With a sharp shift in most states of India towards right-wing politics and with minorities either silenced, assimilated or forced to join the ranks in the march towards a Hindu Rashtra, 2019 may be a watershed in the secular design of India.

Any Indian returning home after a gap of 2 or 3 years can sense the change. The communal, social and political divides are clearly visible in every walk of life. It’s palpable -on the billboards on streets, in the media and on television -day in and day out. The critical question then is, are we drifting towards a theocratic state like Saudi Arabia and Yemen or a lawless country like Rwanda?

No one has any doubts now that the ultimate ambition of the right wing in India was always to create a Hindu Rashtra. Vigilantes killing people in the name of cow protection with religious leaders and behind the scene organizations have already started their groundwork. Cultural aggression, infusing a sense of insecurity among minorities, vote politics based on religious and caste lines together with constitutional engineering seem to be their favoured tools. A pliable mainstream Indian media is playing second fiddle.

“The alternate media is getting into a resource crunch. This government is not going to allow its sustainability. Neither are the entrepreneurs looking into this sector. One cannot be a journalist and work in the corporate or mainstream media, which is a disheartening situation. We all have grown very scared of the word ‘liberal’.”   Hartosh Singh Bal, Editor, The Caravan

Since 2014, when Modi ascended to power the minorities and weaker sections of Indian society have started to develop a sense of insecurity. Uttar Pradesh is a testing lab for their grand designs. It started with ‘love jihad’ allegations against Muslim men which proved a hoax and ‘ghar wapsi’ to forcibly reconvert lower caste people who have been under brahminical subjugation for centuries. Then in the name of beef ban, they started killing Muslims accused of storing or eating beef.

Mohammed Akhlaq’s house in Dadri, UP was raided by the vigilantes claiming that beef was found in his fridge and he was beaten to death. Nobody bothered to notice in detail and subsequent forensic lab tests proved that the meat sample was mutton and not beef. Art and literary festivals believed to be against ‘Indian cultural values’ were attacked by right-wing goons under the very nose of the administration. University campuses are constantly attacked by right wing outfits and students opposed to them get booked on trumped-up charges. Intellectuals and rationalists opposed to them have started meeting violent deaths like Kalburgi and Pansare. While road projects worth millions of rupees get stalled because a small temple comes in the way, a Gurdwara gets razed to the ground in Indore, in the name of ‘city beautification’. Such news do not even find a bottom line mention in the mainstream media.

“Declaring India as a Hindu state and abridging minority rights could be the next step in this direction. Giving special status to Hindu Yogis and mahants and even abolishing the name India for Hindu Sthan could follow.”

Civil society and alternative media is under a constant threat from the right wing. As senior journalist and political editor of The Caravan magazine, Hartosh Singh Bal recently noted “The alternate media is getting into a resource crunch. This government is not going to allow its sustainability. Neither are the entrepreneurs looking into this sector. One cannot be a journalist and work in the corporate or mainstream media, which is a disheartening situation. We all have grown very scared of the word ‘liberal’.”

Most political observers believe that a complete takeover by the Hindutva forces does not necessarily mean communal violence or by force. It can more likely come through constitutional changes and communal vote politics. Declaring India as a Hindu state and abridging minority rights could be the next step in this direction. Giving special status to Hindu Yogis and mahants and even abolishing the name India for Hindu Sthan could follow.

The opposition parties are in a state of constant bickering amongst themselves and are hardly capable to stop this onslaught. The judiciary is the only power that might check such authoritarianism but its political conservatism and non-interventional policy proves otherwise. Recent ruling in favour of playing the national anthem in cinema halls where even the physically challenged get assaulted for not standing up or a private airline which starts playing the national anthem while the plane is in landing mode speaks volumes about how much the country can bank upon judiciary for upholding the fundamental rights of its people.

The next general elections in 2019 will be pivotal not because it will be a challenge to Modi or BJP’s Hindutva designs but because it will be for the first time since independence when a complete right wing takeover of India seems a distinct possibility.

You have been warned!