Ahmedabad Voting Stirs Nationalism
Gujarat Elections Provide Joy and Fear for India’s Future
Last month's landslide BJP, Bharatiya Janata Party, election victory in the Indian state of Gujarat, has resurfaced old feelings of Indian-Hindu nationalism.
The ruling Congress Party (INC) expected a much closer race than the resultant 117 to 59 parliamentary seat victory of the BJP. This stunning blow from 55 million people living in the northern Indian state, has caused the nationally ruling Congress Party to reevaluate its desire for early elections. Throughout Gujarat’s capital city, Ahmedabad, analysts are saying this victory “will…tempt the BJP to return to its aggressive Hindu nationalist agenda,” said Reuters’ news reporter Rupam Jain Nair in a December 23 article. The victory, which focused on Hindu Nationalism, has brought not only joy but also concern throughout India.
Hindu-Nation State
The Constitution of India is secular and states all citizens are equal. It guarantees freedom of thought, expression and belief to every single Indian. According to Fr Cedric Prakash, Director of the Jesuit Centre of Human Rights in northwest India, in his thesis The Rise of Hindu Nationalism; “Nationalism and Communalism are synonymous in an Indian context and are negative concepts.” Hindu communalism, better known by its ideological name “Hindutva,” is the establishment of a Hindu-Nation.
“Hindu Rashtra,” the policies behind Hindutva, has sometimes been misunderstood. According to election documents of the BJP, this ideology is intended to “include all the multiple indigenous traditions of India.” In Gujarat and especially Ahmedabad, citizens believe completely in this ideology and are extremely happy about the election results. In Ahmedabad, Gujarat's main city, the Reuters article said: “…supporters beat drums, danced in the streets and lit firecrackers as the results trickled out…. women distributed sweets and children handed out plastic and paper lotuses.”
Concerns
According to Fr Prakash, the BJP’s interpretation of Hindutva “is a very narrow type of ‘nationalism’ which seeks legitimacy through demonizing other religions and faiths, very specially Islam and Christianity….[it is a] fascist doctrine of one nation, one culture, one language, one religion.”
There are two important concepts from the platform of the right winged BJP: intent and indigenous. The words in the papers and pamphlets of the BJP seem to contradict the actions of many of its leaders and this is the concern of many Indians.
- BJP Intent - “Mr. L. K. Advani, (a former Deputy Prime Minister of the country and currently the President of the BJP) went across the country on a ‘Rath Yatr’. This created a great deal of animosity, blood-shed and deepened the divide between the Hindus and Muslims of the country,” said Fr. Prakash. Charismatic leader Modi is accused of “encouraging communal riots in 2002 in which between 1,200 and 2,500 people were killed, most of them Muslims,” Rupam Nair reported.
- Indigenous - Indian nationalism, based on religion has created “chaos, confusion and division” because of her secular identity. In this confusion the connotation of indigenous has become warped as well.
- Denotation: Merriam-Webster defines “indigenous” as “having originated in and being produced, growing, or living naturally in a particular region or environment.” It says nothing about religion or religious beliefs.
- BJP Connotation: Indigenous, as used by BJP leaders places considerable emphases on religion. “Its position on this issue has all along been…that we were and are a Hindu nation;” from the BJP Gujarat Party. “Muslims of India are…still Hindu…and…they would find it the most natural thing in the world to revert to their ancient faith and ways of life."
Confusion arises with the BJP use of statements like: “we were a Hindu nation, Indian Muslims are Hindu, natural to revert, ancient [indigenous] way of life.” These concepts create “chaos, confusion and division” for many followers and non BJP citizens, while instilling hope and joy for believers.
