contemporary political expressions of pluralism and divison

Ramachandra Guha. Two Indias

• democratic India has two huge parties: Indian National Congress and BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party)
• INC often debilitated by lack of unity: tensions within party between low and high caste, left and right, Hindu and Muslim, rich and poor
• INC also the most representative and considers itself the most "national"
• BJP part of the Hinduvta movement and wins control in provinces with "minority bashing," esp. targeting Muslims
• "India is both an unnatural nation as well as an unlikely democracy. Never before has a territory so disparate and diverse been constructed as a single political unit."
• when India became a democracy, Western observers were skeptical and condescending
• Jan 1948 Ghandi was shot by a Hindu fanatic, an event which resulted from a wave of religious radicalism "which insisted that India be constructed as a Hindu nation in opposition to the Muslim nation that had broken away from it, namely, Pakistan."
• Communist party on the Left and Hindu extremists on the Right are India's two biggest weaknesses
• the great democratic leaders like the Colombia and LSE educated BR Ambedkar worked to curb influence of communists and Hindu extremists: 
• "They united a diverse and fragmented country, and then gave it a democratic, plural, federal and republican constitution."
• modernists; clear western influence and strong belief in western liberal values and the nation state model, even if it's "unnatural"
•  Nehru ensured that no single religion, caste, gener, or language would dominate in the federal govt
• the author is indian herself, and is clearly in the modernist camp and is pro-pluralism; this quote demostrates her bias pretty well:
• "Indians less than 70 years of age...are insufficiently aware of, and possibly insufficiently grateful to, the great democrats and patriots who, back in the late 1940s, successfully stood their ground against the challenges of revolutionary Communism and religious fundamentalism."
• "The BJP has sought to construct a unified "Hindu" community, and then present itself as the most authentic and reliable defender of Hindu interests."
• total Hindu supremacists
• BJP had little influence until the Ayodhya mosque conflict (see source on this) allowed them a greater platform for influence
• Golwalkar, BJP leader, is a classic bigot and seems to espouse a golden age ethos VERY similar to Salafi Muslims
• Hindus once ruled the world and will again someday
• once had science superior to western science (wrote the Vedas while Europeans ate uncooked meat)
• Hindus as a chosen people, favored by destiny to rule over other lands an religions
• will be victorious only by trampling on the rights of non-Hindu Indians
• Golwalker: "In this land Hindus have been the owners, Parsis and jews the guests, and Muslims and Christians the Dacoits."
• Muslims as the perennial outsiders, but this time grouped with Christians (colonizers)
• Hinduvta ideologue Ashok Singhal: India should emulate Pakistan by excluding minorities from top jobs and excluding them to separate electorates
• common Hinduvta slogan during religious riots: "Pakistan ya Kabristan" (run away to Pakistan, or we'll be off with your heads)
• BJP will never accept pluralism because it's based on ideals "antithetical to those of modern, secular, liberal democracy"
• modernity! so the author seems to believe that tolerance and liberalism are exclusively associated with modern western ideals; she poses western liberalism as only solution to a divided, crisis-ridden India
• furthermore, she even seems to equate the BJP's intolerance of Muslims with an intolerance of modernity overall
• it seems that the Hinduvta movement emerged from the democratization of India--in which the majority is now in charge of itself AND the minorities--major reversal from Mughal rule
• economists believe that a free market will eventually squash indentity politics as all unite in their urge to produce and consume
• interesting theme: 
• premodern experience divided between the common and the elite (intellectually)
• modern/postmodern experience divided between the provincial/state and the federal
• the INC has more federal control, while the BJP finds success in specific regions