Student Struggle – July 23, 2019

6

The BJP is not a typical political party; rather it is
the political front of RSS, which doesn’t directly
involve in electoral politics. This horizontal or-
ganizational network of the Sangh Parivar has
two important advantages. Firstly, through this
organisational structure, the Hindutva could ef-
fectively overcome the ‘compulsions for modera-
tion’ exerted by liberal democracy. As the back-
bone of the network is always outside the liberal
democratic political process, it could preserve the
radical and militant nature of its transformative
project. The success of BJP in the electoral arena
is a natural consequence of the hegemonic pres-
ence of the Sangh Parivar organisations in various
spheres of the society through its patient and pro-
tracted organisational labour. This organisational
capability makes the Hindu right very unique
as well as the most dangerous one to defeat.

India; Towards an Ethnic Democracy?

The capturing of power by the Hindu right has a

colossal impact on the nature of Indian democra-

cy. It is important to know, how Hindutva, whose

fundamental ideals are in stark opposition to that

of liberal democracy, was able to capture power

without subverting the institutional structures of

liberal democracy and moderating themselves. As

we discussed earlier, the organisational structure

of Sangh Parivar enabled the Hindutva to address

the dilemma of working within the framework of

democracy. Sanghparivar addressed the ques-

tion of liberal democracy, not theoretically, but

organisationally. BJP and its electoral ambitions

are just one part of the Hindutva strategy. BJP is

just an electoral front of the RSS, and though the

former gets moderated due to the compulsions of

electoral democracy, the latter which is the back-

bone of the Hindutva network advances the Hin-

dutva project mainly in non-electoral realms by

retaining its radical and transformative agenda.

The organisational

structure of Sangh

Parivar enabled the

Hindutva to address the

dilemma of working

within the framework of

democracy. Sanghparivar

addressed the question

of liberal democracy,

not theoretically,

but organisationallyiii

Narendra Modi

Student Struggle | June - July 2019