Every word has consequence. Every silence too - Jean Paul Sartre

Politics of hate is nothing new for a fanatic organisation enamoured by fascism like the RSS. All through its hundred years of existence there are innumerable proofs of its active involvement in sowing hate against the “other” and reaping political gains over the dead bodies of innocent people and destruction in pogroms with the connivance of the rulers whether it be the British or the present-day rulers. In the aftermath of the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi a government communique issued on February 4, 1948, by the Union Home Ministry headed by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel emphasised that it was banning the RSS “to root out the forces of hate and violence that are at work in our country and imperil the freedom of the nation and darken her fair name”. These forces of hate that Sardar Patel was mentioning about have gained roots and spread their tentacles dangerously.

As a person whose first political activity was to take part in a March for Communal Harmony immediately after the demolition of the Babri Masjid, I had witnessed the manner in which a narrative was created against fellow citizens, followers of Islam in the run-up to the demolition. A deliberate process of Othering turning fellow humans into entities that deserves to be treated as second class citizens who are less than human, as objects worthy of hate. During the Gujarat Carnage I was witness to what politics of hate can do; witnessing the barbarity it had unleashed. The difference was that there was a clear connivance of the State in the violent retribution; an image that remains etched in mind is the writing on a burnt down mosque by the rioters: “Yeh Andar Ki Baat Hai Police Hamare Saath Hai. Narendra Modi Zindabad” (The inside story is that Police are with us. Long Live Narendra Modi”. Close observers of Indian politics and even die-hard optimists never gave much credence to Narendra Modi’s slogan of Sab Ka Saath Sab Ka Vikas. Unfortunately, the last 10 years have only proved them right. Narendra Modi has only acted to prove right the Time Magazine’s description of him as “India’s Divider in Chief”.

The strategy employed over the last decade reminds one of the ones employed in Nazi Germany. The use of propaganda and all means of communication to normalise hate, while systematically creating a subservient mass of supporters deprived of independent thinking, conditioned to uncritically accept materials disseminated and further amplify it as though it were the undeniable truth. The assault on reason through changes in syllabi, use of the media, literature and culture was accompanied by a belligerent campaign that played on emotions. Planned murder of rationalists, writers and journalists like Govind Pansare, Dabholkar, M.M.Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh by Hindutva fanatic groups on the one-hand and killings in the name of ‘Gau-Raksha’ have all gone on with the Prime Minister refusing to even make a faint noise of disapproval. A plethora of channels propagated the lies of the regime which played over and over again not just in confines of people’s homes, but also in the railway stations and airports where all travellers became captive audiences without any choice.

The hate was not reserved only for the minorities; it was for every dissenter intellectuals, students, youth, farmers, doctors, actors, writers, universities, civil society, even States. Film makers started investing huge amounts to spew hatred against the people of Kashmir, Kerala, against Jawaharlal Nehru University, to distort history and portray specific sections of the society as traitors. The Prime Minister not only condoned but actually led the charge. There however, was no hatred towards rapists, the corrupt, or Hindutva forces accused of engineering blasts or riots. They have been feted and felicitated– the rapists of Bilkis Bano, Pragya Thakur accused in Malegaon blasts, Brijbhushan Saran, Prajwal Revanna and Ajay Mishra Teni are only few such cases. An eight-year-old girl from a nomadic Muslim community in Jammu and Kashmir was gang raped by six Hindu men and a 'juvenile' for six days before she was bludgeoned to death and dumped in a forest. Madhu Kishwar went on to write a book called ‘The Girl from Kathua’ claiming that she was not raped at all and was a sacrificial victim of Ghazwa-e-Hind hinting that anti-India forces like the Lashkar-e-Taiba was responsible for it even as the Courts pronounced some of the perpetrators guilty. These writers, film makers, TV anchors and the Godi Media are pushing the narrative normalising hate and condoning even crimes against humanity when perpetrators were foot soldiers of Hindutva.

At the peak of the historic farmers protest the Prime Minister stooped to a new low terming the protestors as “Andolanjeevis” and parasites. A narrative was carried through the corporate media terming farmers as “Khalistanis”, “Pakistani Agents”, “China Agents”, “Urban Naxals” and so on. Intellectuals and activists were branded as the “Tukde-Tukde Gang” even as many including Ministers would often call for dissenters to go to Pakistan. Any voice in support of the farmers was immediately branded a traitor or anti-national. In recent times the media persons like Prabir Purkayastha who reported on the anti CAA protests and farmers’ protests have been termed as Chinese Agents and arrested under the draconian UAPA.

While, hate was not reserved only for the minorities, the sharpest attacks were against them and even more on the Muslim community. Dharam Sansads held in Uttarakhand and elsewhere have openly called for militarisation of Hindu youth and killing of Muslims; hate against Christians have also increased and churches as well as priests have been attacked. Manipur has been burning for over a year with thousands displaced and more than 200 being killed. Self-styled godmen have also spewed hatred against minorities. The Prime Minister has not spoken a word against any such attacks. His silence is seen as tacit patronage for such acts. The Prime Minister’s words and even his silence are attacks on India’s secular democratic character. These attacks are being amplified by other leaders of the BJP and the Sangh Parivar. The fake narrative of Love Jihad has been repeated often to polarise the electorate. The BJP leaders have come up with preposterous terms like “Land Jihad”, “Vote Jihad” and the Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has gone to the extent of blaming Muslim farmers of launching a “Fertiliser Jihad”. During the Pandemic even as the utter failure of governance was leading to unpopularity came a new term “Corona Jihad” in the latest manifestation of Islamophobia. It did not stop merely at hate speeches; it led to killings of Muslim in the name of Gau-Raksha or in the name of fighting these fictitious Jihads. It even percolated even down to school classrooms. The Prime Minister’s words have had a disastrous consequence and so has his silence. Even the Courts have not taken suo moto cognisance and charged them with attempt to cause enmity between communities or breach peace; the Election Commission also is least bothered. It was for long felt that only fringe elements indulge in such hate speech; the fringe has now become the mainstream with Narendra Modi and Amit Shah leading the pack.

Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, Himanta Biswa Sarma and many others have revelled in pejoratively describing Muslims as “infiltrators”, blamed them as people deliberately breeding large families. Amit Shah had earlier claimed that there were crores of illegal immigrants whom he compared to termites “eating the food that should go to our poor” and “taking our jobs”. Even festivals have like the Ram Navami has been used to take forward such a sinister narrative. Such blatant drilling of hate, amplified many times by their wide army of trolls who poison the society, injecting hate, lies and Islamophobic material create a false bogey of “Hindus in Danger” and thereby build a justification for any attack on minorities.

It is on this fertile ground of hate that communal pogroms have been built, the Muzaffarnagar riots, Delhi riots, the violence in Nuh, the Manipur carnage are only a few of them. A Chief Minister who boasts of extra-judicial killings and fake encounters as well as demolition of houses using bulldozers is seen as the role model for taking forward the Sangh agenda of a theocratic State. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and BJP Chief Ministers in Madhya Pradesh and Uttarakhand flaunt demolition of madrassas and forced evictions of Muslim settlements as achievements. It is this approach that has led to the loss of six lives in Haldwani and two lives in Darrang as well as the nonchalant dance of a photo-journalist on the corpse of a victim of police firing in Assam. On my visits to Darrang, Haldwani, Muzaffarnagar and other places of communal attacks I sense the same atmosphere of fear that I witnessed in Gujarat more than two decades ago. Unfortunately, in many of these places the main opposition parties in those States shy away from even expressing a disapproval for fear of losing out on the majoritarian vote. It is also notable that the Chief Ministers of Assam and Manipur who are now taking forward this politics of hate were originally from the Congress and not formally trained in the Sangh. The easy desertion from Congress and inculcation of RSS ideology is indicative of the level to which their divisive politics has been normalised.

Hate speeches have gone on with impunity with the objective to demonise the other. Muslims have been at the receiving end of the most vituperative attacks where they are demonised as terrorists, traitors, rapists, criminals and even terrorists. During the recent election campaign, this has only increased. The Prime Minister who did not do anything to restrain such a campaign, actually led such a campaign and also followed many such purveyors of hate on social media; many became spokespersons and party leaders. The recent speech of his in Rajasthan openly spewed hate against Muslims claiming that the Congress would snatch gold and Mangalsutras of Hindu women and also take away their buffaloes to distribute them among Muslim “infiltrators” wrongly citing the Congress Manifesto. This is a desperate last-ditch effort to polarise and reap electoral benefit. However, it will be a blunder and ahistorical to see the increased attacks on Muslims only as an electoral strategy. Even as the regime celebrates Amrit Mahotsav it is literally taking forward an ethically grotesque campaign of hate as part of the fanatic Hindutva Project; it is only taking forward what its ideological mentor Golwalkar laid down decades ago. As in Nazi Germany the Jews were, as in Apartheid South Africa the Blacks were and as in Zionist Israel the Palestinians are, hatred for the Muslims/Minorities and Communists is central to the grand fascist design. The Left and the CPI-M has the tradition of mobilising the masses and resisting the efforts to communally polarise; the case of actively deploying well organised beedi workers to counter the RSS hate campaign against Muslims during the Telicherry riots, the efforts to ensure communal harmony in West Bengal, Delhi, Assam, Karnataka and Gujarat with whatever strength it has is well known. Left also plays a significant role in Kerala and elsewhere also in the cyberspace to build resistance to politics of hate.

The struggles built over the last decade by the people of India, the oppressed, the farmers and workers, the women, students, youth and minorities have all put up a resilient resistance. The increase in hate speeches is only an indicator that the enemies of the people are fighting a losing battle. The damage done is deep and not easy to fill. After victory we will have to draw from our experience of resisting politics of hate and embark on a detoxification drive. Only a regime with a political will to undertake such a drive can retrieve our nation back and ensure harmony as well as peaceful coexistence. We will have to root out the forces of hate and violence that are at work in our country as Sardar Patel pointed out. History shows us that the victory will be ours.


The author is an independent writer on politics and agrarian economy. The views are personal.