Reclaiming resistance and reinventing hope: the message from India to the world

Prologue: February 2024

In early February this year I visited the heartland of Hindutva: I was in Agra, the city of the still standing, still the most perfect piece of architecture and artisanal skill, the Taj Mahal. I was there in the aftermath of a temple being consecrated on the land where an old mosque, the Babri masjid,  had stood in the same state of Uttar Pradesh where Agra is located. The consecration of the temple in January this year had not much to do with spirituality. In fact religion has very little to do with worship on the Indian subcontinent, it is always about power and politics. It was a quasi-state event in that the prime minister of a secular country inaugurated/ consecrated the temple marking a decided shift in the meaning of secularism which in the last decade has been eroded any way. It was a crescendo moment without any hiccups for the Hindu nationalist party that has been ruling India for the last decade. India’s national election was due in a few months.

 

Special triangular saffron flags with the figure of the temple deity printed on it, issued for the consecration of the temple, fluttered on each building in Agra and on the ubiquitous auto-rickshaws the only mode of transport for outsiders. Next to it were flags of the ruling party. This aggressive show of majoritarianism and Hindu nationalism was enough to strike terror in our hearts although as visitors we could flee. What was it like for the members of the Muslim community of Agra (fifteen per cent of the population) who are most likely to be at the receiving end of an ebullient election campaign as India prepared to go to the polls later in the year. In the world of symbols Hindu nationalism has clearly taken a lead as it has in the in the narrative spun around the myth of a singular, stable identity, the Hindu, and by default, male.

 

Resistance and hope at the margins

It was against this backdrop that we, colleagues of the Centre for Health and Social Justice (CHSJ), were holding a final research workshop to discuss the learnings from an action research project on backlash to gender equality. This was a multi-country study supported by the Institute of Development studies in Sussex and from its inception three years ago we decided to interpret the term backlash in the context of the complexities that is India. As we researched it became clearer that gender backlash in India is enmeshed in the present context of populist politics which draws on the ideology of Hindutva aimed at establishing and promoting political Hinduism while fomenting right-wing ethnonationalism. It entails normalisation of all kinds of violence, especially against minorities and subaltern groups, legitimised using a gendered language. Mass resentments over the loss of livelihoods, youth unemployment and growing precarity brought on by decades of neoliberal policies has been successfully woven into emotive narratives of Hindutva and a promise of restoring the supremacy of Hindu males. The impact of this onslaught is changing masculinities everywhere, reinforcing men’s adherence and linkage to identity-based communities. This is leading to deep conflicts between men from different communities and castes, enacted on the battleground of gender.  

 

The two partners were from different backgrounds: Humqadam a collective of social activists living and working in UP and who were part of a previous network of male social activists working on gender equality which under pressure of the hostile political climate of Hindutva had become inactive, and, Kolkata Rista (KR) based in the city of Kolkata a CBO of working-class transgender people organising services for their community, who were also active in the all-India campaign for a law recognising the transgender community. We have met twice before as a group and this was to be the third and probably the final workshop. Unfortunately the KR team could not come and so this account of hope at the margins is an account of the activism of Humqadam. 

 

The first six months were spent by this collective to discuss their fears and to renew belief in their own role as social activists and in the power of social solidarity. The urgent task for them was to help restore frayed relationships between communities and other subaltern groups. Although these social activists were always secular in their orientation this time round they had to contend with Hindu nationalism and its use of imagery and language that cast Muslims as intruders as betrayers of the country. Humqadam took the decision to highlight and promote those practices of these communities that had fallen into disuse over decades and especially in the decade of the Hindu nationalist regime in power. 

 

Over a period of two years the activists who all live and work in the rural Uttar Pradesh have been keeping alive what is termed Sajhi Virasat or shared heritage, shared between different religious communities. Shrines, places of worship and similar sites are not just memories of a syncretism in worship in the UP in the past but living practice where the contemporary divisions between religious communities breakdown and enter a zone of ambiguity. The activists visited these shrines and documented the living practice. On the ground in communities that they live in their activism had to contend with the increasingly hostile environment where fraternising with your neighbour even on an everyday basis was becoming a crime. Their practice had always been to assist the underprivileged – social and economic and sometimes combined – to fight for their rights but this seemed impossible to do in a situation in which state officials who should have been defending rights were clearly violating the rights of minority communities and declaring them as non-citizens. Open confrontation or even a mild challenge on behalf of minority communities was more likely to lead to violence against the vulnerable as the stormtroopers of Hindutva waited in the wings ready to spring into action and state officials cooperated. The only course of action open to them was to operate in a low-key manner and keep actions limited to community events that would not provoke repression but nevertheless serve to renew relationships on the ground between communities. 

 

One of the key principles of the Indian constitution is fraternity which is not exceptional since it is in many constitutions including the French. But for social activists operating in a divisive political environment it became the key principle. Holding meetings on the constitution or discussing the constitution and that too the principle of fraternity could not be openly opposed by the administration. In fact bureaucrats of the local administration and even the police officers were invited by Humqadam activists to speak on it at gatherings and to put up posters of the founding principles in their offices. 

 

The practice of fraternity actualised at the ground level included shared celebrations of major Hindu and Muslim festivals, celebration of key national events together  including Ambedkar birth anniversary which earlier was celebrated mainly by Dalit and backward class communities. As recently as January 26 this year (which is Republic Day) which was overshadowed in UP by the drama of the Ram temple consecration, Humqadam activists took out huge processions of children, young people, and adults with the children dressed as national figures who led India to independence in 1947. They held aloft the Indian flag in a political climate when not flying the saffron triangular flag was being interpreted as an affront. Similar images and symbols throughout cheekily contested the dominant messages of India as Hindu; India as homogeneous and Indians as subservient to their religion that had consolidated the power of Hindutva. That people of all kinds came together in these celebrations and actively contributed seemed to indicate that despite repression, intimidation and despite the ubiquity of the singular narrative there was another India that had not dissolved in the cesspool of Hindutva.

 

And yet when I started telling this story to my friends in Kolkata, Delhi and other metropolises who are interested in politics but only in the politics at the macro world of aggregate numbers and elections, they dismissed it and only talked about UP as a lost cause although a hefty loss since their share of parliamentary seats is the largest of all the states in India. They cited the numbers from the last parliamentary and state assembly elections from UP when saffron was the major colour dominating the countryside and the Hindu nationalist party was triumphant. The stories from the ground did not interest them since they were not representative (as if numbers are) but I did not give up hope that something was going to happen because I had seen glimpses of another India which had not succumbed entirely to the Hindutva narrative and the penetration of the Hindu mass organisations like the RSS and the VHP was far from being complete. We were still being protected by decades of a democratic culture, a secular culture, an anti-authoritarian culture. 

 

And so it was as we found out on 4^th June 2024.

 

India’s tryst with destiny: 4^th June 2024

The sub titling of this section will sound pompous because it is taken from the speech Nehru gave on August 14, 1947, on the eve of Indian independence. But since this is not an academic or journalistic piece but a subjective retelling of how I experienced the 4^th of June, the day the results were announced, I am not going to apologise or be censored.

 

But to recount how I experienced it I have to say something about the build-up. First was the collective anxiety among my friends of a future with yet another five years of the present ruling party and its despicable politics. Civil rights activists were languishing in jail; anybody daring to speak out marked for harassment and intimidation by the willing police and intelligence bureaus; a cowered press which had surrendered entirely; television journalism that was unwatchable because of the sycophancy and lies; and the sins committed by the regime against poor people over ten years but sold to us as ‘success’. As two friends of mine said helplessly – what are we going to do if this regime comes back, we have only this country. Second was my personal anxiety as I was in Europe and completely isolated. Speaking to friends on the phone and sending each other WhatsApp messages seemed not enough. I was constantly searching for hope, hope that this time it would be different or something would crack. Only one friend predicted that even if the ruling party comes back it would not be easy for them.

 

And then sometime in early May as the elections were in full swing at the height of the hottest summer in living memory, investigative reports from newspapers and alternative media appeared on our screens. I would spend hours every day scouring the internet and looking for clues that would indicate that it was not going to be an easy ride for the Hindutva party. Soon others started sending articles and speaking of incidents which indicated that not all was well in Ram Rajyaa, especially not in the heartland of Hindutva. There were rumours circulating that ruling party representatives at ground level were telling people to vote for the opposition in north India where their party was the strongest. It seems that the ruling party’s call for 400 seats in a Parliament of 543 seats in total so that they could change the constitution had set alarm bells ringing among many – whispers of tanashahi (dictatorship) were about. And then there was the spectacle of a desperate leader getting shriller and shriller in his speeches and more and more ferociously anti Muslim violating the code of conduct for elections without any warning or being called to question by the tame electoral commission.

 

Among the many scams that accompanied this election and was actively propagated by the ‘godi’ media meaning government media or media subservient to of those in power, were the exit polls on June 1^st which screamed (there is no other way of putting it) a landslide for the ruling party. Even BBC World reported it in their news to my great chagrin. But many of us felt something was definitely off. The glimmers of hope I had seen in the Humqadam experience and the many critical articles I was reading could not be entirely wrong. So I resorted to a broadcast by Raveesh Kumar the one-man institution who runs an independent television show on politics and society and who left a major television network where he was a star because it got taken over by the top industrialist of India. He cut through the gibberish of the news reports which made me decide better to stay away from news till 4^th June.

 

And then there was the morning of 4^th June. I had written to friends to not send me results till the evening (in India)  but the excitement on the other end spilt over. The first report was from a friend monitoring the results from Lucknow the capital of UP state and the results showed that the opposition party was winning and the ruling party losing. Her comment was it was early in the counting but she wated to send us the result because of course it was such sweet news. And it was sweet throughout the counting with some remarkable figures coming out of UP: the ruling party lost in the area where they had in January with such fanfare inaugurated the Ram mandir (temple); they lost the constituency which was their trophy constituency because it had been the seat of the Gandhi family for many elections; the leader of the opposition won his seat by a margin of over 400000 votes whereas the then and now prime minister’s win was reduced to half of what it was in the previous election. There are many more sweet moments but these stick in my mind. During the rest of the day a friend kept us posted throughout the roller coaster ride that marked the day. 

 

At the end of the day although it was apparent that the ruling party of the Prime minister had won the most seats it was also clear that they had taken a heavy beating; his party did not even have a simple majority. They were far from the tally they had clocked up in the 2019 elections and far, far away from their call for 400 seats. Entirely reliant on two regional parties who have their own ambitions the great old-new PM will be kept in check; Parliament will finally operate as a democratic forum given that the opposition enough seats to demand space and exert voice. The great Indian public had won the day. The opposition was a clear winner even though it does not get to govern for now.

 

Debunking the unitary narrative

The question as to why and how this huge turnaround happened is being debated in the many talk shows and articles of the Indian press. Certainly the other parties coming together as a viable alternative for the Indian voter helped a great deal. Its only now everybody seems to have woken up to the fact that real people vote and they voted against ‘the pretending to be the emissary of god on earth’, Mr. Modi. It was the ‘aam Janata’ (ordinary folk) in rural areas and small towns who made the difference and not the middle class  Delhites still in the grip of the great leader. The change came but not everywhere, and not by all sections of the society but certainly from those quarters and regions where it hurt most, especially in the Hindutva belt of north India. I am not going to speculate as to why the turnaround because just one or two reasons cannot speak for 968 million eligible voters from the myriad class and caste configurations and 18 states with strong regional parties competing for political space. Yes, it has to be acknowledged that in many places the demand for economic justice finally prevailed over the temple-religion-nationalism rhetoric of Modi’s party. But this election was not only about bread-and-butter issues but also about defending the constitution, about showing displeasure of dictatorial tendencies, about the disapproval for the politics of might, about discontentment that dissent was stifled; about fraternity and protecting one’s neighbour; about rejection of a singular narrative and the right to resist domination. We feminists know that it is not enough to only demand bread; alongside bread we want roses too. 

 

For Indian septuagenarians of a certain political persuasion like me this election was our Emergency moment. Indira Gandhi the then Prime Minister of India in 1977 had declared an internal state of emergency abrogating Parliament and locking up opposition leaders. As she lifted this emergency and declared elections her party lost for the first time since Indian independence and she lost her seat too. On the 4^th of June the younger generation got to witness a similar moment and hopefully it renewed their faith in the power of the people. I was told to not romanticise the elections to which my reply is let us gloat for now because tomorrow will be called back to the barricades to resist the politics of might. Resistance is our right!

 

Epilogue

As we look out in the world the political landscape looks bleak. In Europe the Netherlands is about to inaugurate a far-right government for the first time; the European elections showed the ascendancy of the far right everywhere and in France the President has called snap elections because the far right actually won! In Germany the far-right party the AFD (Alternative for Deutschland), is now second in the opinion polls to the centre right party of the former Chancellor Angela Merkel. In the US the electorate has a difficult choice in the Presidential elections this year. Either they have to choose the Democratic candidate Biden who has single-handedly overseen the genocide in Gaza by his support for the Israeli government or they have to vote for Trump.  In the meantime Gaza and its people remain the cause of our present and continuing sorrow; it’s the graveyard where the Human Rights charter lies buried; its where our hopes have ground to a halt. 

 

If I had to choose one message from India to those countries where democracy matters, and are in the grip of the far right undemocratic and in part fascistic politics whether in the US, Israel or Germany,  it is that each voter has the right to resist, resist the powerful; and empathy and social solidarity are key to this resistance.

 

 

End Notes (for my readers who are not from India and may not be aware of the political significance of some terms)

i.         Hindutva is a political ideology encompassing the cultural justification of Hindu nationalism and the belief in establishing Hindu hegemony within India. Hindutva has been the main ideological plank of the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party), the party of the prime minister Narendra Modi.

ii.        Ram Rajya is a term used to refer to the legendary kingdom of Ram (the demi-god) where supposedly peace, prosperity and good governance prevailed. The term is used in this blog to mock the claims of Modi that by consecrating the temple he had brought Ram Rajya to the region. The BJP lost badly in every single constituency in and around Ajodhya, the seat of the temple.