This is a sequel to my article, “Where do I stand on I.N.D.I.A. Vs NDA tussle?”[1]
Rise of Hindutva traction in India
Why has Hindutva gained traction in India since the 1990s, esp in the last decade?
Modi is not the cause; he’s only one of the important effects.
The cause is the left, liberal (pseudo-liberal, to be precise) academicians, and pseudo-secular political parties.
Till the 90’s, pseudo-socialism and pseudo-secularism were keys to political success.
Congress and its regional offshoots, like NCP, YSRCP, and TMC owed their success to this strategy.
Regional parties like SP, DMK, JDU, and JDS, also played to the same gallery.
Communist parties were also partly beneficiaries of this same success formula.
Then there was the Babri Masjid demolition.
This became the turning point for BJP.
Since then BJP has been a much stronger force than it ever was in Indian politics.
Sans Hindutva, BJP would have found it very difficult to come to power and stay there as strongly as it does.
Modi may appear to be the force that the opposition parties are unable to defeat.
But it is BJP and not just Modi; BJP is much more than Modi.
Modi is just a manifestation of the BJP.
Till an honest liberal ideological alternative to BJP (not just Modi) emerges…
…till such an alternative genuinely acknowledges the historical and present wrongs against Hindus,….
…till it neutralizes BJP’s Hindutva plank by offering to undo past mistakes and not to repeat the mistakes,…
… BJP will remain the biggest dominant party in Indian politics…
Because Hindu consolidation has come to stay,…
…even if BJP loses some elections now and then, at the states or even at the Centre.
Modi is only the strong first PM of the BJP, of a series of such PMs, to come.
Unlike the opposition parties, BJP is cadre-based, supported by RSS, and has many Modis…
…and they will show up when the need arises.
Who are the most academically cited Indian historians since independence?
Left, liberals like Romila Thapar, Aditya Mukherjee, and Ramachandra Guha.
What has been their commonly stated position on Indian history?
That India never had a common character before independence.
That all dynasties before 1947 contributed greatly to the making of India…
…including the Islamic and British invaders.
That the ancient kingdoms before the Islamic invasion were bylines in Indian history.
That we fought without bloodshed and got freedom from the British.
That Gandhi and Nehru were the main leaders who fought the British.
That others were incidental supporting actors.
That some Indian extremists also fought the British, but they were unsuccessful.
Who have been the most popular sociologists since independence? Similar left, liberals.
Who have been the most popular go-to policy planners till the UPA era? Again left, liberals.
Is it a coincidence that most people don’t even know of any historian or academic of any standing, of opposing views, in those days?
The fact is, Congress, headed by Nehru, put left, liberals in key academic, sociology, and policy planning positions on purpose.
…And muted the voices of opposing ideologies, so they would disappear in a generation or two.
And the opposing voices did almost disappear, till Jan Sangh, then Janata Party, and then BJP were born.
And BJP, under Modi, has given life to these voices….
…so much that the Hindus now realize that they have been kept in the dark since independence.
A large section of Indian Hindus are not willing to buy the pseudo stories any longer.
They want religious conversions to stop and the past setbacks to Hindus to be made good.
After Ram Janma Bhoomi, they now want to reclaim Gyanvapi in Varanasi, Krishna Janmabhoomi-Eidgah Mosque, etc.
Globally too, there are religious conversion forces of Abrahamic religions at work.
And the average Hindu feels threatened, within India and even globally.
Though BJP under Modi has been delivering much better economic results than Congress under any leader,…
…BJP’s biggest strength is now Hindutva…
…despite Modi not quite measuring up to the expectations of the staunch Hindutva-ites.
Till a political alternative emerges…
… which can not only convince voters that it can manage the nation better than BJP
… but also convinces voters that it is genuinely secular, and Hindus’ interests won’t suffer a wee bit under them,
BJP will remain the most dominant political party in India.
I don’t see any of the existing political parties qualifying to be such a challenger…
…given they are known to be pseudo-seculars,
…barring BJD, which is not only confined to Odissa but also its only leader of consequence, Naveen Patnaik, is too old to build such a party.
Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.
Reference:
[1] World views of an average Indian – 1: Where do I stand on I.N.D.I.A. vs NDA tussle? – Aug 14, 2023, PGurus.com
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