Hindutwa and the Threat to Indian Democracy
by Pratap Bhanu Mehta
Irrespective of the outcome of the elections in Gujarat, Indian politics will have to confront the thorny problems posed by the existence of organisations such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. Contrary to their own claims, these are not purely cultural organisations. In any case, the distinction between a cultural or religious organisation and a purely political one is largely meaningless when applied to organisations such as the VHP, whose political impact, along with that of its allied organisations, on public discourse has been unprecedented.
Whether we like to admit it or not, the VHP has been instrumental in orchestrating the "rightward" shift in Indian politics; it has single-handedly set the electoral agenda in many States, it openly challenges the authority of the Government and leading state institutions, its actions pose serious problems for public order, its leaders condone violence against the minorities and its ideology is a palpable threat to the values of our Constitution.
Quite possibly many of its members do not care for these larger goals and are fellow travellers for some local cultural or religious benefits, but this does not detract from the VHP's political importance. While the Election Commission has, controversially, clamped down on its election-related activities in Gujarat, the VHP will continue to pose a serious challenge to the Indian state.
No democracy can survive only on the force of its laws and the threat of sanctions alone. The habits of individuals in civil society, the informal norms by which people conduct themselves in their public interactions, and the values that they openly espouse are also necessary for sustaining a democratic culture.
The growing strength of the VHP and the fact that its power poses a challenge for state organisations have exposed just how fragile the norms that sustain a genuine liberal constitutional democracy are in many parts of the country. Whether we like it or not, the VHP represents a powerful social movement, arguably one of the most significant that India has seen in the last couple of decades. The VHP has a mass base, it has organisational strength, its ideology is subtly infiltrating institutions, and it is inch-by-inch gaining ground. It will be complacent to assume that an electoral defeat for the BJP will be a major reversal of fortune for the VHP; that it will diminish in strength if it stops receiving the patronage of power.
There are many reasons to think that the VHP will have a significant life beyond the electoral fortunes of the BJP. First, it simply exists. Large organisations built over two to three decades, with a financially robust base, simply do not disappear.
The VHP has mobilised constituencies and it would be odd for them to simply melt away. Second, the ideological agenda of the VHP has found acceptance in circles broader than the Sangh Parivar. Witness Jayalalithaa's actions in Tamil Nadu, witness Shankarsinh Waghela's recourse to a language of Hindu nationalism in Gujarat, and witness the muted opposition to the VHP.
Many Hindus recoil at the violence that the VHP's ideology produces, but there is reason to believe that many of those who are uncomfortable with its shrill edges are nevertheless in sympathy with its broad ideological message. Its conception of India has acquired more tacit currency than we care to admit. And this ideological hegemony will take some undoing.
Third, although this is a claim impossible to make with any degree of certainty, the VHP has successfully managed to infiltrate a large number of state institutions, and these will be an enduring source of its power. Finally, the VHP has managed to fulfil what might for want of a better term be described as a large historical need: it has tapped into the longing for "Hindu culture" and organisation abroad, and an exaggerated sense of Hindu injury at home. The psychological anxieties that sustain the VHP, the politics of paranoia that gives it succour is also unlikely to disappear anytime soon. The VHP is here to stay.
This poses extraordinary problems. How does one deal with the VHP? It is unlikely that we will anytime soon have a political coalition that will have the will to clamp down on its activities.
And in any case, repressive action on the part of the state against such organisations is extremely treacherous. It is treacherous because such a state is likely to be interested in repression of free activity in civil society itself, not just the activities of the VHP. And it is treacherous because the VHP thrives on a sense of martyrdom.
We have reached a political juncture where open restriction on the activities of the VHP will fuel the sense of injury that wide constituencies feel. It will invite the thought that the state represses Hindu organisations, and is likely to backfire. It is unlikely therefore, given the prevailing climate, that state power alone can enable it to tackle the VHP.
What are the prospects of a battle within civil society against the VHP? Here again, the cards seem to be stacked against success. First, there are very few organisations that can match the VHP in organisational reach, ideological acceptance and access to resources. Second, there is no articulated ideological alternative that can provide a therapeutic cure for the sense of Hindu injury that the VHP taps into.
Many of us may be convinced that this sense of injury is, at the very least, exaggerated, itself a product the destructive politics of the VHP. But we have to recognise that this external criticism of Hindu nationalist politics carries very little bite. There are very few alternative sources of authority or moral teaching within Hinduism that can successfully combat the VHP.
Hindu nationalism has managed to colonise Hinduism. Third, one might suppose that even if the VHP cannot be combated directly, it might be possible to simply neglect the VHP and emphasise other issues in the hope that, over time, its hold will weaken.
The trouble is that the VHP will not let you do this: Gujarat is one indication of its ability to set the agenda, don't be surprised if Ayodhya becomes an issue in Uttar Pradesh soon. It is also the case that the rest of our politics is so marred by the most venial of interests that it is difficult to imagine an alternative axis of political mobilisation, or different terms of political discourse emerging any time soon.
The macabre circus that passes for politics is likely to continue, giving the VHP ample political space and opportunity. The only thing that might generate a backlash against the VHP is a fear and revulsion against the violence it legitimises. But many Hindus harbour the illusion that they can accept the VHP's critique of the secular state and minorities and still not be implicated in the violence that this ideology produces. In any case, if the only thing that can provoke us to recoil from a dangerous ideology is a revulsion and fear of violence, it will already be too late for Indian democracy.
(The writer is Professor of Philosophy and of Law and Governance, JNU.)