DM Monitoring
NEW DELHI: In an interview that is a forceful and outspoken critique of Hindutva and Hindu Rashtra, one of India’s most highly regarded columnists has said Hindutva is not an ideology but an anti-minority and, primarily, anti-Muslim prejudice. Aakar Patel also says that the desire or ambition to create Hindu Rashtra, which lies at the core of Hindutva, “is purely about the exclusion and persecution of India’s minorities, particularly Muslims that is all there is to Hindu Rashtra.” He
adds Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s record, both as chief minister of Gujarat for 13 years and as prime minister of India for seven years, shows that Modi “encourages anti-Muslim prejudice”. In a 30-minute interview to Karan Thapar to mark the launch of his book Our Hindu Rashtra: What It Is. How We Got Here Patel spoke at length about his analysis of Hindutva and Hindu Rashtra.
He said in classical terms ideology is understood as a doctrine of economic or political theory. Hindutva, as pursued by the BJP or its predecessor, the Jan Sangh, has never been consistent either in terms of its economic or political thinking. The only issue on which Hindutva has been consistent is the demand that Muslims give up their mosques, their personal law, their autonomy in Kashmir and now, more recently, the right to marry hindu girls or eat beef. This is why he believes Hindutva is not an ideology but prejudice and, specifically, anti-Muslim.
He said the concept of Hindu Rashtra as upheld by the BJP – in contrast to Nepal – “is purely about the exclusion and persecution of India’s minorities, particularly Muslims. That is the only meaning of Hindu Rashtra in India. It imagines India as a Hindu nation where the Muslim and christian exist on sufferance. That is all there is to Hindu Rashtra.”
Patel said that the aim of Hindu Rashtra seems to be the persecution of non-hindu minorities and not the betterment of the majority community. “The acquisition of authority in Hindu Rashtra is not towards bettering the lives of hindus but damaging, excluding and handicapping those who are not born hindu.”
Patel says that Hindutva never reveals itself in its full light. It often appears in disguise or even by deception. As he put it: “Hindutva has captured the Indian state but it sits behind the façade of Nehruvian secularism and inclusion. It pretends to be what it is not.”
Patel, therefore, comes to the conclusion that unlike its neighbours, who are majoritarian because that is how their constitution has defined them, India has become majoritarian through the backdoor i.e. “through the issues that parties and governments picked and stayed focus on till the majoritarian impact was achieved.” Asked if this means India is less majoritarian than Pakistan and Afghanistan or the same, Patel said that India is as majoritarian as these countries.
