Secularism, ethno-religious nationalism and violence in India

Abstract

‘We have no orders to save you,’ is one of the replies that the Gujarati state police gave to frantic calls from Muslim victims pleading for protection from Hindu mobs ravaging the streets of Ahmedabad and other cities, systematically raping, killing and mutilating Muslim minorities on a massive scale in late February of 2002 (Human Rights Watch Report 2002). Other frequent replies included: ‘We cannot help you, we have orders from above’, ‘If you wish to live in Hindustan, learn to protect yourself’ and ‘Whose house is on fire? Hindus’ or Muslims’?’ (ibid). These are not the kind of responses a citizen should expect from state authorities in an emergency when they are living in a secular democratic republic, as India is described in its constitution.

The rise of ethno-religious nationalism in the form of Hindutva has sparked the interest of many scholars in the fields of international relations and conflict studies. In the last three decades, many theorists have argued that there are signs of the resurgence of religion in conflicts on national and international levels and that political secularism and secular nationalism have fallen into a deep crisis. Various forms of ethno-religious nationalism have emerged as new ideological competitors to Western liberal notions of democracy. The development of Hindutva, its hostile stance toward India’s secularism and its effect on ethno-religious conflict in Gujarat make India a particularly interesting case.

Although India has come far in the relatively short period since its independence, there remain important issues pertaining to tensions and violence between different ethno-religious groups and the role the state plays in these situations. How does the secular state influence the development of ethno-religious nationalism? How does ethno-religious nationalism contribute to violent conflict? What could have contributed to the escalation of the immensely violent reaction to the Godhra train incident? The renewed interest in the above mentioned roles of religion, and the nexus of ethno-religious nationalism and the secular state in violent conflict make these questions very relevant and justifies a closer and analytical look at these tensions and their origins in India.

In this master thesis, I propose that the Indian secular state has created the settings in which ethno-religious nationalism could develop to cultivate singular identities that have led to a culmination of developing religious-communal boundaries and tensions. This contributed to the violent aftermath of the Godhra train incident. This thesis will not seek to provide a detailed conflict analysis of the events of February 2002 in the state of Gujarat. Nor will it delve deep into specific party politics, economic factors or political actors for that matter. Instead, through an analytical framework of constructivism it seeks to investigate the effect of secularism in India on the rise of ethno-religious nationalism in the form of Hindutva. It will study how this form of ethno-religious nationalism in combination with government policies and legislation affects tensions and violence between religious communities in India, and more specifically, Gujarat. To provide an up-to-date understanding of this, I intend to study the rise of Hindutva, map the most relevant academic debate surrounding secularism in India and study if and how ethno-religious nationalism and government policies influence violent religious conflict. Various concrete cases around this subject will be used to illustrate my thesis. In this work I will incorporate the role of modernization and secularization theories and political theory in studying the rise of Hindutva and the debate around secularism, and I will use elements from identity theory, conflict studies and discourse analysis in order to discover the relation between identity and violent conflict. By this interdisciplinary approach I will provide a more complete account of the relation between secularism and ethno-religious nationalism in the form of Hindutva on the one hand, and the relation between ethno-religious nationalism, Indian secularism and religious violent conflict on the other.