthand the “Modi phenomenon.” In constituency after constituency, BJP candidates evoked Modi’s name and displayed his image every opportunity they could.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276017/original/file-20190523-187189-1cbtc05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276017/original/file-20190523-187189-1cbtc05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276017/original/file-20190523-187189-1cbtc05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276017/original/file-20190523-187189-1cbtc05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276017/original/file-20190523-187189-1cbtc05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276017/original/file-20190523-187189-1cbtc05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276017/original/file-20190523-187189-1cbtc05.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Modi is loved by many in India, but blamed by others for worsening divisions between Hindus and other ethnic and religious minorities.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Harish Tyagi/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Modi’s larger-than-life presence</h2>
<p>Modi was projected as the only leader who would revive the great Indian civilization and save the country from the powerful elites and corrupt politicians who made up what the BJP deemed the <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2019/04/01/indian-voters-are-looking-for-excuse-to-back-modi.-they-may-have-found-one-pub-78752">“anti-national” opposition.</a></p>
<p>At times in the campaign, his personality assumed almost mythological proportions. The defining image was of the Indian leader shedding his regal robes and retreating <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/india-election-prime-minister-narendra-modi-meditates-in-cave-world-news/1fdccea3-795c-4d96-9363-f52ed830ba93">to a bare cave in the Himalayas</a>, close to one of the important centres of Hindu pilgrimage, where he meditated in a monastic saffron shawl. This reinforced his popular image as a puritanical and incorruptible leader whose <a href="https://www.quora.com/Modi-wanted-to-be-a-Ramakrishna-monk-but-was-rejected-thrice-Why">first choice in life was to be a monk</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1129740570119823365"}"></div></p>
<p>In contrast to this imagery, the opposition parties ran lazy, tired campaigns that failed to have much impact. </p>
<p>The Congress Party, the country’s once-dominant political party, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/21/world/asia/india-election-congress-gandhi.html">did not improve much</a> on its devastating results from the 2014 election. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the sister of Congress President Rahul Gandhi, <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/elections/lok-sabha/india/born-in-delhi-aware-of-peoples-issues-better-than-narendra-modi-priyanka-gandhi/articleshow/69239040.cms">tried hard to mobilise voters</a> with rousing speeches and campaign events, but these were just brief moments in the longest campaign in Indian electoral history.</p>
<p>The Congress Party’s traditional hubris showed little signs of abating as it abandoned any chance of building potentially winning coalitions that could have countered the Modi juggernaut.</p>
<p>The only real resistance to the BJP-led coalition came from India’s largest state of Uttar Pradesh, where two strong regional parties suspended their traditional rivalry to <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/elections/lok-sabha/uttar-pradesh/a-test-case-for-bsp-sp-rld-alliance-tomorrow/articleshow/69448156.cms">establish an alliance</a>, but even that coalition did not live up to its initial promise.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/modis-polarising-populism-makes-a-fiction-of-a-secular-democratic-india-80605">Modi's polarising populism makes a fiction of a secular, democratic India</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The Modi campaign succeeded not just in appealing to nostalgia for India’s greatness or in the ultra-nationalism that peaked after <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/26/pakistan-india-jets-breached-ceasefire-line-kashmir-bomb">airstrikes</a> against what India viewed as terrorist camps in Pakistan in February. It was actual delivery on the ground. </p>
<p>The social welfare schemes built around providing <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/design/india-biggest-toilet-building-spree-narendra-modi-a8512026.html">lavatories</a>, cooking gas and direct cash transfers to India’s poorest have had tremendous impact across the country. Surprisingly, even the more woolly-headed schemes of the Modi government, such as his <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/30/india-demonetisation-drive-fails-uncover-black-money">chaotic demonetisation decision in 2016</a> and a <a href="https://qz.com/india/1319067/gst-still-isnt-that-good-and-simple-tax-that-narendra-modi-promised/">poorly implemented introduction of GST</a>, were perceived by many voters as policies that were well-intentioned, but badly executed by the toxic bureaucracy seeking to undermine Modi.</p>
<p>In part due to these social welfare schemes, the BJP expanded its presence in states where it has traditionally had little previous success, including Bengal, Odisha and many parts of southern India. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276018/original/file-20190523-187176-1ej1fb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276018/original/file-20190523-187176-1ej1fb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276018/original/file-20190523-187176-1ej1fb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276018/original/file-20190523-187176-1ej1fb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=378&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276018/original/file-20190523-187176-1ej1fb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276018/original/file-20190523-187176-1ej1fb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/276018/original/file-20190523-187176-1ej1fb4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A young Modi supporter at a rally in New Delhi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Harish Tyagi/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What Modi’s win means for India</h2>
<p>So, what can Indians expect from a BJP-led government for the next five years? Based on what we have seen since 2014, the government will be centralised and driven primarily from Modi’s office. Fortunately, the messiness of Indian democracy and the strengths of the constitution will prevent the country from leaning towards authoritarianism, so that should not be a concern.</p>
<p>The previous Modi government has shown it was possible to take a pragmatic approach to social and economic policies. </p>
<p>There are many key challenges that will require a fine balancing act. These include a <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-19/winner-in-india-s-election-gets-an-economy-riddled-with-problems">further liberalising of the economy</a>, with the structural changes needed to make it easier to do business in India and attract more foreign investment. Creating jobs and skills training for the vast numbers of young Indians remains a formidable challenge, as does India’s struggling agrarian sector, which has reached <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-46396118">a crisis point</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/narendra-modis-performance-on-the-indian-economy-five-key-policies-assessed-116485">Narendra Modi's performance on the Indian economy – five key policies assessed</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It remains to be seen if the activism of the BJP’s rank-and-file members, as well as the party’s supporters in the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/11/world/asia/modi-india-elections.html">Hindu nationalist movement</a>, can be managed without compromising on key policies that India needs for social cohesion and to continue growing the economy. It will also fall to Modi to reassure <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/22/asia/minority-violence-lynchings-india-modi-intl/index.html">ethnic and religious minorities</a> – many of whom have fallen victim to Hindu mob attacks – that they are part of an inclusive vision for the country. </p>
<p>In terms of foreign policy, Modi has demonstrated deftness in New Delhi’s relations with powers like <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/ties-with-india-to-stabilise-chinese-envoy/story-eyWbMFAcOW6uC1dFPxGfKO.html">China</a> and the US, as well as other countries in the region. There are sure to be <a href="https://www.hindustantimes.com/analysis/foreign-policy-challenges-lie-ahead/story-Y9jURq5CIrJ6kEiDUWBKqI.html">new challenges</a> with Pakistan, in particular, as well as an increasingly belligerent China, but Modi has already shown he has a unique ability to build a personal rapport with other leaders.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116598/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amitabh Mattoo receives funding from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and has received funding from the University of Melbourne</span></em></p>Modi has been given an overwhelming mandate to continue his reform agenda in India, but he faces many challenges in his second term as prime minister.Amitabh Mattoo, Honorary Professor of International Relations, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.