Hindu nationalism overtakes India’s patriotic holiday

Not this year.

Throughout India, the flags that dominated Republic Day were saffron, the color of Hindu nationalism. That’s because Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a grand Ram temple four days earlier in the northern city of Ayodhya on the site of a demolished mosque, a potent symbol of the country’s turn toward a Hindu-centric republic.

The site of the new temple has a fraught history. About 30 years ago, when Modi was a Hindu nationalist leader in western India, he galvanized the movement to destroy the Babri Masjid, the centuries-old mosque that had stood on the spot. He gave speeches in support of replacing the mosque with a temple to the Hindu god Ram, who believers think was born there.

On Dec. 6, 1992, a Hindu mob destroyed the mosque with axes, hammers and their bare hands as security forces stood by and watched. Though a court ruled the violence was “an egregious violation of the rule of law,” no one was held to account for it. More than 1,000 people were killed in the communal carnage that followed. Then, in 2019, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Hindus to build the Ram temple, while Muslims were given a plot of land elsewhere. I wrote an essay in The Post from the point of view of a family that had been displaced during the 1992 anti-Muslim violence — mine.

The temple inauguration was a massive victory for Modi, coming just months before national elections in this Hindu-majority country. It was attended by former judges, film stars and other national luminaries. Public figures posted images of Lord Ram on their social media with the caption “Jai Shri Ram” — Glory to Lord Ram. The dedication of the new temple overshadowed Republic Day.

The preamble to India’s constitution states that India is a “sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic republic.” But in Modi’s India, the secular part has been minimized. Life-size cutouts of the prime minister standing with Lord Ram and dressed in saffron are everywhere. He is presented to the country as a “modern-day Ram” who has restored Hindu pride.

The national holiday was still celebrated officially by the Indian state: French President Emmanuel Macron came as a state guest for the Republic Day parade in the national capital. He had tea with Modi at a tourist spot in Jaipur, took selfies with him and visited the mausoleum of a Muslim saint to experience the diversity of India. (The French branch of Amnesty International criticized the visit, warning about “the regime’s authoritarian excesses.”)

The Modi government promoted the temple inauguration on Instagram by posting a copy of the original preamble to the constitution, without the words “socialist” and “secular.” The advocates of a “Hindu India” have historically been critical of the word “secular,” which was added in 1976 to protect the interests of minorities. In their worldview, it is appeasement. (While India’s 1.4 billion population is 80 percent Hindu, it also has a Muslim minority of more than 200 million people.)

As I drove around Mumbai the weekend of Republic Day, the Indian tricolor was a rare sight. Instead, in my favorite restaurants and along the roads and seashore was the saffron flag.

Republic Day mornings usually begin with apartment complexes coming together to hoist the national flag with Hindi-language songs blaring through loudspeakers, paying tribute to heroes of our freedom struggle from the British and the unity of the Indian people. This Republic Day, that music was mostly missing, drowned out by the “Jai Shri Ram” cacophony on news channels, social media and loudspeakers.

Before the holiday, in the northern state of Chhattisgarh, a video circulating on X (formerly Twitter) showed a young Muslim priest with blood on his face limping toward the police station. A mob with saffron flags attacked him shouting, “If you want to stay in India, you will have to chant Glory to Lord Ram.”

In Mira Road, a neighborhood with a sizable Muslim population in Mumbai, mobs carrying saffron flags, sticks and swords, went on a rampage after the temple dedication, attacking shopkeepers, residents and drivers, chanting “Jai Shri Ram.” Muslim shops were ransacked. Shops and vehicles with saffron flags were spared. Many of the Muslim families had relocated to the area after the 1992 riots, but now it seemed that the mob was back. On WhatsApp, fearful Muslim families shared a video of a young Muslim woman in an abaya forced to chant “Jai Shri Ram” by a mob.

On the temple inauguration day, an architecture student I know hung India’s national tricolor flag in the veranda of her house. Two hours later, the secretary of her neighborhood association warned the family that if they did not remove the flag, they would be reported to the police for “anti-national” activity. On her WhatsApp, a neighbor posted: “If you have a problem with the saffron flag, why don’t you move to Pakistan?”

This Republic Day, the sentiments enshrined in the Indian constitution were decidedly out of fashion. “Jai Shri Ram” was the slogan of the day. The movies playing in theaters as Republic Day specials, our social media, our public icons and our mainstream media were in sync with a Hindu nationalist India where a historic crime was given a resplendent, celebratory makeover. As hate crimes trended on social media in the background of the Ram temple inauguration, militant supremacists basked in the state-envisioned saffron makeover. The vision of Hindu nationalism, the road map to Hindu supremacy, was fully unveiled.