Modi: Sultan of Hindustan

Book Review

Title: Modi’s India: Hindu Nationalism and the Rise of Ethnic Democracy

Author: Christophe Jaffrelot

Narendra Modi has already achieved his goal of making India a Hindu Rashtra. In practice, India today is a country where all non-Hindus face the threat of being sent to prison for as little a ‘crime’ as frowning at the Prime Minister or his party or their holy cows. Soon India will have a new Constitution too and the transformation will be complete. The irony of it all is that Modi started with the slogan that the Hindus are in danger [Hindu khatre mein hai]. Today all non-Hindus in India stand stripped of all rights as citizens.

Christophe Jaffrelot’s book takes a deep look at this Hindu Rashtra that Modi has moulded. Jaffrelot argues that Modi has converted his country into an ethnic democracy where the ethnic majority coincides with the electoral majority, thereby relegating the minorities to the margins. The strategy employed by Modi for achieving this objective in such a short period is quite simple: create an Other, project that Other as the nation’s enemy and himself as the nation’s Saviour. Thus the non-Hindus, particularly the Muslims in India as well as Pakistan, became the nation’s enemies and Modi metamorphosed into Hindu Hriday Samrat. An enormous amount of money was spent on propaganda too in the process.

Modi’s India is a Hindu India. The nation = the majority community. The minorities are deprived of all rights, justice, jobs, etc. Jaffrelot’s book cites ample examples for this. The book shows how Muslims have been wiped out of all significant places in the country like the law enforcement agencies and armed forces. Their representation in the Parliament and state assemblies also is minimal now. They are even deprived of their food.  

Modi knows how to win every election by making use of strife as the only motivating factor for voting his party. He has made non-Hindus enemies of the nation and hence it becomes the patriotic duty of every Hindu to vote for the BJP which is the only Hindu-loving party. Save Hindus and Hinduism by electing Modi and his party. The added advantage of this strategy was that Modi could bring the low caste Hindus into the Sangh Parivar fold.

The BJP was originally an upper caste party. In his first term as Prime Minister, Modi was more interested in the upper caste Hindus, argues Jaffrelot. He helped the upper castes to recover their dominant position from the OBCs and Dalits who were given much importance by Congress as well as regional parties earlier. But Modi made sure that the backward classes were not ignored. They were given Mann ki Baat and some alms like the PM Kisan Yojana. Most of the schemes meant to help the poor like cooking gas connections and toilet constructions ended in smoke when the price of the cylinder rose beyond people’s reach and the toilets had no water supply.

Inequality has reached its peak under Modi’s wing. Modi loves the rich and only the rich. Particularly the Hindu rich though he is eager to hug the non-Hindu leaders of other countries just to show off his international connections. Jaffrelot’s contention is that Modi works on “the ideological assumption that instead of assisting the poor and creating a culture of dependence, the middle class, the rich, and business interests should be liberated from state constraints. This supply-side policy found expression in the decline of direct taxes and the rise of indirect taxation. Correlatively, the superrich amassed an increasingly large share of the national wealth…. [Modi’s] relationship with some of India’s big businesses constituted a prime example of crony capitalism, which his close contacts were the first to benefit from. This connection enabled the BJP to raise funds for his election campaigns.”

It doesn’t mean that Modi neglected the poor altogether. He co-opted them as the much-needed lumpen elements for doing the dirty job of attacking the nation’s perceived enemies on the streets. Organisations like the Bajrang Dal acquired much power and wreaked much havoc on the minorities. Jaffrelot enumerates the attacks that Muslim and Christian institutions suffered all over the country from the time Modi assumed power in 2014.

The minorities are not the only casualties, however. More tragically, perhaps, have the institutions like the judiciary, the Election Commission, Central Information Commission, CBI, NIA, CVC, etc been perverted by Modi. And the media. And the Opposition too. Modi made opposition MLAs and MPs sheer commodities meant for sale and purchase. Democracy is sheer mockery in Modi’s India.

Jaffrelot concludes that Modi is now the Sultan of Hindustan. His is a personal rulership, like the erstwhile sultans’, based on a mixture of fear and rewards. He rewards those who uphold his sultanate. He demolishes all others one way or the other.

Addendum: This is the best book I read this year. It is scholarly in approach though my review may make you feel otherwise.

PS.  This post is a part of Blogchatter Blog Hop.