Nigel Watt on the largest democracy
Malevolent Republic – A Short History of the New India by K.S.Komireddi published by Hurst
This is a very readable blistering critique of India’s powerful leader, Narendra Modi and the steps he has taken to create and ringfence Hindu supremacy. But Komireddi starts at the beginning. When Britain allowed Jinnah to create Pakistan it left an India where the Hindu majority was proportionately greater but with a still huge Muslim minority. This meant that Nehru, India’s founding prime minister, tried to create a political culture that was secular (and mildly socialist) in a very religious country. His biggest mistake was to distort this vision by allowing the Congress Party to become a family fiefdom. He had groomed his daughter Indira Gandhi to be his successor and, after the short rule of Shastri, she took over.
The author damns Indira, especially for the State of Emergency which badly damaged democracy and thus also secularism. Congress limped on with Indira’s sons, Sanjay and Rajiv and Rajiv’s Italian widow still the shadow behind Manmohan Singh who killed off any relics of socialism and unleashed a capitalist boom that widened the already huge gap between rich and poor.
Against this background Hindu fanaticism represented by the RSS and then the BJP, was growing and becoming politically organised, winning in some northern states. In 2001 Narendra Modi became chief minister of Gujarat. His vicious overreaction to Muslim riots caused him to be sanctioned by the US and Europe. Modi won power at a national level in 2014 (and the US and Europe feted him). His record has been one of growing authoritarianism and nurturing of Hindu extremism.
The author details his actions which include undermining the universities, promoting a distorted Hindu version of history, controlling the media (India dropped to 138th in the index of press freedom), suddenly abolishing all high value banknotes, undermining the well-respected army where non-Hindus held high ranks, increasing the power of the executive, supporting harsh punishments for minor offences, prematurely pronouncing victory over Covid in one year and using every effort to harass and exclude Muslims. He also pressurised the courts to arrest opposition leaders prior to the recent election.
The paperback and is well worth a read.