A Dissection of Nationalist Legislation in an Authoritarian India

What should the UK government do?

So far, the UK government has been cautious in supporting the new right on an international level. Although it voted in favour of the UN Human Rights Council’s recognition of the right, the UK Ambassador for Human Rights was quick to emphasise that ‘human rights resolutions are not legally binding instruments’ and that the vote ‘is without prejudice to the position to be taken by the United Kingdom in future.’ The government must adopt a more proactive approach when the vote is put before the UN General Assembly, and if it chooses to pursue a British Bill of Rights. In promoting this right, it will show a true commitment to the health of its citizens and the health of the planet.

A Dissection of Nationalist Legislation in an Authoritarian India

Harsimran Kundi

On the 15th March 2022, the High Court of the southern Indian state of Karnataka ruled in favour of a governmental ban on the wearing of headscarves in schools and colleges. The case was brought to trial after hijab-wearing Muslim students were denied entry into classrooms on the basis of not adhering with the dress code. The students argued this was a violation of their religious freedom, as guaranteed under article 25 of the Indian constitution which states that “all persons are equally entitled to freedom of conscience and the right freely to profess, practice, and propagate religion”. The judgement relied on something dubbed as the “essentiality test” – whether a practice is essential to a religion. In this particular case, the debate centred around if the hijab is an essential Islamic practice - a legal and theological debate that has had several different answers throughout India’s legal history dependent on the time-period and state. The 3-judge bench eventually found that it was not essential. For Indian Muslims, the landmark Karnataka ruling not only impedes their religious rights and acts as a barrier to education, but also contributes to the disturbing trend of Hindu nationalism which seems to be on the rise in recent years.

Hindu nationalism, or Hindutva, refers to a political ideology that equates “Indianness” with “Hindu-ness”. Hindu nationalism has been a key theme within the current political ruling party of India –the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by Narendra Modi. A key piece of discriminatory legislation passed by the BJP which caught media attention was the citizenship amendment act 2019 (CAA). This bill changed fast-tracked citizenship by naturalisation for persecuted minority immigrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan,

and Bangladesh, but excluding Muslims. The bill drew widespread criticism from international organisations such as the UN and Amnesty International on the basis of religious discrimination in a constitutionally secular country. Strikingly, the bill failed to recognise persecuted Muslim populations such as the Ahmadiyyas and Hazaras from Pakistan and Afghanistan. The bill also failed to provide refuge for other persecuted minorities such as Tamil Sri Lankans, Tibetan Buddhists, and Rohingya Muslims. The introduction of the bill in early 2020 resulted in protests around India, with many at universities and a notable peaceful sit-in protest at Shaheen Bagh, Delhi, which blocked a major highway.

Whilst the protests failed to alter the piece of legislation, a tangible uptick in politically-incited hatred and communal violence was seen in response to them. The 2020 Delhi riots provide a key example of this. On the 23rd February 2020, a 6-day riot ensued in response to an anti-CAA protest. The riot resulted in the death of 53 people and over 200 were injured. The majority of these deaths, 40 people, were Muslim. Several BJP leaders attracted criticism after the riot for inciting violence. This included Delhi’s own cabinet minister, Kapil Mishra, who stated just days prior to the riots that he would take matters into his own hands if police failed to disperse protestors. Police too were seen by several witnesses not only to fail to disperse the riots and establish peace, but instead purposefully helping Hindu gangs.

These pieces of legislation when integrated with the discrimination and violence that ensues after their implementation represent a growing systemic problem in India – one of intolerance for diversity. This has been seen in politicians attempting to instate Hindi as the national language, and in the neglect of the north-eastern states. And it is not limited to just these laws, or laws in general. The problem of Hindu and Muslim conflict is one that stretches throughout the history of India, exacerbated by the Colonial British strategy of ‘divide and conquer’. Appropriate and inclusive legislation is one way to help subdue the rise of Hindu nationalism, but what it really requires is a swift change in the way those at the top of the political ladder think about minorities.