At the same time, the bloodshed has largely been confined to Gujarat for a reason–one that holds out hope for religious amity in the rest of the country. Violence and bigotry have been spreading throughout the state for the past three decades. For the most part, this can be traced to the steady decline of the once mighty Congress party and its allied organizations, and their replacement by Hindu nationalist groups. In some important ways, this represents a local phenomenon.
In the first half of the 20th century, influenced by Gandhian ideology, Congress routinely participated in social reconstruction, which entailed civic activity such as grass-roots work for Hindu-Muslim unity, “Buy Indian” campaigns, nationalist education and the uplift of women, tribals, peasants and “untouchables.” As Congress grew more powerful politically, that civic role declined. The more governments the party ran, the more it attracted people interested in sharing the spoils of power, not cadres committed to ideology and grass-roots work. The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and its allied organizations stepped into the void. Unlike Congress, they have the aim of promoting Hindu solidarity across the various castes, not Hindu-Muslim unity; their right wing is virulently anti-Muslim. They now run ideological camps for youth, schools and dispensaries for tribals and lower castes, and organizations for women. Through this extensive network, the Hindu nationalists have penetrated Gujarat more than any other state.
The fact that Gujarat is, economically, the fastest-growing state in India while the Gujarati diaspora in the United States, Britain and Africa is fabulously wealthy has only exacerbated this process. A lot of the new Gujarati wealth, at home and abroad, has gone to Hindu-nationalist organizations. In fact, the upper middle classes have formed the base of the BJP’s support. Wealth has in this case not led to political moderation.
In character, too, the latest riots are very specific. The violence was not simply aimed at Muslims; it also represented a challenge from the far right wing to the moderate right of Hindu nationalism. Extremists in the Vishwa Hindu Parishad no longer seem to mind if their actions lead to the collapse of the moderate, BJP-led coalition in New Delhi. The resurgence of militancy is, in part, a response to their marginalization over the past decade: as the BJP has wrestled with the exigencies of governing, party leaders have had to distance themselves from their more doctrinaire supporters. Increasingly, a hard line on Pakistan is the only major policy position that the two groups share.
What the riots actually indicate is the political weakness of this far right wing. Since independence, no single Indian identity or cleavage–religious, linguistic, caste–has had the power to override all other identities at the national level. Parties emphasizing only one division can win power in states like Gujarat, where BJP state officials are accused of openly tolerating the burning of Muslim homes. But to come to power in Delhi, politicians must build coalitions across these differences, especially as regional and lower-caste parties have begun to proliferate. In short, because of India’s endless diversity, its politics is oriented toward ideological centrism: a multicaste, multiclass, multilinguistic and multireligious political platform is necessary to capture and hold power.
The zealots who want to raise a Hindu temple on the ruins of a mosque in the town of Ayodhya may well be obsessed with ideological purity. But in New Delhi, their compatriots in the BJP, who govern at the head of a fractious and fragile coalition, have had to gravitate toward a more centrist politics. This has created a dilemma for the Hindu nationalists. If the extreme right succeeds in bending the moderates to its will, it will likely doom the BJP’s chances of holding on to power. But if the right relents, the movement’s ideological purity will be compromised. Either way, a takeover of Indian politics by the right wing of Hindu nationalism is highly improbable. Thankfully, the madness of Gujarat is unlikely to engulf the rest of India.
