{"id":68540,"date":"2021-11-12T12:50:53","date_gmt":"2021-11-12T01:50:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=68540"},"modified":"2021-11-12T14:52:21","modified_gmt":"2021-11-12T03:52:21","slug":"the-thin-veneer-of-indias-constitutional-secularism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-thin-veneer-of-indias-constitutional-secularism\/","title":{"rendered":"The thin veneer of India\u2019s constitutional secularism"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

After India\u2019s recent defeat by Pakistan at the T20 World Cup cricket tournament, Indian bowler Mohammed Shami confronted vicious trolling<\/a> on social media. It was the latest display of the Islamophobic bigotry that has consumed Indian society under the rule of Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).<\/p>\n

Shami had performed poorly in the match. But so had 10 other Indian players in the rout by Pakistan. Shami was singled out because he is Muslim. His failure was viewed not merely as a sporting issue, but as a failure to do his best against an opposing team composed of his co-religionists.<\/p>\n

Unpleasant as it was, the Shami episode pales in comparison to other recent incidents of Islamophobia in India. In Darrang district, in the northeastern state of Assam, the state\u2019s BJP government launched an eviction drive against Muslims whom it decided were \u2018illegal settlers\u2019 on public land. During a protest against the evictions<\/a>, police shot and beat a villager, and a photographer officially documenting the demolition drive brutally stomped him, in full view of cameras, even after his body appeared lifeless.<\/p>\n

Video footage of the murderous assault went viral on social media, prompting much hand-wringing among those sections of the Indian public not yet inured to stories of violent hate crimes against its Muslim minority, which have proliferated under BJP rule. In recent years, a spate of inflammatory anti-Muslim rallies have sometimes erupted in violence. In February 2020, riots<\/a> consumed parts of the capital, New Delhi, leaving more than 53 dead. Most of the victims were Muslim.<\/p>\n

There has also been a dramatic increase in lynchings of Muslims<\/a>, especially for the \u2018offence\u2019 of transporting or consuming beef (the cow is considered holy in Hinduism). Most states have enacted laws prohibiting the slaughter of cows, and both police and self-appointed mobs are enforcing them with greater zeal than judgement. Cow \u2018vigilantes\u2019 have been known to beat Muslims, forcing them to chant Hindu religious slogans<\/a>. Such hate crimes are committed with impunity.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, police have charged Muslim students under draconian terrorism and sedition laws for the frivolous \u2018crime\u2019 of cheering for Pakistani cricketers<\/a>. Four Muslims were arrested<\/a> in the city of Indore for attending a popular annual college dance celebration that was abruptly classified as restricted to \u2018Hindus only\u2019. A Muslim journalist, Siddique Kappan, has been jailed for more than a year<\/a> on charges of sedition, terrorism and incitement, when all he did was his job.<\/p>\n

As disturbing as these trends are, they should not be surprising, given that senior political figures express their bigotry openly. Modi once declared that anti-government protesters could be identified by their clothes<\/a>\u2014that is, traditional Muslim attire. And prior to the 2019 general election, BJP president Amit Shah called<\/a> Bangladeshi Muslim immigrants \u2018termites\u2019 and pledged that a BJP government would \u2018pick up infiltrators one by one and throw them into the Bay of Bengal\u2019. Islamophobic sentiment is stoked further via social media, often in BJP-curated WhatsApp groups, where the sins\u2014both real and imagined\u2014of past Muslim invaders and rulers are blamed on the entire community.<\/p>\n

Whereas previous governments sought to temper communal passions, promote harmony and provide official support (including tax incentives) for efforts to promote India\u2019s pluralism and diversity, the BJP unapologetically embraces an intolerant majoritarian \u2018Hindutva\u2019 ideology. Those close to the ruling establishment routinely excoriate the Muslim minority\u2014and previous governments\u2019 alleged appeasement of it\u2014as a threat to India\u2019s Hindu identity.<\/p>\n

Under BJP rule, campaigns have been launched against interfaith romance (with Muslim men being accused of waging \u2018love jihad<\/a>\u2019 to entrap Hindu women), religious conversion<\/a> (despite it being permitted by India\u2019s constitution) and Muslim practices of marriage, divorce and alimony (which are viewed as incompatible<\/a> with women\u2019s rights). A popular clothing firm was browbeaten<\/a> into withdrawing an advertising campaign deemed by zealots to be inserting Muslim elements into the Hindu festival of Diwali. A Muslim religious gathering was deemed a Covid-19 super-spreader event<\/a>, even as the far larger Hindu Kumbh Mela festival was allowed\u2014even encouraged\u2014to proceed.<\/p>\n

The BJP government also enacted a law offering fast-track citizenship<\/a> to refugees from neighbouring Muslim-majority countries\u2014provided they were not Muslim. And family-planning campaigns<\/a> have been portrayed as efforts to preserve India\u2019s \u2018demographic balance\u2019\u2014India is 80% Hindu\u2014in the face of higher Muslim fertility.<\/p>\n

What dismays liberals like me is how thin the veneer of India\u2019s constitutional secularism has turned out to be. In just seven years of BJP rule, the cultural pluralism and Hindu\u2013Muslim amity that India has touted for decades have been annihilated.<\/p>\n

There was a time when government officials would point proudly to Muslims in prominent positions as evidence of India\u2019s ability to overcome the bitter legacy of partition with Pakistan. Today, Muslims are dramatically underrepresented in the police forces and elite central administrative services, and they are overrepresented in the prisons. Sentiments that would have been deemed impolite to express a generation ago are declaimed from political platforms. The police often enable, rather than stop, the torment of Muslims.<\/p>\n

Islamophobia now seems to have colonised a significant segment of north Indian society, though the south has yet to succumb. India\u2019s much-vaunted free press<\/a> has been complicit\u2014and even an active participant\u2014in the erasure of its longstanding syncretic cultural traditions.<\/p>\n

Under BJP rule, the segregation and disempowerment of Muslims\u2014the division of Indian society into \u2018us\u2019 and \u2018them\u2019\u2014is being gradually normalised, and Indians are becoming desensitised to the routine expression and practice of anti-Muslim bigotry. A Muslim who points this out will be told to \u2018go to Pakistan\u2019. Hindus like me are derided as \u2018anti-national\u2019.<\/p>\n

I have been called that myself. In 2015, speaking in parliament, I repeated<\/a> a friend\u2019s observation: in BJP-ruled India, it is safer to be a cow than a Muslim. Sadly, that rings even truer today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After India\u2019s recent defeat by Pakistan at the T20 World Cup cricket tournament, Indian bowler Mohammed Shami confronted vicious trolling on social media. It was the latest display of the Islamophobic bigotry that has consumed …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1170,"featured_media":68546,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2942,69,420,1055,1371],"class_list":["post-68540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-hinduism","tag-india","tag-islam","tag-narendra-modi","tag-religion"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe thin veneer of India\u2019s constitutional secularism | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-thin-veneer-of-indias-constitutional-secularism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The thin veneer of India\u2019s constitutional secularism | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After India\u2019s recent defeat by Pakistan at the T20 World Cup cricket tournament, Indian bowler Mohammed Shami confronted vicious trolling on social media. 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