Democracy and Religious Extremism in India

The Republic of India was created in 1947 as a united, secular democracy. Over the last 60 years, Indian politics have been dominated by Congress, a left-wing, secular political party founded by Jawaharal Nehru. Despite the governments commitment to separation of church and state, religion has played a major role in Indian politics; politicians cater to their religiously diverse constituents and religious violence is not uncommon (in fact, Gandhi was assassinated by Hindu nationalists for “betraying” Hindutava by defending secularism). Congress finally was defeated in the 1998 national elections by the BJP, a Hindu nationalist party. In addition to ending 51 years of nearly uninterrupted dominance by Congress, this changing of the guards brought issues of religious toleration and secularism even further into the Indian political spotlight.

The New York Times published an article in February of 1998, just before the national elections, outlining some of the religious issues surrounding the vote:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B04E4DE103FF933A15751C0A96E958260&st=cse&sq=BJP+wins+Indian+elections&scp=2

Indian Muslims, the world’s largest minority group, feared that their rights would be threatened, if not completely violated, by a BJP-led government. Muslim clerics across the country urged their congregations to vote for Congress and to protect themselves from the potential religious tyranny of the BJP. As we discussed in class today, the Muslim civic groups, united by common interest — in this case, religion and tolerance– actively participated in the political system and attempted to use the democratic process to protect their rights. In this case, associationalism could have possibly increased voter turnout (though I don’t have the exact figures). Although Congress anti-BJP propaganda likely exaggerates the party’s religious extremism, the concerns of Indian Muslims were likely warranted. The BJP’s website makes a number of religious and nationalist references, and the party’s platform includes a number of related issues. For example, the party wants to eliminate special laws governing Muslim marriages, divorces, and property rights, as well as build a Hindu temple on the site of a historic mosque.

http://bjp.org/

Nevertheless, the BJP has tried to shake its extremist reputation, and portray themselves as a more centrist, tolerant party to help spread its popularity, nationally.

Although Congress regained control of the national parliament in 2004, after 6 turbulent years of BJP rule, the Hindu-nationalist party still has influence (if not majorities) in some state legislatures. In December, Narendra Modi, a notoriously extreme member of the BJP, known for “his charismatic, often pugnacious, brand of Hindu supremacist politics”, was reelected as chief minister of Gujarat. Modi is infamous for his complacency towards, and possibly approval of, the religious riots which erupted in his state in 2002. During the violence, Hindu rioters killed over 1,000 Muslims. Critics, one of which called his reelection “the dark side of democracy”, fear that Muslims will be even further marginalized and oppressed by the Modi government.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/24/world/asia/23cnd-india.html?st=cse&sq=BJP+wins+Indian+elections&scp=1

These issues echo the current situation in Turkey that we discussed last week. Both India and Turkey were founded on secular ideals, however religion has continuously played an important role in politics in both countries. Although the BJP is a fully legitimate and legal political party, its policies and platforms seem to blur the divisions between church and state; as we have seen, secularists in Turkey have similar fears about the religiously-conservative ruling party there.