Chosenness-Myth-Trauma Syndrome and Hindutva’s Othering of Minorities in India

Abstract

The political rise of Hindutva, under the tutelage of Narendra Modi, has heralded an era where the life, liberty and property of religious minorities especially Muslims are under grave threat. Modi’s India continues to lose its secular credentials. Minorities are presented as ‘them’ who can be subjected to physical attacks, state persecution and neglect with impunity. What are the root causes of this anger against the minorities and why did Hindutva construct the binaries of us and them? While employing qualitative process tracing methodology and using the lens of Chosenness-Myth-Trauma (CMT) Syndrome as a theory this study finds that the identity construction process, along the lines of Hindutva, had been set into motion even before 1947 and continued after the partition of the Subcontinent into India and Pakistan. Supporters of Hindutva presented the historical experiences and representations ─ they being ruled by the Muslims as an example of the trauma, thus ‘othering’ the Muslims, which automatically led to the creation of a sense of us versus them. They, having a substantial majority in India, constructed this myth of us being surrounded by them ─ the enemies, in this case, Muslims and other minorities. They also created the myth of a glorious age where they could transform India into a uniform Hindu society and state. The study examines that with the electoral success of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the process of identity construction started to gather steam in the late 1980s. However, the towering figure of Narendra Modi and his meteoric rise to power provided state patronage to the process. Since Modi has been a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), he successfully implemented its agenda of labelling minorities as ‘others’ resulting in the rise of anger that ultimately simmered into violence against minorities.