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Over a 6-week period from early April to the middle of May last year, the largest democratic exercise in history took place: the 2019 Indian General Election. Over 600 million Indians cast their votes and the result was an emphatic majority for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They gained 55% of the available seats, a tally that rises to 65% when their allies in the National Democratic Alliance (a group of like-minded Hindu-nationalist parties) are considered.
Since the election, Modi and the BJP have slowly set about re-working the Indian state into one that is less tolerant, less pluralistic, and less safe for minorities. The constitution that was created in 1947, amid the horrific violence of partition, stated that India would be a secular state, “united in diversity,” notions the current policies of the BJP threaten.
Last August, headlines were made as the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir was annulled as part of an election promise from the BJP. The only majority-Muslim state in the country, Jammu and Kasmir is located in the North-West of India and forms part of an extremely tense border with Pakistan. The government used its majority to abruptly amend the constitution, and the state has lost all autonomy and is now under direct rule from the government, who implement a myriad of changing rules such as curfews and roadblocks. There are parts of the Kashmir Valley that have had their internet severed for over 6 months, as part of measures the government is using to supposedly tackle Islamic extremists.
More recently, the government announced efforts to create a national register of all 1.3 billion citizens in India, in a move widely considered to be another means of ensnaring many of the 200 million Indian Muslims who have no proof of their citizenship, a situation that is common in India due to a lack of literacy in older generations and the collapse of bureaucracy following partition in 1947. The fact that camps are already being built to house those found without correct identification is extremely worrying.
It should be said that these policies are being criticised by many in India, although there is little doubt that they will bring further electoral success to Prime Minister Modi. The electoral system in India is similar to that of the United Kingdom, implementing a first past the post methodology, and as such the BJP realistically only need to court the roughly 38% of voters who elected them last year to guarantee a continued stranglehold on power.
There are, however, regions of India that have remained largely immunes to the electoral charms of Modi and the BJP, particularly in the South. Indeed, the 4 southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana elected only four BJP representatives out of a possible 101 seats.
There are several reasons behind the lack of support for the BJP in South India.
Historically, the region has always considered itself to be different to the north. Tracing their roots back to Dravidian ancestors who inhabited the subcontinent before the migration of the Aryan people in roughly 1500 BCE, there is a considerable linguistic difference between those who speak the major Dravidian languages of the South compared to the Indo-Aryan languages such as Hindi that dominate the north.
Demographically, the region is majority-Hindu, like most of the country, but with a strong minority presence of Christians and Muslims throughout, particularly in urban centres. Literacy is considerably higher in the south, and the voting record has consistently been more liberal and varied; Kerala was the first region to democratically elect a communist government back in the 1970s. During the election the BJP did not even campaign in many southern constituencies, such was the improbability of them competing.
As a result, national government funding to these southern regions has decreased, and the increasingly aggressive rhetoric of Modi and his government continues to alienate all Indians who do not hold the strong Hindutva (Hindu-nationalist) principles that he does. It does not take a huge stretch of imagination to assume that continued drifting from the Hindu-nationalist policies emanating from Delhi could prove troublesome for Southern India.
What is happening in Kashmir and North-East India should not be ignored, yet international condemnation has been noticeable through its absence, exemplified by President Trump’s recent visit to India. The confidence gained for Modi and his party through the lack of criticism these divisive policies are receiving will not lead to a lessening of the relentless grip the BJP is placing on Indian democracy. Without scaremongering it seems reasonable to assume that minorities throughout India will continue to suffer unless condemnation is heaped upon the Modi government.
South India is only one region of India, containing large religious minority populations, and fascinating cultural and historical idiosyncrasies. This vast and diverse country should support regions such as this and recognise the benefits of a healthy and competitive electoral system. Sadly, it seems that things are moving in the opposite direction. The future for India could be bright. It has a young, entrepreneurial society with a vast population, and a democracy that has so far confounded international pundits through its resilience and longevity. Harnessing the potential of this diverse, varied society should be the priority of a majority government with a mandate to act quickly. Using that mandate to divide the society further would be a failure of both governance and morality.
Author: Cormac Healy
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