Culture & Nationalism
Since his days as Gujarat’s chief minister, Modi has made a series of controversial statements about Muslims that have drawn widespread criticism for furthering anti-Muslim hatred and deepening communal divides in the country. His most notorious Islamophobic remarks include calling Muslims “infiltrators”, mocking their family size, referring to relief camps as “baby-producing centres” and repeatedly using dog whistles to vilify the community. https://thewire.in/communalism/not-first-time-modi-used-anti-muslim-dog-whistling
Modi often uses coded language, but the intent and target are widely recognised by his supporters, analysts and even victims.
As the New York Times noted in April 2024, “the direct language used against the country’s largest minority was a contrast to the image Prime Minister Narendra Modi presents on the world stage.”
16/04/2025
Yes, it would seem so, if you believe what the Organiser – the official news-magazine of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh wrote in an editorial signed by Prafulla Ketkar, ‘From Somnath to Sambhal: The Quest for Civilisational Justice’ on December 24, 2024.
https://thewire.in/communalism/can-a-civilisation-seek-justice
This is what he wrote:
“The issue that started with a petition to survey the Shri Harihar Mandir, now structured as Jama Masjid in the historic town of (Sambhal), Uttar Pradesh, is now opening up a new debate about various Constitutional rights given to individuals and communities. Instead of limiting the debate to the Hindu-Muslim question from the pseudo-secularist prism, we need a sane and inclusive debate on the quest for ‘civilizational justice’ based on truthful ‘Itihasa’, involving all sections of society”.
This is a new term – ‘Civilisational Justice’.
A grievance masquerading as a Right.
How, whereof and from who does a civilisation seek justice? A civilisation is a common and shared inheritance of a community that imagines itself to be a nation. Can one political party and its cadre arrogate to themselves that they are the sole custodians of the civilisation and decide to set right its perceived or mis-perceived wrongs?
by Ravi Joshi
24/01/2025
The revised NCERT class 11 political science textbook says that vote bank politics is associated with ‘minority appeasement’, and also defines the term as political parties disregarding “the principles of equality of all citizens and give priority to the interests of a minority group”.
https://thewire.in/education/vote-bank-politics-associated-with-minority-appeasement-new-ncert-textbook
The section about vote bank politics and minority appeasement is included in a chapter on secularism, which also has a section on ‘criticism of Indian secularism,’ reported The Indian Express.
17/06/2024
Today, religion has not only become integral to politics, but the flaunting of religious fervour has become de rigueur for any politician who wants to ‘make it’.
https://thewire.in/politics/delirium-over-ram-mandir-a-nation-consecrated-or-desecrated
To reductively brush off the buzz around the January 22 Ram Mandir inauguration as a gimmick for electoral purposes would be a complete misreading of a grim situation. The planned mass mobilisation of the majority community – the running of 1,000 trains to Ayodhya from various parts of the country, the ruling party’s arrangements to host 50,000 pilgrims every day, the invitation to 150 disparate groups cutting across caste lines and 4,000 holy men for the consecration ceremony, the installation of 5 lakh LED screens in temples, the prime minster’s injunction to celebrate January 22 as Diwali by lighting diyas at home – is nothing less than a carefully calibrated campaign of consolidation of Hindu society and a call to arms for furthering the “kamandal” project whose ultimate mission is the reclaiming of temples, implementation of the uniform civil code, ban on cow slaughter, halal meat, the hijab and a lot more.
by Mathew John
11/01/2024