On December 6 1992, Hindutva extremists demolished the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. The so-called Ramjanmabhoomi “movement” caused riots and mayhem in several parts of the country. On August 5, nearly 35 years later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a Hindutva ideologue, laid the foundations of a Ram temple on the very spot where the Babri Masjid once remained.
In the worldview perpetuated by the RSS and the Hindutva Brigade, August 5 is the culmination of a 500-year-struggle against the “humiliation” of “Hindus” and colonisation of India by Muslim “invaders.” However, this worldview deliberately ignores the fact that the term “Hindu” itself is of foreign origin, and that the notion of “Hinduism” as a well-defined religion with specific boundaries originated only in the 19th century.
It is clear that the agenda of the RSS and the Hindutva brigade has been the establishment of the “Hindu Rashtra” or “Hindu nation.” People who are on the “centre or left” of the spectrum usually associate this with the idea of a theocratic state, theocratic constitution and religious laws. But what if these things are mere top-dressings? What if the BJP-RSS have already achieved their much-cherished Hindu Rashtra agenda and what only remains is its consolidation?
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