Under PM Modi, there has been a sharp rise in discrimination and violence against Muslims that is polarizing society and undermining India’s reputation for religious tolerance, experts say.
“The U.S. and Europe need India vis-a-vis China,” Jaffrelot said. “So for the moment the questioning of human rights in India has no consequence.”Hindu nationalism, or Hindutva, “is a very monolithic and exclusionary political ideology that relies on a vision of Hindu identity as being North Indian, upper caste and patriarchal,” said Nikhil Mandalaparthy, advocacy director of Hindus for Human Rights, a U.S.-based group.
Tensions between Hindus and Muslims were exploited by British colonial rulers to maintain their hold on power. But when India gained independence in 1947, the subcontinent was transformed by its violent partition into two states — Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan — setting off mass migration in both directions.
While India is officially a secular state that enshrines the right to religious freedom in its constitution, Hansen said the BJP had created a narrative of Hindu victimhood that taps into a “deep reservoir of stereotypes and myths, anxieties and anger about Muslims that has always been there.”
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