What do the Hindu Do?

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is one of India’s two major political parties. It is a conservative political movement, the product of mergers of several parties after a state of emergency in 1977, with a powerful anchor in pretty fundamentalist Hindu values. Hindus comprise around 78% of the total population. For those in the extreme quarter of the BJP, some of their views are somewhat… er… well… extreme. Some, like the outrageous cleric, Indian priest-turned-politician Sakshi Maharaj (above), espouse policies describing “Mahatma Gandhi's Hindu nationalist assassin as a patriot, saying Hindu women should give birth to four children to ensure the religion survives and by calling for Hindus who convert to Islam and Christianity to be given the death penalty.” Reuters, February 2^nd.

Perhaps a bit more extreme than the GOP’s Evangelically-dominated Tea Party faction, this right wing Hindu group is tugging at their newly-elected Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, to prioritize Hindu religious values as every bit as important as fixing the economy. Despite the presence of many other faiths, from Islam to Buddhism, these extremists see India as a Hindu nation that must govern in accordance with a very rigid interpretation of their faith.

For a leader charged with governing a nation with significant religious and cultural diversity, someone who must represent the entirety of his overall constituency, this call to move Hindu values to this highest level of priority is a serious impossibility. But then, these right wing BJP players make even the Tea Party’s Ted Cruz look like a piker.

“This is testing the authority of a leader who captured power to a degree not seen since Indira Gandhi ruled India more than three decades ago. Hardline Hindu politicians impatient with Modi's refusal to champion their cause are beginning to advance their own agendas… Maharaj, for example, wants to make it illegal for Hindus to change religions and seeks the death penalty for slaughtering cows, an animal revered by Hindus…

“Protests erupted at the most recent parliamentary session over a campaign by hardliners to convert Muslims and Christians to Hinduism, torpedoing key foreign investment legislation that the opposition had earlier agreed to pass… Modi had to use executive orders to drive policy, but they are seen as a stopgap measure that cannot replace reforms needed to address India's slowing economic growth.

“‘Modi has a major problem with these extremist elements,’ said S. Chandrasekharan, director of the South Asia Analysis Group in New Delhi. ‘If he can't bring them under control they are going to ... sap the energy needed to carry out reforms.’… In a sign the world is watching, U.S. President Barack Obama warned on a recent visit that India's success depended on it not splintering along religious lines.” Reuters

The bigger question, which history has tested repeatedly over the ages, is whether any political party that owes its getting elected to a powerful extreme subset that too many others in the body politic find repugnant can ever solve overall social and economic issues to the benefit society as a whole? Indeed, if Modi cannot get this faction under control, his tenure at the top is not going to last very long, and those desperately needed economic reforms will die by the wayside. But Maharaj is ready to take down the Prime Minister if he does not toe the line.

“At the spiritual retreat, or ashram, elderly disciples with long gray beards bend to kiss the feet of Maharaj, who wears light brown socks with sandals, an orange turban, gold-framed Dolce and Gabbana glasses and a chunky gold-colored watch. With a self-proclaimed following of 10 million people, Maharaj, a four-time member of parliament, draws support through a network of dozens of ashrams and colleges. ‘I am aware that I am a powerful man,’ Maharaj says. ‘I can make or break the government.’ Maharaj is charged by police with rioting and inciting a mob after helping tear down a 16th-century mosque in Ayodhya in 1992, an event sparking riots in which around 2,000 people died… He admits being present at the demolition but says he could not stop the crowds. In India, trials can take decades because of a shortage of judges.

“Modi will have a clearer idea of whether radicals elements are alienating voters when the BJP fights elections in New Delhi. Also this month, the government must present the budget and try to enact three emergency decrees in parliament. In December, Modi told lawmakers their behavior was hurting the party and warned them not to cross the Lakshman Rekha, a forbidden line in Hindu mythology, according to party officials briefed on the meeting.’ The message is loud and clear: there is no room for any diversion from the economy,’ said G.V.L. Narasimha Rao, a spokesman for the BJP.” Reuters.

With a total population of almost 1.3 billion people, almost a billion represents those Indians who really have not benefited from significant economic growth to the relatively small middle class (albeit a quarter of a billion people). Modi has spreading more economic growth to more Indians… but can he resist pressure from his own party to move those efforts to second place?

In India, more than is normal in other nations, politics is heavily local. Chief Ministers (the “governors” of the states) often ignore dictates and policy decisions from New Delhi. The central government has a greater impact on trade agreements with other nations as well as overall fiscal and monetary policy. It is here that Modi seeks to make his mark. Finding solutions to income inequality is hardly an American issue, and India’s poor often exist at a subsistence level that has really not altered for hundreds of years.

But if Modi’s own party infighting stops his initiatives, the entire future of the BJP, indeed perhaps of India itself, is definitely in jeopardy. And as the United States has recently engaged with India, wrestling with the complex global warming issues (yes, the BJP has a very large faction of climate change deniers who do not believe man had much to do with the phenomenon) and bilateral trade, our policy makers are wondering if can India indeed be governed into a greater modern economically equal nation.

I’m Peter Dekom, and the machinations of about 17% of the earth’s population are exceptionally impactful to us all.