Rahul Bhatia’s ‘The Identity Project’ on the danger of majoritarianism

Here is a book which, as the author has rightly said, “pieces together fragments of history to bring the present into focus”. The intensity of intellectual labour that has made a work of this kind possible is simply amazing. In fact, in order to comprehend the devastating consequences of the rise of triumphant Hindutva, Bhatia has moved around the country, visited the archives and libraries, understood the functioning of politico-cultural organisations like the Hindu Mahasabha and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, made sense of the genealogy of contemporary Hindutva, and examined carefully the social implications of the entire ‘identity project’.

No wonder, in this “investigative memoir”, the reader comes across a spectrum of events — say, the protest against the Citizen Amendment Act, and the cops entering the library of Jamia Millia Islamia on December 15, 2019; the outbreak of riots in East Delhi in February 2020; the ethnography of an RSS shakha, and, for that matter, the vivid description of a conversation organised by the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, in October 2009 — yes, the way a group of leading social scientists (the ones who feared that the project called Aadhaar would eventually change “the balance of powers between citizens and the State”) interrogated the savvy technologist Nandan Nilekani, the first chairperson of the Unique Identification Authority of India. There are two reasons why I wish to recommend this book to all those who are genuinely concerned about the fate of the nation tormented by the aggression of hyper-nationalism. First, I admire Bhatia’s power of empathy or the art of listening that characterises his ‘narrative reportage’. Think of, for instance, the way Bhatia followed Nisar, a witness to the riots in East Delhi. He visited his residence in Mustafabad, travelled with him to his ancestral village in Uttar Pradesh, witnessed his determination and courage even when he was passing through the mental trauma in Court no. 71 of the Karkardooma Court Complex in Delhi. Possibly, this sincere engagement enabled Bhatia to understand the intensity of pain and agony Nisar passed through as he saw the mob shouting slogans like “Kill the mullahs”, or “Set their houses on fire”. Think of Nisar’s state of consciousness as he saw the goons with “iron rods and wooden sticks” entering his locality, and shouting slogans such as “Long live Hindu unity”, and checking people’s IDs in search of Muslims in the locality!

Likewise, an accidental discovery of a book on the functioning of the RSS led Bhatia to travel to Kolkata, and meet the author, Partha Banerjee, in July 2022. There was a time when Partha was a committed member of the RSS. In fact, when he was merely six years old, his father, who was known for his “racist, Islamophobic and fascist nature”, led him to an RSS shakha. But then, as he grew up, he began to read Tagore, and watch the films of Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak. He went to America for higher studies, reflected painfully on the demolition of the Babri mosque, and eventually wrote a book — an ‘insider’s story’ that debunks and critiques the ‘Hindu supremacist ideology of the RSS and the BJP’. My second reason for recommending this book is the power of critical enquiry that characterises Bhatia’s way of looking at history. It can be seen in the way Dayanand Saraswati’s passionate plea for cow protection led to a potentially dangerous duality or division — Hindus as ‘nature-loving protectionists’ versus Muslims as ‘carnivorous slayers’. Likewise, he could trace the seeds of militaristic/fascist thinking in Balakrishna Sheuram Moonjee, a leading figure of the Hindu Mahasabha. Moonjee, as the reader is reminded, adored Benito Mussolini, and even met him in March 1931. ‘The universe,’ Moonjee thought, ‘is sustained and maintained by sword.’ No wonder, Mahatma Gandhi’s doctrine of ahimsa frustrated him; instead, as Bhatia points out, Moonjee believed that “peace had atrophied the Hindu instinct for war”. The tradition continued. While Hedgewar, the founder of the RSS, pleaded for ‘Hindu unity’ to cope with ‘Muslim riots’, Golwalkar saw “valuable lessons in Hitler’s treatment of Jews”. No wonder, Golwalkar asked for “nothing less than total submission from Muslims”.

Well, a cynic might complain that Bhatia is one-sided, and has not uttered a single word about the existence of ‘Islamic fundamentalism’ in contemporary India. But then, if you choose to see beyond the ‘blame game’, you cannot deny what the book reveals — the tyranny of majoritarianism further damaging the spirit of secularism.