How the exclusionary Hindu rashtra project threatens the foundations of Indian democracy

Eknath Ranade, senior Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh member and founder of the Vivekananda Kendra, once spoke about ideology being “thicker than blood”. In India’s wracked social and political climate, his words are a foreboding indication of things to come.

“A missionary organisation is not just a group of people coming together,” he said. “They have a cause, a mission that creates a bond, an affinity among constituents…There is a blood-relationship between brothers. Blood is thicker than water, they say. But ideology is thicker than blood…”

As the 2024 general election nears, citizens are being treated to images of Prime Minister Narendra Modi showcasing his government’s gifts to the middle class: sleek new trains, world-class highways, a new parliament building, statues of saints and ideologues and so on.

Then there is the hype around Modi’s G-20 leadership and his role in US President Joe Biden’s Democracy Summit. Modi’s statesman-like sound-bites on one side, and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s well-timed jibes against the West on the other are being greeted with delight by the Hindu middle-classes.

Never mind all the calls by saffron-clad supporters for the mass killings of Muslims, extra-judicial killings by the police, the country’s sliding democracy indicators, massive youth unemployment and the lack of a...

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