India’s Troubling Tilt Towards Theocracy
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February 29, 2024
By Parthiv N. Parekh*
The massive wave of Hindu devotion to Lord Ram, witnessed recently during the consecration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, India, was breathtaking—and inspiring. Even though I grew up in a family steeped in Krishna bhakti (devotees of Lord Krishna), the reverence for Bhagwaan Ram was no less sacrosanct. So, I could relate with the joy of the millions of genuine devotees, and their innocence, surrounding the Ram Mandir.
What is of concern, however, is the noxious comingling of politics and religion. As someone who drinks deeply from the well of Sanatan Dharma faith with a daily routine of over two hours of yoga, meditation, pranayama (yogic breathing practices), and satsang (association with the good) of seers, sages, and scriptures—it pains me to see Hinduism’s flagrant weaponization by a political party.
An unparalleled spiritual heritage of supreme knowledge is being reduced to an opportunistic performative religion, drummed up for vote-bank politics. The earnest faith of the many millions of Indians is being co-opted for naked consolidation of power, and a beautiful path to God-realization is being corrupted into a chauvinistic dagger cleaving through national unity.
India has been blessed with the rarest of rare gifts: a body of spiritual knowledge, handed down from the ancient rishis, that dares to propose the possibility of a transcendental transformation of the mortal to the divine—and that this can be a living experience, not just an article of faith promising heaven in the afterlife.
From the Bhagavad Gita to the Ashtavakra Gita, Hinduism’s sacred texts implore us to undertake a deeply personal spiritual journey of self-transformation—not the chest-thumping superficial performance of seemingly sacred acts.
Lluminaries, from Patanjali and Adi Shankaracharya to the more recent self-realized masters like Ramana Maharishi and Swami Vivekananda and countless other enlightened beings, have all unanimously emphasized chipping away at the unreality of our human form to discover the divinity that is our true self.
It is not that Hinduism does not allow for the kind of mass worship that was on display last month during the consecration of the Ram Mandir. Communal rituals too have been a long and valued tradition in Hinduism. However the Gita warns us against rituals and worship done in ignorance or for egoic ends—such as, for example, the large-scale religious passions orchestrated across India by a well-oiled political machinery.
This is the kind of performative religion where the “devotees” are WhatsApp warriors flaunting their majoritarian muscle and solidifying lines of religious division. You are expected to either fall in step with them or be outcasted with ugly labels like sickular, anti-national, and worse.
True dharma, on the other hand, is one that would strengthen our conscience to call out censorship, bullying, hatemongering, lynching, and killings in the name of religion.
But most Hindus find it hard, if not impossible, to stand up to the masses within their fold. Why face harassment, physical assaults, and perhaps even death threats? Why put yourself through all this agony when you can, instead, take refuge in the security and pride of the Hindu masses?
But this jumping on the bandwagon will extract a price! Those among my Hindu brethren, who are giddy from the heady euphoria of majoritarian fervor, who are either okay, or worse—enthusiastic—about such politicization of our religion, may be fooling themselves if they think they’re the beneficiary in this profane hookup.
Look around… theocracies haven’t fared well. Countries like Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, the ones practically ruled by Mullahs, are failed states. In contrast, millions, Indians included, are clamoring to migrate to countries that are secular and prosperous, such as the U.S. and Scandinavian nations. Japan, another successful nation, values secularism despite being monocultural.
Right from ancient times, the ethos of Bharatvarsha (Indian nation) has been deeply ingrained in eclecticism, coexistence, and diversity. Any attempt to thrust a Hindu theocracy upon India’s widely diverse population of 1.5 billion is bound to end in disaster.
*Parthiv N. Parekh is Editor-in-Chief of Khabar, a monthly magazine published in Atlanta, U.S. A version of this article was first published in Khabar magazine (www.khabar.com), and is republished here with permission.
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