Thus, after seven years, the RSS has achieved its objective: religion is centre-stage in our political and social discussions. And religious fervour of the worst sort is now everywhere: the violent, divisive, destructive sort. And because India is a Hindu majority nation and the RSS is a Hindu supremacist ideology, rank majoritarianism once again raises its ugly head and dominates.
The momentum began soon after the victory of the BJP at the Centre in 2014 with a series of mob lynching of Muslims ostensibly in the name of the cow. Once that behaviour was normalised, once the murderers were lauded and garlanded and their actions justified, the groundwork was laid.
Tucked away in between was a far less physically violent act – to redesignate Christmas as “Good Governance Day”. Looking back, perhaps that was a test, a small check to gauge the general response. It did not work so well then, so the idea was shelved. But the seed had been planted.
Attacks on Muslims though have run parallel to increasing Hindu involvement in the government or more correctly, increasing government involvement in Hindu matters.
The religion-secularism maze is not new to India and governance. British colonialism played it to the hilt, setting various fault lines into motion to exploit to their profit and benefit. Ever since, we’ve struggled to find just that particular Indian definition of secularism. But in all our mistakes and mis-steps never have we seen such a blatant, persistent anti-minority majoritarian campaign from a government in power.