India, once the land of diversity and inclusivity, has become increasingly politically polarised, economically unequal, and religiously divided, reverting to the centuries-old equation of Hindu-Muslim rivalry. Since the arrival of PM Modi in New Delhi, the Indian political landscape has revolved around constant hatred, discrimination, and polarising speeches by Modi himself and his counterparts, aimed at the Muslim community of India to galvanise the support of extremist Hindus, especially in Northern India.

Before 2014, the Indian political spectrum was dominated by the Indian National Congress, whose ideology was deeply rooted in a policy of non-violence, diversity, inclusivity, tolerance, secularism, and accommodation of the aspirations of minorities in India. Owing to its geographical and population size, with sizable minorities, including 14 per cent of the population belonging to the Muslim community, India largely functioned peacefully.

However, with the rise of the BJP, a political mouthpiece of the RSS, in the Indian political landscape in the late 1980s, owing to a controversial decision by then-Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to undo the Shah Bano case (1985), and the BJP-led charged procession towards Babri Masjid (1992), which resulted in greater riots across northern India, claiming the lives of 2,000–3,000 Indians, especially Indian Muslims. Analysing the core basis of the mainstream ideology of BJP-RSS, “Hindutva”, reveals that it has nothing to do with Hinduism, as claimed by Savarkar in his book Essentials of Hindutva (1923). Hinduism is an inclusive ideology based on the philosophy of truth, non-violence, and accommodation, whereas Hindutva believes in exclusivity, hatred, discrimination, subjugation, and suppression of non-Hindus. Unsurprisingly, followers of Hindutva are bent on stripping the secular nature of the Indian constitution, politics, and society, forcing Muslims to either leave India or remain as second-class citizens.

Under PM Modi’s leadership, India has witnessed hundreds of cases of lynching of Muslims, where unknown cow vigilantes have attacked poor Muslims, taking the law into their own hands. In most cases, the police have even facilitated such lynchings, owing to the ownership of political support from the BJP government. There are numerous recorded videos showing radical Hindus inflicting torture on poor Muslims, even forcing them to chant slogans of Hindu gods. Are these the teachings of Lord Ram? Predictably, PM Modi has not uttered a word about these incidents over the past ten years, while Indian Muslims are being killed, tortured, and lynched by fellow citizens. Hence, the chances of violence and the killing of Indian Muslims are increasing daily under PM Modi’s leadership.

Politically speaking, the situation is even worse. The BJP, which claims to be the party of all Indians, has no sitting Muslim MPs and has not offered a single ticket to a Muslim candidate. Ironically, the world’s largest democracy, with a Muslim population of 200 million, has only 25 Muslim MPs out of 543 seats in the Indian Parliament, with zero Muslim representation at the government table or ministerial level. This underscores the political marginalisation of Indian Muslims compared to the pre-BJP-RSS era, where the magic formula for elections was to blame “Mughals” and “Muslims” for every wrongdoing in the country. One of the BJP’s political strategists claimed they had made Muslims politically vulnerable by proving they could win a majority and form a government without Muslim candidates or voters.

Beyond politics, under PM Modi’s rule, the representation of Indian Muslims is increasingly diminishing. Despite making up 14 per cent of the population, Indian Muslims’ representation in higher and lower judiciary, civil service, police, army, and civil administration is barely 2–3 per cent. Various data and reports indicate that the BJP-RSS nexus is systematically working to downgrade the presence of Indian Muslims in critical segments of the Indian state, making them vulnerable in key decision-making processes about the nation’s destiny.

Additionally, the religious symbols of Indian Muslims are being targeted by the BJP-RSS nexus. Unsurprisingly, the BJP-RSS aims to destroy the religious and cultural heritage of Indian Muslims. The anger of Hindutva jingoism has not subsided, even after the establishment of the Ram Temple in place of the Babri Masjid. Many cases are now being filed for archaeological surveys of historic Indian Muslim sites, claiming these mosques were built on the ruins of Hindu temples during the Mughal era, though independent sources have refuted such claims. However, with the lower judiciary aligned with the BJP, orders for surveys and demolitions of mosques are easily obtained from the courts, and the administration quickly follows suit, razing mosque structures in many places.

The natural outcome of the BJP’s religious politics is violence and the deaths of many innocent Indians. But one cannot ignore the resurgence of Hindu-Muslim rivalry in India, a rivalry that already caused a bloody partition in 1947.

Independent observers believe the treatment of Indian Muslims by the ruling government is unprecedented in recent times, with such brutal tactics often confined to India’s peripheral territories rather than the heartland of Northern India. In peripheral territories, one cannot overlook the revocation of Kashmir’s special status on 5th August 2019 without the consent of the Kashmiri people or its provincial parliament. Turning Kashmir into a Union Territory, issuing domiciles to non-Kashmiris, and imposing curfew-like conditions are vivid examples of the central government’s heavy-handed tactics and mistreatment of Kashmiri Muslims. Even after Omar Abdullah of the National Conference won elections and became Chief Minister, campaigning for the restoration of Kashmir’s special status, the Modi government has refused to heed the pro-Indian voices of Kashmir.

In a nutshell, an ideology based on exclusivity, hatred, discrimination, and subjugation of minorities is not conducive to India’s future, adversely affecting the future trajectory of the world’s largest democracy and one of its oldest civilisations.

Sher Ali Bukhari
The writer is a UET alumni with keen interest in Pakistan’s foreign policy.