![]() ![]() The divide between secular and Hindu nationalist visions of national identity forms the central axis of polarization in India today. ![]() Polarization in India is more toxic today than it has been in decades, and it shows no signs of abating. ![]() Although various actors have launched efforts to counter the country’s majoritarian turn and improve civic dialogue, polarization in India is more toxic today than it has been in decades, and it shows no signs of abating. 2 The coronavirus pandemic has eased this polarization on the surface by engendering more unifying political leadership, yet at the societal level the crisis has only amplified intolerance, particularly against India’s Muslim minority community. Partisan attacks on India’s independent political institutions have intensified, opposition parties have become extremely wary of defending pluralism and secularism, and hatred and violence against minority communities have flared up. Particularly since the landslide electoral victories of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 20, the consequences of severe polarization have grown ever more worrisome. Divisive political leadership-coupled with India’s economic transformation, changes in the media landscape, and the rise of competitive caste politics-has steadily brought polarization to a boil. Since the late nineteenth century, the primary source of political and societal polarization in India has been a fundamental question of nationhood: Should India be a secular country or a Hindu rashtra (Hindu nation), given that roughly 80 percent of the population is Hindu? 1 Although the political hegemony of the secular, pluralist Congress Party tempered polarization over this issue until the 1970s, the rising prominence of Hindu nationalist organizations in recent decades has sharply increased tensions. ![]()
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