Hindu Nationalism and Rising Anti-Islamism in India

Abstract

The weakening of the secular tradition, which has been influential in Indian political life since its inception, and the political rise of the Hindu right culminated in the overwhelming mandate of the Hindu nationalist BJP led by Narendra Modi in the 2014 elections. In 2014, the Hindutva ideology that the BJP was fuelled by had the opportunity to spread to all segments of society. As the BJP consolidated its political support from the community in 2019, it became even more prominent as a widespread worldview in India. Backed by the power of Hindutva supporters, the BJP systematically and deliberately targets the non-Hindu population, especially Muslims. Hindutva ideology, the Hindu right wing's ideology of ethnoreligious exclusion, has begun to affect Muslims through political decisions taken by the government and socially triggered acts of oppression and violence, often with the government's deliberate silence. This study discusses the historical and intellectual origins of the Hindutva ideology to reveal the current trends of the BJP's Islamophobic policies through a literature review. In this study, in which the current tendencies of the BJP's Islamophobic policies are tried to be revealed by reviewing the literature, the historical and intellectual origins of the Hindutva ideology are mentioned. The article also analyses the role of the media, which the Modi government uses for its main interests, in fuelling Islamophobia through misinformation and the discourse of 'corona jihad’, particularly in the aftermath of the global Covid-19 pandemic. Ultimately, it is argued that the anti-Islamic policies in contemporary India - even though they have come to light with the BJP's rule - should be seen as the social and political projections of the Hindutva ideology, which sees India's ethnic and religious diversity as a threat rather than an opportunity and which was 'constructed' long before the BJP.