But with continuous attacks on minorities, marginalization of civil society groups and the rise majoritarian, rather than inclusive democracy, is now sending shivers down the spine of those who are watching the country change.
How India has transformed can be gauged from the example of Mahatma Gandhi, when he launched the Civil Disobedience Movement against the British in 1930. Not every political group subscribed to his idea. Dr BR Ambedkar, who was the voice of India’s suppressed class – Dalits - and VD Savarak, the founder father of the Hindu right-wing, disagreed with Gandhi’s plan. Not only did they refused to participate in this movement, they also spoke openly against it.
For this, they were neither labelled as anti-national or anti-India. There are many such examples, where political leaders and civil society activists expressed dissent and opposed the government tooth and nail.
But 75 years after Independence, and 72 years after India was declared a democratic republic, dissent has become synonymous with a trip to jail.
A critic of the government is called anti-national, institutions, including universities and media houses, are being compromised and expressing dissent against the government can land a person in jail.
On International Day of Democracy last Wednesday, scholars and experts felt that these are unprecedented times in for Indian democracy. The largest and supposedly one of the most sustainable democracies of the world is facing crises at the hands of the right-wing majoritarian government.
French scholar Christophe Jaffrelot, in his recent book, Modi’s India: Hindu Nationalism and the Rise of Ethnic Democracy has predicted India’s transformation into an ethnic democracy. He is of the view that Indian democracy will soon reach a stage where the minorities would be treated as second class citizens and the authoritarianism risks will soon reach a point of no return.
He is of the view that the majoritarian rule attempts to transform this cultural majority nation into a permanent political majority.
And in the current Indian context, Jaffrelot’s prediction appears to be coming true. Students holding a protest on the university campus are charged with sedition and are languishing in Indian jails. Those who held peaceful protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act were termed anti-national. The farmers of India who have been sitting outside the borders of the Indian capital in New Delhi have been labelled as Khalistani sympathizers. Criticizing the government or the prime minister is a cardinal sin.
In the Human Freedom Index 2020, published by American think tank Cato Institute and Fraser Institute in Canada, which surveyed 162 countries, India’s ranking fell from 94 to 111 in 2020. The survey took into account 76 indicators of personal, civil, and economic freedoms.
While back home scholars do agree with Professor Jaffarlot that democracy in India is compromised, but feel that to say that India is in the process of being converted to an ethnic democracy is misreading ethnicity and religion together. “Relating religion to ethnicity is not the right approach,” said Professor Sanjay Kumar of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies.
He also added that there is no doubt that appeasing the Hindu has become the central component for winning any political battle and so every political party is to moving in that direction.
Ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s electoral success has been on religious consolidation rather than on caste. So much so that the suppressed class that had for long disassociated itself with the upper caste Hindu has now started voting for the BJP.
“It is not that the BJP has tried to empower or mobilize this class, but it has managed to convince Dalits that their real threat comes from the Muslim minority,” explains Kumar.
Ajay Gudavarthy, Associate Professor at Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University said that it is BJP’s ideological mentor, RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) that has been doing the groundwork and building this narrative.
It is not that the BJP has tried to empower or mobilize this class, but it has managed to convince Dalits that their real threat comes from the Muslim minority
“RSS that has its cadre deeply rooted has convinced Dalits that their Hindu identity will give them an inclusive status with the Hindu majority. Their appeal to Dalits is that the real enemy is not Hindu but Muslim,” he adds.
Gudavarthy further explains that it is the lack of historical sense and absence of intellectual bandwidth of the BJP that has brought the nation to this point. “RSS in its true spirit believes in the supremacy of an old Brahaminacal order. For the rest of the masses, it has set rules; for women, non-Brahmin Hindus, minorities and Dalits. It works like a neoliberal society where there are rules for everyone and security for a few,” he adds.
In the evolving Indian society of which the young aspiring middle class form a major chunk, it is very surprising that this class is sitting on the fence and watching the drastically changing socio-political dynamics. For them, Hindutva is the ray of hope.
Historically, Indian democracy has succeeded in accommodating everyone interest, but it has failed to address the issues of poverty, growth and development. “The elite had felt the lack of cooperation from the state and lost hope in the Constitution. The others too feel betrayed. And this was the window for the right-wing, which promised economic growth, jobs and development,” explains Gudavarthy.
But he believes that in the past few years, Hindutva hopes have begun to fade. Farmers protesting at the borders of Delhi against farm laws, the complete absence of government from the scene while India battled the second wave of Covid a few months ago, inflation and poor economic performance has started to build dissent against the government, which was being looked upon as absolute and indispensable.
“It is certainly not the end of the road for Indian democracy. The shallow politics can work, but only for some time and then there is change ahead,” he adds.
Even Parsa Venkateshwar Rao, a political thinker and a veteran journalist pins his hope on the Indian democratic values and its articulate middle class. “To believe that a huge and diverse nation like India can be held together under one political or ideological umbrella is in itself a wrong approach of looking at it.”
He believes that it is a matter of time when this middle class will feel the pain of the government policies and make use of their electoral power. “If a political party thinks that it can enjoy absolute political supremacy in India forever it is wrong. Even the Congress party that led the freedom movement for nearly six decades, was replaced after 20 years of being in power from 1947.”
Wish Parsa’s words prove to be a prophecy and India returns to its democratic values and inclusive system rather than continuing with the majoritarian rule, which poses a threat to the whole region.