Is collapse of Congress making the left ecosystem extra overtly Hinduphobic?

In his newest e-book titled “Our Hindu Rashtra,” Aakar Patel argues that India’s descent into “majoritarianism” begins when “Vande Mataram, the Hindu nationalism trope, became popular as the anthem of Indian nationalism”. This is round 1905, on the time of the partition of Bengal. He factors out that the Muslims then started formally demanding illustration as a political neighborhood and the Muslim League was fashioned in 1906.
Obviously, that narrative is absurd. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan had championed the notorious two nation principle not less than three a long time earlier than that.
But this isn’t about some particular creator. There is wider query right here. What is driving this variation of worldview within the ranks of the Indian left?
Let me clarify. The secular, sarkari consensus round Indian historical past has roughly been one thing like this. With a handful of exceptions, Muslim emperors usually handled their Hindu topics nicely. As such, Hindus and Muslims used to dwell in mutual concord and one thing referred to as composite tradition emerged. Then, the British got here alongside and used the coverage of divide and rule to cement their place in India. This finally led to a breakdown of society alongside spiritual traces and partition adopted. From historical past textbooks to motion pictures, this was the usual script.
That imaginative and prescient of the previous, nonetheless contrived, is altering now. And among the many intelligentsia not less than, a much more sinister consensus is rising. In this view, the British are not the villains and definitely not the Muslim emperors of the previous. In this new imaginative and prescient, the Hindu is the enemy and has all the time been. The Hindu nationalists pressured the land of the Muslims to interrupt from India. They bear the whole guilt for partition of India. The British are benign overseers who couldn’t have cared both approach.
Remember how Harsh Mander mentioned that solely Indian Muslims are residents by alternative and people of all different religions are residents by probability? This argument, that Muslims have the next ethical standing than Hindus as residents of contemporary India, was one of many core speaking factors of the anti-CAA protests.
How did this occur? Wasn’t the rise of the BJP alleged to demolish contrived myths about India’s previous? The delusion of composite tradition is breaking, sure. But not in the best way one would have anticipated. At least among the many self appointed intelligentsia who, for higher and for worse, nonetheless maintain commanding positions in deciding how the world sees India. And how Indians are taught to see themselves.
To perceive, we have now to take a look at what holds the left ecosystem collectively. As lengthy because the Congress was on prime, the discourse was principally formed by the Congress worldview. The Congress fights all its elections in India. For the Congress, blatant Hinduphobia was not an possibility. Would the Congress be capable of win an election in Rajasthan or Maharashtra within the title of Aurangzeb? Would the Congress be capable of survive in say Madhya Pradesh by blaming Indian Hindus for partition?
But now, because the Nehru-Gandhis lose their grip on energy, the strategy of the Indian left is starting to alter. The Amar-Akbar-Anthony narrative on historical past now has few takers in India. The leftist elite can solely look overseas for inspiration. They are underneath stress to assemble a story on Indian historical past that the west, particularly American liberals, can simply choose up and perceive.
This stress is seen these days in odd, quite hilarious methods. Every time a political slogan takes off in America, have you ever observed how Indian liberals coin a slogan for us that rhymes with theirs? The best and most intellectually lazy approach is to take “white” and exchange it with “Hindu.” That’s how “Hindu supremacists” got here to be blamed for the current assault on Capitol Hill.
This sort of mental output is probably greatest described as “Ctrl+R liberalism.” Americans are used to referring to folks of shade as “minorities.” In India, Hindus are the bulk neighborhood and Muslims are the most important minority neighborhood. And everybody on the American left already believes that “Islamophobia” is an actual factor. So, in principle, you possibly can take any commentary from the New York Times, exchange “white” with “Hindu” and you’d have one thing that passes off as “liberalism” in India.
At one level, they used to interchange “white” with “Brahmin” as an alternative of attacking Hindus as an entire. Some nonetheless do, however their quantity is step by step diminishing. The energy of any narrative lives in its simplicity. Explaining the caste system to an American would take too lengthy. It would require Indian liberals to show the Americans not less than 4 or 5 new phrases, the names of the assorted castes, which the latter would discover troublesome to pronounce. Also, there is no such thing as a approach for an American to determine shortly which caste a specific Hindu belongs to.
Americans already find out about Muslims and Hindus. The binary is straightforward to elucidate. That’s what Indian liberals are doing. Indian Hindus are the privileged majority. Indian Muslims are the underprivileged minority who’ve confronted discrimination and injustice for over one thousand years. So, if you wish to be an excellent particular person, you need to abhor “Hindu supremacists.”
And there you go. In simply three sentences, you could have taught an American all the things you need them to find out about Indian historical past. And how to consider fashionable Indian politics, which is the half you might be actually excited about!
That is why all of the psychological gymnastics to make a hero out of even Aurangzeb. The historian who specializes on this additionally wrote lately that the Bhagavad Gita rationalizes mass slaughter. Of course, to take care of some facade of educational integrity, you qualify the declare with some context. But everybody is aware of the ability of 1 liners. You declare one factor a faith of peace and the opposite as rationalizing mass slaughter. Which facet are nicely which means folks going to take?
And after getting ready their minds nicely, they may take absolutely anything. That’s why the identical historian noticed the riot at Capitol Hill, noticed an Indian flag and jumped to conclusions. She promptly introduced that her conclusion would now be a part of the official syllabus at Rutgers University. All this based mostly on a social media rumor, which turned out to be false. The narrative is interesting exactly as a result of it requires so little mental enter.
To implement this binary, all Hindus, any Hindus, are to be demonized now. Where Gandhi was as soon as universally accepted as Mahatma, folks like Divya Dwivedi have come to dominate. In this new imaginative and prescient, Gandhi is an excellent villain who invents “Hinduism” within the late nineteenth century as a automobile for perpetuating programs of social oppression in India. In any case, Audrey Truschke has referred to Gandhi’s love for the Bhagavad Gita. You know, the e-book that rationalizes mass slaughter. In Truschke’s world, Gandhi comes throughout as a simpleton at greatest and propagandist at worst, who places a cheerful spin on the Gita. So Gandhi is someplace between a simpleton and a villain. Meanwhile, Aurangzeb turns into a hero.
Why? Because Gandhi is without doubt one of the handful of Hindus that each American has heard about. They’ve all the time heard that Gandhi was an excellent particular person. The new binary of Hindu = unhealthy and Muslim = good requires that Gandhi’s picture ought to be sullied too!
In this new narrative, Gandhi, Ambedkar and even Nehru are more and more pushed to the margins. While Dr. Ambedkar was extreme on Hindus and the caste system, he didn’t mince his phrases about issues inside Muslim society. That means the brand new binary has no use for him. Even Nehru. A current article in a liberal outlet accused Nehru of presiding over a bloodbath of Muslims when Hyderabad was introduced into the Indian union. Now that the Nehru-Gandhi household not wins elections, why would they spare him?
Indians have stopped listening to their liberals. For Indian liberals, it’s now all about what America thinks. So Nehru is simply one other Hindu now. He is on the mistaken facet of the binary.
Have you observed that one among India’s most well-known historians, identified for his loyalty to Nehru’s ghost, has lately begun ranting towards his dynasty on each attainable discussion board? How do you assume that occurred?
History is continually altering, based mostly on who will get to put in writing it and what they’re attempting to say. As with commerce, India’s home politics and its historical past are additionally changing into a part of the worldwide provide chain. Our historical past is quite distinctive, which can result in some distinctive challenges right here. As Hindus look to say themselves after one thousand years, the problem turns into acute. On the one hand, Indian Hindus need to inform the world about their actual story. On the opposite, Hindus don’t need to be perceived as “weak,” craving sympathy from others.
But the lingua franca of historical past itself has modified. It’s not English nor French, however wokeness. What is wokeness? It is the language wherein the robust fake to be the weak. They have been utilizing it to demonize us. We Hindus higher discover ways to categorical ourselves in it or our narrative, tales and historic struggling shall perpetually stay buried.