Hindutva Leviathan

Bhabani Shankar Nayak

The Hindutva governments led by BJP in India are brazenly attacking Muslims, students, journalists, writers, human right activists, youths, farmers and marginalised communities. These assaults are integral to RSS and its ideology of Hindutva politics. The suppression of civil liberty is growing. The independent judiciary and free democratic institutions are abjectly surrendering to the Hindutva project shaped by the crony capitalist classes in India. The BJP governments in centre and states are implementing economic policies that destroys the future of working classes in India. The BJP governments are also implementing social policies that ruins social peace and harmony. The ruthless Modi government is empowering lynch mob to control democratic dissents of the civil society.  The assassination of democratic politics and liberal society in India by electoral means is near complete. It is a matter of time before Brahminical Hindu caste order as outlined in the Manusmṛiti becomes formal law.

The Hindutva politics is shaped by the bigoted ideology of RSS. It has revealed itself after forming BJP led government with absolute majority under the leadership of Mr Narendra Modi. The Modi led BJP government shows the essence of its politics of control, command and communalisation of individuals, families, societies, states and governments. It has revealed the vileness of RSS and its fascist ideology. The decisive victory of these forces undermines liberal, constitutional and secular traditions of Indian state and government. The intention is to replace Indian constitution with Hindutva Leviathan as outlined by the mediaeval outlooks of RSS.

The Hindutva Leviathan is based on the Hobbesian idea of ‘sovereign’ without democratic accountability and citizenship rights. It does not believe in India as a modern state based on social, political and cultural contracts and cooperation based on democratic citizenship. The everyday curtailment of individual liberties are regular affairs. The rise of conflicts between different religious and regional groups are on rise after Hindutva forces came to power. Hindutva is an organised ideology of a political project of national and global capitalist classes to control society, domesticate consumption and dominate the economic system. It talks about cultural nationalism to hide its reactionary outlooks.

Hindutva forces spread hatred and fear to manufacture crisis based on false propaganda. The environment of crisis helps to suspend democratic politics in the name of unity, integrity and sovereignty of the nation state, where the government enjoys absolute power to control citizens without any questions in the absence of politics. There is no opposition to the government. Any opposition to the government is branded as anti-national. The original anti-nationals are in power today. The RSS is antithetical to the ideals of modern democracy. It did not participate in the Indian nationalist struggle against British colonialism. It formed ideological partnership with reactionary forces and weakened anti colonial struggles in India. The same organisation distributes certificates of nationalism today; the irony dies its natural death in Indian politics.

There is systematic regular campaign against religious minorities and opponents of BJP and RSS. There is regular demonisation campaign against Muslims, Christians and rationalists in India. The idea is to domesticate and destroy the very foundation of democratic citizenship in India. RSS does not believe in the ideology of democracy. The nasty, brutish, selfish and authoritarian ideology of RSS and BJP derives its philosophical and political outlooks from solitary ruling class ideology of western Europe. The European fascists and Nazis provide ideological inspirations to Hindutva forces in India today.  These reactionaries celebrate the ideology of ethnic cleansing.

The stripping away of citizenship rights from Indian Muslims, Christians and other religious minorities reveal the sinister design of RSS to destroy Indian democracy. It is time to stand up for the rights and liberties of Indian Muslims as citizens of India. The failure to defend Muslims in India will not only weaken Indian democracy; it will also weaken citizenship rights of all Indians. Hindutva is not a defender of Hindus. It is an organised principle of fascism to look common Indians to empower and enrich Indian and global capitalist classes.

As capitalism completely consolidates its absolute power over Indian state and government, the marginalisation of people and conflicts between different communities will become a norm. In this way, Hindutva is pushing Indian into a situation of civil war. In such a situation, the Hindutva forces can exercise their power with impunity. Indians are waiting to face enormous risk of facing coercive state power under the guidance of Hindutva authoritarian ideology and government. There will be the no political choice for people to elect their own government. It is going to be a society free from any form of individual liberty and rights. The basic survival will be under question mark.

From demonetisation, GST, lockdowns to farm laws; the Hindutva forces continue to manufacture crisis to obscure their arrogance of ignorance and hide all failures of governance. The populist politics of common-sense and street smartness of the school dropout criminals have taken over all institutions of state and government in India. There is no organised opposition to Hindutva politics and policies of Modi and brethren. Such a dangerous situation puts India and Indians in a vulnerable position in a fragile world. There is no difference between autocratic regimes and Hindutva led government in India. It is imperative for the masses to stand up against the arbitrariness of ideological politics, absoluteness of ruling class power and order. After four centuries, Hindutva forces are implementing the Hobbesian ideology in India that Hobbes wanted to escape during early 17th century Europe.

The struggle against Hindutva leviathan is the only alternative for the survival of India and Indians. There is no other way for the survival of India as a liberal, secular and constitutional democracy. The ongoing farmer’s struggle against Modi government gives us hope that a democratic struggle is possible to uphold and expand the idea of democratic India by defeating the ideological and political apparatus of Hindutva leviathan.