Indian historian Ramachandra Guha has said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a “putative dictator” who has “authoritarian instincts” and “dictatorial tendencies”.
Guha, in an interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, said that Modi’s majoritarianism agenda can destroy the social fabric of India.
“Majoritarianism poisons the mind and the heart. The hate and bigotry that it engenders spread like cancer through the body politic, robbing individuals and society of civility, decency, compassion and humanity itself,” he said.
Drawing a distinction with Indira Gandhi’s Emergency, when she had combined authoritarianism with family rule, Guha said Modi today combines authoritarianism with Hindu majoritarianism. He said that “the intention of Modi and Shah is to suppress all free speech.”
He added that a third term for the Modi government will give licence to a full-fledged regime of thought-control.
However, even if Modi wins a sweeping victory and returns to power for the third time, “the authoritarianism of the Emergency years” is unlikely to return because large states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Karnataka, Telangana and Punjab will be outside his and the BJP’s control. These states will politically resist his attempt to dominate them, he said.
However, what Guha fears is the impact of Modi’s majoritarianism on the social fabric of the country and the thinking and behaviour of its people.
He believes the stigmatisation of Muslims will sharpen, the screws on the media will tighten, and the independence of the civil services, the judiciary, and public regulatory institutions will be further undermined. Meanwhile, Central Universities, IITs, and IIMs will become centres of Hindutva propaganda and the structure of Indian federalism will grow weaker.
He added that anti-Muslim hate speeches, like the one Modi delivered in Rajasthan on Sunday (April 21), will proliferate and become a common occurrence if Modi wins a third term. He believes “non-Hindus will be treated as inferior and sub-human”. Muslims will be, as the RSS has often said, “shown their place”.
This is why he believes the ongoing general elections “is the most important since 1977”.
