Muslim Bare Life in Contemporary India

Abstract

AbstractToday Hindutva has become hegemonic to the extent that Muslims not only have to fear for their way of life but also for their own bare lives. The election of Narendra Modi as prime minister is a sign of the changes that have occurred from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-led Hindutva campaigns of the 1980s to the firm grip on government by the BJP-RSS today. Analyses of ‘the success of India’s democracy’ (Kohli, The Success of India’s Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001; Banerjee, Why India Votes. New Delhi: Routledge, 2014) never seem to take fully into account the importance of religion and religious divisions. This chapter attempts to address the consequences of the rise to power of Hindu civilizational nationalism.