Student Struggle – July 23, 2019

As Aijaz Ahmed observed ‘the RSS was founded
on an uncannily Gramscian principle that en-
during political power can arise only on the basis
of a prior cultural transformation and consent,
and this broad-based cultural consent to the ex-
treme right’s doctrines can only be built through
a long historical process from the bottom-upiii.
This massive organisational activities in the con-
text of specific political and economic develop-
ments in post-1980s enabled the BJP to capture
state power for two consecutive terms now.

The declining representation of
minority representation in parliament, the intro-
duction of plans like NRC that lead to the removal
of citizenship of a large number of Indians in the
state of Assam, saffronisation of curriculum and
pedagogy etc. are indications that the rise of BJP
is leading India into an ethnic democracy. The Is-
raeli sociologist Sammy Smooha who introduced
the concept of ethnic democracy has defined ten
conditions that can lead to the establishment of
an ethnic democracy such as 1) The core ethnic
nation constitutes a solid numerical majority; 2)
the noncore population constitutes a significant
minority; 3) the core ethnic nation has a com-
mitment to democracy; 4) the core ethnic nation
is an indigenous group; 5) the noncore groups are
immigrants; 6) the noncore group is divided into
more than one ethnic group; 7) the core ethnic
nation has a sizeable and supportive diaspora; 8)
the noncore groups’ homelands are involved; 9)
a transition from a nondemocratic ethnic state
has taken place; 10) ethnic democracy enjoys in-
ternational legitimacyiv. Unfortunately, in India,
most of these are criteria are being fulfilled. The
Hindu right is pursuing its agenda of cultural na-
tionalism, albeit with a commitment to all the in-
stitutional norms of liberal democracy. It doesn’t
abandon the structures of democracy but effec-
tively transformed its substantial meaning and
ethics. As Rajiv Bhargava correctly observed, the
Hindu nationalist is changing the meaning of de-
mocracy from the temporal rule of the political

majority into the permanent rule of the ethnic

majorityv.

The way beyond Neoliberal Hindutva

As Hindutva has become the new normal of In-

dian political imagination, neoliberalism has oc-

cupied the centre stage of our economic logic.

Both constitute the ‘extreme centre’ of Indian

democracy today. But the contradictions of this

Neoliberal Hindutva regime is in the process of

aggravation. Hindutva will not be able to pro-

vide meaning to the large mass of people who

are increasingly alienated and dislocated due to

neoliberal capitalism. As Prabhat Patnaik right-

ly pointed out ‘you cannot keep people hooked

the daily dose of anti-Pakistan and anti-Muslim

rhetoric when they are unemployed and hungryvi

The only way out of this crisis is to have

an alternate program not just to Hindutva’s cul-

tural nationalism, but also to neoliberal capital-

ism. The objective conditions today where all

sorts of material inequalities are at its peak lev-

els in human history are favourable to the rise

of an alternate politics that foregrounds the si-

multaneous struggle against ethnic hegemony

and neoliberal social systems. Only such kind

of struggle can retain the democratic ethos of

our nation and resist the contemporary drive to-

wards ethnic democracy. As the contemporary

hegemony of Hindutva is built over prolonged

organisational labour, any attempt to defeat re-

quire an effort of similar or higher intensity.

i. Badri Narayan, Divided they stand: Why marginal Dalit castes still

lack political clout. Economic Times, May 24, 2019.

ii. Prabhat Patnaik, The Global shift to the Right, Peoples Democracy,

June 30, 2019

iii. Aijaz Ahmad, India: Liberal Democracy and the Extreme Right,

Frontline, June 7, 2019

iv. Sammy Smooha, The Model of an Ethnic Democracy: Israel as a Jew-

ish and Democratic State, Nations and Nationalism, 8 Oct 2008

v. Rajeev Bhargava, Liberal, Secular Democracy and Explanations of

Hindu Nationalism, Commonwealth and Comparative Politics 6 Sept

2010,

vi. Prabhat Patnaik, The Global shift to the Right, Peoples Democracy,

June 30, 2019

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