36 INDIATODAY AUGUST 19, 2019
construction of a modern India. For Nehru, the big dams and
modern steel plants were the ‘temples’ of modern India whereas
the older temples of faith epitomised irrationality, superstition
and regressive beliefs. For the Nehruvian, the acceptable Hindu-
ism was abstruse spiritualism and high philosophy; the lived
Hindu faith centred on rituals and caste-determined customs
had no place in modern India’s public life. Indeed, the latter were
perceived as an impediment to progress.
There was an associated belief in what has subsequently
come to be known as ‘constitutional patriotism’. The idea, based
substantially on post-War German thought, sought to define
nationhood in terms of the Constitution. Rather than defining
the rules that governed the conduct of public life, the Constitu-
tion was elevated to the status of a philosophy for the nation.
In a curious sort of way, 1950 became India’s Year Zero. The
Indian nation that preceded the Constitution was sought to be
relegated to the archives. Instead, a modern India with only
a tenuous link to the past was sought to be built. The second
belief that defined the pre-Modi consensus was the abhorrence
of Hindu ‘majoritarianism’. This meant that explicitly Hindu
impulses, particularly in politics, had to be kept firmly in check,
not least with the invocation of other identities such as caste,
class and region and, of course, the philosophy of secularism.
T
he secularism that emerged in India was, how-
ever, unique. The constitutional guarantees for
religious minorities were fetishised. In Nehru’s
value system, according to his official biographer
S. Gopal, “the problem of minorities was basically
one for the majority community to handle. The test of success
was not what Hindus thought but how Muslims and other com-
munities felt...” As prime minister, Manmohan Singh further
refined this principle into the assertion that Muslims had “first
claim” on the resources of the state.
Since the mid-1980s, India has witnessed the development
of an alternative nationalism based on an explicit rejection of
these two pillars of the Congress consensus. The rapid growth of
the BJP began in 1989 but it was only under Modi that the party
reached a hegemonic status, winning a majority on its own in the
Lok Sabha in the elections of 2014 and 2019.
The nationalist challenge that Modi has mounted on the
earlier Congress consensus has, quite undeniably, a link with the
traditional Hindu nationalism of the RSS-BJP. The invocation
of Bharat Mata—implying the sacredness of India—and the
equation of national unity with a cultural nationalism whose
underpinnings are Hindu constitute the permanent back-
drops. Equally, there is the belief that a strong state must be
complemented by strong patriotic communities that combine
productive existence with adherence to robust family values
and samskaras. For the RSS-BJP, nationalism lay in the abil-
ity to articulate what Deendayal Upadhyaya described as the
‘Bharatiya chiti’—loosely translated as the soul of
India. Its Hindutva is cultural and different from
the codified political Hindutva that V.D. Savarkar
advocated nearly 100 years ago.
Modi was a creation of this ecosystem but he
hasn’t stopped here. He has extended the appeal
of nationalism along the lines that Swami Vivek-
ananda advocated at the end of the 19th century.
First, he has linked nationalism with the notion of
daridranarayan through a welfare programme
that aims at delivering something tangible to the
poor—cash for houses, clean cooking gas, toilets
for every home, electricity connections in all vill-
ages and, now, a scheme to bring drinking water
to the doorstep. More important, he has sought to
instil this welfarist mission with a dose of efficiency
and financial integrity. He has successfully equat-
ed corruption with a crime against the nation.
This approach has been supplemented by a
single-minded pursuit of a modernist, techno-
logical vision. Nehru had this perspective too but
Modi has been able to take it beyond the elite and
link it to popular aspirations. Additionally, just as
Vivekananda sought to enhance Hindu pride by
reaching out to the West, Modi has sought to sell
India as an assertive but responsible global power.
As much as it has lifted India’s global image, it has
led to a soaring of India’s self-esteem at home.
Modi has taken Indian nationalism to the 21st
century. He has built the bridge between the free-
dom struggle and contemporary aspirations. The
soul of India that once took pride in the charkha is
now basking in the glory of a mission to the moon.Swapan Dasgupta is a senior journalist
and Rajya Sabha memberTHE NATIONALIST
CHALLENGEMODI
HAS MOUNTEDNOW
HAS AS BACKDROP
THE INVOCATION
OF BHARAT MATA
AND THE EQUATION
OF NATIONAL
UNITY WITH
HINDU CULTURAL
NATIONALISM