The fine print in Hindutva

There is a need to acknowledge the project’s appeal and the intricacies of representation in order to counter it

Modern democracies are erected upon the twin pillars of rights and representation. While rights define the minimum due of individuals and communities vis-à-vis the state, representation enables the diverse voices in a polity to be heard. However, most critiques interrogate Hindutva through the limited lens of representation, arguing that it essentially represents interests of upper-caste Hindus. This is a misleading claim. A case in point is West Bengal, where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 18 seats in the last Lok Sabha election and secured 40.3% of votes, including five out of 10 seats reserved for Scheduled Castes and both the seats reserved for the Scheduled Tribes. This is not an exception. Earlier, the BJP registered victories in Tripura and Uttar Pradesh and has continually dominated Madhya Pradesh and Bihar on the back of widespread subaltern support. Even then, academia is in denial about the ideological resonance of Hindutva among the subaltern sections because of a flawed understanding of the Hindutva project and its relationship with the politics of representation.