Why Hindu Nationalism Keeps Gaining Ground in India

In 1947, the authors of India’s constitution envisaged a secular state where all citizens were equal before the law. But the reemergence of Hindu nationalism has been testing that ideal. Since Narendra Modi became prime minister in 2014, hard liners in his Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, have become increasingly emboldened in promoting the dominance of Hindus, who form 80% of the population. A restrictive new citizenship law is the latest move to worry the country’s 170 million Muslims. Protests against it that broke out late last year turned deadly before the coronavirus pandemic provided the government an excuse to clamp down.

The Citizenship Amendment Act was passed by the BJP-dominated parliament in December. It prioritizes citizenship for undocumented Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from the neighboring Muslim-majority countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, describing them as persecuted minorities. Muslims are excluded from this list. It’s the first law since India gained independence to explicitly discriminate against Muslims, and is aimed mainly at those who came across the border during the 1971 conflict that led to the creation of Bangladesh.