Burden of bigotry may break Indian democracy's back

Two recent events suggest that the Indian Republic could be hurtling down a slippery slope. Both relate to Uttar Pradesh but have national consequences. One is the Varanasi court judgement opening up the Vishwanath-Gyanvapi Mosque dispute. The other comes from adjoining Allahabad where the High Court has red-flagged the misuse of the National Security Act. Most of the cases are against members of the minority community. Efforts to corner the Muslim community in India appear to be unrelenting.

Less than 18 months after the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the Hindu petitioners in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute in Ayodhya, another smouldering ember from Hindutva’s agenda is being stoked to life. A Varanasi court has ordered the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to ascertain “whether the religious structure standing at present at the disputed site is a superimposition, alteration or addition or there is a structural overlapping of any kind, with or over, any religious structure.” The ASI carried out a similar survey at Ayodhya several years ago.

So far, the Hindutva agenda of “re-claiming” temples and religious sites allegedly destroyed to build mosques was restrained by the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act of 1991. It mandated that status quo as of August 15, 1947 would be maintained for all places of worship, except the one at Ayodhya which was under litigation at that time. The Supreme Court described the 1991 Act in its Ram Temple judgement as “a legislative intervention which preserves non-retrogression as an essential feature of our secular values.” It implied that the disputed Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi Mosque complex dispute as well as the Idgah in Mathura claimed as Krishna Janmabhoomi could not be reopened.

The fragile communal amity thus sought to be preserved is now threatened.  Even earlier this year, the constitutional validity of the Places of Worship Act of 1991 Act, was challenged by a petition filed by a Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyaya. It claimed that the Centre’s action in enacting the 1991 Act had created an “arbitrary, irrational, retrospective cut-off date” and allowed “illegal barbarian act of invaders” to continue in perpetuity. On March 13, 2021, the Supreme Court sought the Centre’s response to this plea.

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) which was at the forefront of the Ayodhya dispute has not ruled out taking up Hindu claims to other disputed sites once the Ram Temple at Ayodhya is completed. VHP President Alok Kumar told the media, “The temple will be completed by 2024. We will not consider Kashi and Mathura till then.”

Simultaneously, the government of Uttar Pradesh headed by a saffron-clad chief minister is wielding its state machinery like a sledgehammer against the perceived or real misdemeanours of the minority community. Between January 2018 and December 2020, the Allahabad High Court quashed 94 of 120 preventive detention cases under the NSA, pointing out “non-application of mind” in detention orders signed by District Magistrates, based on “cut-and-paste” replication of key details in FIRs that were filed in different geographical locations, denial of due process to the accused, conversion of ordinary law-and-order cases into sedition under NSA and repeated denial of bail. A third of the cases were allegations of cow-slaughter against members of the minority community of which more than 70 per cent were quashed and detainees released by the court. Lest there be any suspicion of bias in the judiciary, it must be noted that the orders were given by ten two-judge benches comprising 16 judges of the High Court.

These events come on the heels of developments which have compelled international observers to speak out against a systematic onslaught on Muslims in India. The so-called ‘love jihad’ laws are premised on the assumption that Muslim men are enticing Hindu women into marriage with the sole aim of religious conversion. They will legitimise disruptions of mixed weddings and intimidation of inter-faith couples by Hindutva forces. The paternalistic call for “protection of women” likewise legitimises the patriarchy of Hindu nationalists.

The latest meeting of the Margdarshak Mandal of the VHP on Friday April 9, 2021, resolved to lobby state governments to enact ‘Love Jihad’ laws. Such laws already exist in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Madhya Pradesh while Gujarat, Haryana and Karnataka are planning to enact similar laws. In the ongoing state assembly elections the BJP has promised ‘love jihad’ laws in Kerala, West Bengal and Assam.

Clearly, a number of new plots are being worked out to keep the communal pot boiling and Hindutva forces in power. These new narratives take over from the earlier recalibration of citizenship rights under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the threatened National Register of Citizens (NRC). Both advantage religious affiliation over birth and residence as qualifications for citizenship. The bifurcation of the state of Jammu and Kashmir and removal of its autonomous Constitutional status diminished the only Muslim-majority state in India and further demonstrated that the Republic was being redrawn along Hindutva lines.

The newest developments will encourage anti-Muslim prejudice to fester and will normalise hate speech in public discourse.  It has already permeated the police and administration in UP. What were till just a decade ago considered robustly independent democratic institutions could become infused with the same vision as they are handed over to acolytes of Hindtuva.

The undoing of Constitutional safeguards and secular outlook that once inspired Muslims to remain within the fold of secular India rather than migrate to an Islamic Pakistan, is making the minority community feel increasingly vulnerable. It could weaken their faith in the rule of law and robustness of Constitutional processes. More dangerously, the desperation of the young may lead them to extremism with its concomitant contempt for life, freedom and democracy.

India might not have much of a future as a secular plural democracy if triumphalist Hindutva is allowed to wreak such havoc on the inclusive and democratic structures of the Republic. The high tide of Hindutva will not last forever but the damage it does now could be irreversible.