Rise of Far-Right Hindu Nationalism in India

            Hindu nationalism has been en masse denoted to like the appearance both political and social mindset, which grounded on the instinctive cultural and spiritual civilizations of the Indian subcontinent. Protectors of Hindu nationalism have strained to evade the tag "nationalism" by convincing that the term "Hindu nationalism" is only mentioned to Hindū rāṣṭravāda as a simple-minded translation and is enhanced labelled by the term "Hindu polity.”

            The effect of the Hindu renaissance activities could be seen by the seizure of the 20th century, where there was a convergence of concepts of the Hindu ethnic nationalism along with the concepts of Indian nationalism. Both could be pronounced the same even by the tendencies that were apparently contrasting to sectional collectivism and Hindu majorities.

            The rise of far-right Hindu in India was more emerging in the year of 2014, Narendra Modi has been selected as the Prime Minister in India. Even though Modi said that his government had taken efforts not to support a “Hindu first” program openly, but, so far, its policies have been clearly showing where all the sympathies lie on (Kaul).

Hindu nationalism as the foundation of politics in India

            Ever since Narendra Modi’s 2014 election, there are many favourable circumstances should have assisted him in making great promises of “good days.” The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has alleged a single-party parliamentary which mainstream for the four years succeeding the election. The oil’s price has been about  of its place about the previous four years, plus, Modi’s fruitful venture field carried the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in greatest levels, with net inflows in the year of 2015 and 2016 exceeding  billion in a year (Mahapatra and Plagemann).

            Rendering to the World Bank approximations, India’s 7% or further yearly economic development counted since the year of 2014 is inadequate to produce more than 8 million jobs essential every year to accommodate the expanded population of the young generation. This necessitates of bold policymaking. However, up till now, the plans for time-consuming pending terrestrial along with the labour reorganizations, and the denationalization of loss-making state-owned companies and banks endure being manifestly incomplete.

        Along with the rise of India's economy which has opened and developed vigorously, so has the Hindu pride as well. A generation afterwards, India cast off the colonial regulation; it's embracing up a new personality with its mainstream Hindu reliance is playing a large fragment.

        With Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) consequently incapable of running on economic policy, as an alternative, they highlight Hindu nationalism, the party’s customary mindset that views India as a naturally Hindu state rather and not as a secular one. The BJP mainly avoided this in 2014, as Modi’s was unable to halt the 2002 anti-Muslim rebellions in Gujarat. Since 2014, although, Indian political figure have regularized extreme Hindu nationalism throughout the draconian cow protection laws, they even have been changing many cities which have a Muslim name, and the selection of extremist Hindu nationalists to exist in authoritative spots of the country.

            Many types of research have been conducted in nearly all Indian states between 2016 and 2018 approve that mainstream of Hindus sustenance many of the keyboards related to the BJP’s product of Hindu nationalism. This sustenance is extraordinarily broad-based. For example, the biggest and greatest current based on 12 states along with a whole sample scope of 24,092, discovers that mainstream of Hindus commencing diverse caste and tribal societies believe that the people who eat beef must be disciplined. They think that the people who do not say “Bharat Mata ki Jai” at community gatherings must be punished. They also think that most Hindus are to be nationalistic (to dissimilar grades), but nearly half are doubtful of the category of loyalty between Muslims (Herzberger).

            India usually refers to itself as a secular country, but recent events shown that India is moving in a direction were only Hindu people will get each and everything of priority. The reason behind the rise in the far-right Hindu nationalism is changing the political scene in recent years. The political parties such as BJP has Hindu first agenda and include the individuals who have conservative Hindu believes. Therefore their policies are promoting Hindu nationalism like never before. The policies which the government creates have a major influence on the behaviour & believes of the people. The BJP policies Cleary indicating that they are favouring Hindu majority and neglecting religious minorities like Christian, Sikhs and Buddhists.

            Since Modi has become the prime minister of India, many things have changed, which indicates that Modi is promoting Hindu nationalism. For example, in Modi’s government, the names of many places have been changed original Hindu ones. In Modi government, many cow protection gangs have immerged due to which violence and killings have occurred in various parts of India. The cow is considered sacred in Hindu believes that is why many gangs have taken initiatives to protect them. However, Prime Minister Modi has never openly admitted that it has a Hindu first agenda, but recent events Cleary indicates in which direction India is moving (Siddiqui).

            There is a saying that the majority is the authority, and in this case, this saying seems to be correct. In India, the Hindus are in the majority, and the political parties know that if they want to win the election and raised to power than they will have to grab the attention of Hindu people because they are in the majority. In recent years the population of Hindus have grown up to a lot of extents, and due to their majority, many Hindus believe that they should be a priority (Siddiqui).

            Recently the Modi Government have again won the election because of far-right Hindu nationalism.  Many people are raising questions like whether far-right Hindu nationalism will end the secular politics in India. It is obvious that India is not only a place where only Hindu lives. Muslims, Christians, Sikhs are also residing in India, and they are worried about their future. They know that if India keeps on promoting Hindu Nationalism, then it will no longer be a secular country. Not only far-right Hindu nationalism will become a reason for violence, but also it can slow the economic growth if it does not take seriously. For economic growth stability in the country is mandatory, and with the policies BJP, the country might face instability (Bonikowski, Halikiopoulou and Kaufmann).

                India would have to think about Far-right Hindu Nationalism seriously otherwise things might go out of hand. The recent events of violence is a sign that something is going wrong and needs to be correct. India is the largest democracy in the world and mention itself as a secular country if India wants to remain secular, then it will definitely have to bring change in the political policies and will have to give equal rights to all the people who are living in India (Juergensmeyer).

Conclusion on Rise of Far-Right Hindu Nationalism in India

            It is concluded that the political parties such as BJP has Hindu first agenda and include the individuals who have conservative Hindu believes. Therefore their policies are promoting Hindu nationalism like never before. The policies which the government creates have a major influence on the behaviour & believes of the people. If India wants to remain secular, then it will definitely have to bring change in the political policies and will have to give equal rights to all the people who are living in India.

References of Rise of Far-Right Hindu Nationalism in India

Bonikowski, Bart, et al. "Populism and nationalism in a comparative perspective: a scholarly exchange." 25.1 (2019): 58-81.

Herzberger, Radika. "Education & Indian Nationalism." Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences (2018): 67-75.

Juergensmeyer, Mark. "The global rise of religious nationalism." 6 (2017): 466-474.

Kaul, Nitasha. "Rise of the political right in india: Hindutva‐Development mix, modi myth, and dualities." Journal of Labor and Society (2017): 523-548.

Mahapatra, Sangeeta and Johannes Plagemann. "Polarisation and politicisation: the social media strategies of Indian political partie." (2019).

Siddiqui, Kalim. "A Critical Study of ‘Hindu Nationalism’ in India." Journal of Business & Economic Policy 3 (2016): 1-20.