What is an Idea of India? Ask a liberal, this will be a democratic republic where secularism trumps, multiple cultures, and identities coexist in harmony and dignity and embodied in the Constitution. Ask a conservative Hindu, this will be the victory of Sanatan Dharma and Akhanda Bharat.
Indian State was founded on values of equality, redistribution, fairness, and social welfare in 1947. India inherited a liberal Constitution structured over the colonial institutional and legal structures that weren’t exactly suited for liberal democracy. Also, the constitution was imposed upon a society that was feudal in the customs and entrenched prejudices relating to caste, religion, and social hierarchies. The irreducible character of violence in Indian society is best depicted in the idea of the caste system and religious purity. The spiritual legitimization of something as discriminatory as caste is at the very heart of the structural violence that ails us as a society.
There were legacies of western colonialism and barbaric caste system & religious hate competing to occupy the headspace of the individuals and institutional structures. Indian State was slow in dismantling the colonial hangover but was instrumental in gradually grafting a layer of society aligned to the constitution. India emerged as a leader among the newly liberated nations through a “nonaligned movement” that resisted the pressure to be drawn into the Cold War & became the pawn of the colonial powers.
A small section of liberals grew not because of the competence but due to political patronage. They don’t have to choose between higher moral standards (Secularism, unity in diversity, Inclusiveness, etc.) and quality of life. The era of 1950 - 90s was the era of dominance of the upper caste in the social domain and the corridors of power. Hence, Hence, the 'Idea of India' worked as a pretty screensaver, composed with isolated stories of secular and egalitarian leaders/reformers, to systematically conceal accounts of historical enslavement of the marginalized by the mainstream.
India was changing slowly from the mindset of self-loathing to new age confidence. The liberalization in the 1990s led to the creation of a large middle class that didn’t depend on the constitutional morality of the state for its livelihood. This freed the Hindu middle class from the secular incentives of the Indian state. The era of Saffronization started with the rise of market forces, mandal commission, and Babri Masjid demolition.
The right-wing majoritarian groups started the war on secularism on multiple fronts by depicting themselves as historical victims from Muslims, Communists, and Christians. The narrative of the religious identity became much more binding now to counter caste issues and integrated a large section of Right-wing Hindus. Robert Paxton defines fascism as "the belief that one's group is a victim, a sentiment that justifies any action, without legal or moral limits, against its enemies, both internal and external". Hindu right group was perpetuating the myth of perpetual victimhood to the believers.
Journey of Decolonization
Decolonizing minds is the process of dismantling the legacies of colonialism and attempting to undermine them in institutional structures of higher learning. The focus in an academic circle is more on history, social sciences, and literature. Decolonization of the colonial legacy is much more complex than it appears for a nation and its citizen.
CLR James, Tagore, and Fanon have written about colonialism, race, and identity long before anyone. Progressive Writers' Movement in British India was anti-imperialistic and left-oriented and sought to inspire people through their writings advocating equality and attacking social injustices in society. There was a huge shadow of the left-leaning individuals in creating spaces for decolonization in academia even in the 1950-90s era. There was an attempt made in the field of humanities, as a form of intellectual resistance against the hegemony of the colonial empires.
Today, there is a huge uproar on the decolonization of Indian academia, especially history to discover new heroes of the past. The colonial ideals are pushed out to recognize indigenous leaders. The right-wing didn’t come up with diverse views but started peddling rehashed literature of the mythical Hindu past showcasing the golden age of India. Right-wing is spreading its agenda with a label of decolonization of Hindu minds and to create the prototype of a flawed utopia. Instead of purging savarna literature and breaking away from the past, the Indian literature ecosystem is promoting a historically unjust system. Hindu society is showcasing the narcissism of victimhood – that supplies a convenient exit on the difficult questions and looking for scapegoats to blame its own failure. The mythical idea of vishwaguru probably plays well with the core Hindu populace even India is a net importer of knowledge from the west.
Hindu supremacism in our society began with the intellectual triumph of the conservatives and a similar loss of credibility of liberals. Liberals are now threatened by people's power that appears to be taking effect due to technological thrust into society. They are unable to democratize space for the masses, to engage with them culturally. They are unwilling to engage with the wider public because the right-wing individual doesn't deserve to be spoken with and the elite can speak in English only. The risk of decolonizing minds is an immensely difficult and bleak future that lies ahead for Indians. How to promote the quest for social justice and decolonization in such a post-truth era?
The Road Ahead:
The experiences within the colonial education system especially English have enabled the oppressed. The liberal education to the oppressed has turned them into challengers of colonialism and gave them the tools to oppose the feudal suppression and avoid any colonial hangover. Blue, Red, and Black (Bahujan, Left, and Dravidian groups) are three symbolic colors of the political resistance to overcome the huge unfurling of saffron over the social landscape. They are now creating social spaces to fight the new hegemony of the saffron. The women, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Denotified Nomadic Tribes and all Pasmanda religious minorities must express themselves with a range of genres as novels, autobiographies, pamphlets, poetry, and short stories.
Ashis Nandy pointed out many years ago, the triumph of secularism in India is more about the ability to live with contradiction, ambiguity, and messy accommodation than the triumph of first principles. The elite liberals must take the moral discourse centered on diversity, secularism, pluralism, and communal peace, to the more basic ideas of freedom, equality, individual dignity.
Crony Capitalism, phantom democracy, and unapologetic Hindu nationalism are here to stay. The public mood will be manipulated with consumerism, media, domestic security, and disdain for intellectuals. But all Nations went through such struggles and to think of radical reforms without the presence of a violent right-wing is impossible in history.
