Dr Bhabani Shankar Nayak
LONDON: The well-crafted shallow slogans of ‘Shining India’, ‘Achhe Din (good days)’ and ‘Sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas (solidarity with everyone, development for all)’ are designed to hide failures of BJP governments and camouflage the hate filled fascist ideology of RSS. These slogans also summarise the deceptive narratives of development theology. Mr Narendra Modi; the Prime Minister of India duped everyone with his propaganda of development theology.
Mr Narendra Modi; the Prime Minister of India behaves like an event manager whose entire motto is to increase the sale of RSS’s falsehood in every aspect of life. The relationship between Hindutva politics, its dubious propaganda of development and false narratives on Indian nationalism are attempts to reconcile its history of betrayal during anticolonial struggles and postcolonial nation making in India. The art of dishonesty and spreading falsehood are twin projects inseparable from the history of Hindutva politics and its growth.
Hindutva politics evolved during mid nineteenth century to consolidate upper caste Hindus to transform India into a Hindu Rashtra with the help of British colonisers. The Hindu Mahasabha; the ideological forefathers of Hindutva politics in India collaborated with British and did not participated in Indian freedom struggle
. These forces were promoters of two nations theory well in advance of the Muslim League. The Hindu Mahasabha and Muslim League were ideological twins; both believed in the concept of parochial ethnic and religious nationhood borrowed from Western Europe. The divisive Hindutva politics is responsible for the partition of India. These original anti-nationals are trying to distribute certificates of nationalism and patriotism by destroying the idea of citizenship and secularism in India today.
The Hindutva politics and its populist cultural playbook is not well equipped to handle the economic, social and development crisis faced by India and Indians today. The policy response demands the spirit of scientific inquiry, peace, solidarity and cooperation. Hindutva forces and their love affair with neoliberal capitalist development theology is antithetical to everything that people need during a crisis.
Hindutva forces manufacture and exuberate the crisis to sustain in power by spreading false economic, cultural and nationalistic narratives like a snake oil vendor. The development theology of Hindutva politics helps in the consolidation of capital and helps capitalism to integrate within its reactionary and right wing social, cultural, religious and political practices in India.
The Hindutva forces opposed to everything that is foreign. They talked about nationalist economic politics during their early days but in reality, their ideology itself is western European in letter and spirit. It is opposed to Indian ethos of universal brotherhood and inclusive humanism.
The arrange cum love marriage and reconciliation between Hindutva and capitalist forces in India reflects the inherent reactionary nature of capitalism as a system. ‘Hate, abandonment of science and reason, unity of Brahmanical forces, unquestionable authority, false propaganda’ are five principles which animate all varieties and various incarnations of Hindutva politics of faith and its relationship with capitalism.
The development theology of Hindutva politics is fascist and resilient during crisis. The genocide of Muslims in Gujarat 2002 to Delhi 2020, demonetisation and GST infused economic crisis reveals that Hindutva forces are resilient. The Hindutva political resilience is a product of ritualization of the idea of individual sacrifice for the Indian nation. The Indian media follows this norm and promotes false narrative of positivity as outlined by Hindutva playbook. Such propaganda creates unwavering faith in the ruling regime and a citizenry with herd mindset. These twin outputs soothed by false assurances and great acting by Hindutva playboy in politics; Mr Narendra Modi and his capitalist cronies.
The continuity of such a reactionary alliance between Hindutva politics and development theology of capitalism depends on political practice of resistance movements in every layers of Indian society. The resistance and opposition to Hindutva theology of development need to move beyond ritualistic habituations of fragile electoral democracy.
These are the days of street fights with fascist Hindutva forces in India. These street fights need to shape its sustainable and alternative ideological narratives that is acceptable to the masses. The ideological narrative need to move away from narrow silo of Hindutva politics and advocate for a society based on peace, humanism, science, secularism, reason, prosperity, respect and solidarity. These principles are non-negotiable in the political and social practice of alternative politics. The defeat of Hindutva politics and development theology is the necessity of our times and inevitable.
(The Writer, Dr Bhabani Shankar Nayak, is a Senior Lecture in Business Strategy, Coventry University,London,UK, and can be reach at (bhabani79@icloud.com, +447776433366, Views expressed are personal).
