PI Briefing | No. 32 | You can't feed hungry bellies with hate

Last week, India celebrated its 78th independence day. At the helm of the bombastic celebrations at the Red Fort in New Delhi was prime minister Narendra Modi, on the back foot for the first time, reeling from losing the majority in Parliament in the June elections which compelled him to form a coalition government.

The election setback, however, seems not to have slowed down the prime minister. From the ramparts, Modi announced his support for a ‘Secular Civil Code,’ a direct attack on the right to freedom of religion, constitutionally guaranteed to minorities in India. Innocuous at face value, the Hindu right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party’s underlying argument is that while Hindus have willingly accepted reform, the 'other' communities continue to cling to diverse and retrogressive laws, refusing to merge into the national mainstream.

The idea of ‘a Hindu nation’ has, of course, long fuelled Modi’s project and has only grown more brazen in recent years. Consider the latest election, a report published last week by Human Rights Watch revealed that Modi "made Islamophobic remarks" in 110 out of the 173 speeches during his campaign. As documented in the Progressive International dispatch, the BJP has illegally demolished Muslim households, and turned a blind eye to attacks on Muslims, including the death of 12 Muslim men, in just the few weeks since re-election.

Yet, criticism of Modi has remained muted in the international press. One of the principal reasons is his supposed success with the Indian economy. In his speech at the Red Fort, Modi made a bold pledge: That India would become the world’s third largest economy in his term. That, in essence, is what drives his international image: Sure, he appears to be uncomfortably majoritarian, but look at India’s growth rate.

On its own terms then, does the Modi miracle narrative hold up? As India marked its independence day, what does that freedom really look like for the 1.4 billion people that constitute the nation?

Income inequality in India has now surpassed levels seen under British colonial rule, with the latest “World Inequality Report” terming India a “Billionaire Raj.” While the number of ultra-rich has increased elevenfold in the past decade, the country now ranks 111 out of a total of 125 countries in the Global Hunger Index, accounting for one quarter of the world's undernourished.

But, what about the pie if not its distribution? Modi's second term has witnessed the lowest GDP growth since India began market liberalisation in the early 1990s and in fact, per capita income growth has been half of what it was during the previous decade under Modi’s predecessor, Manmohan Singh. Foreign direct investment has significantly decreased, reaching its lowest point in nearly 20 years.

These are markers of an economy — and a society in crisis. Banks are experiencing the worst deposit shortage in 20 years, as household savings hit a 47-year low and household debt reaches a record high. One of the youngest countries in the world, it is also home to some of the most disempowered youth in the world: A third of graduates in India do not have a job.

Modi’s recourse, however, is to feed hungry bellies with hate.

From communal riots at home to foreign policy, the rot runs deep. Weeks into the assault on Gaza in October 2023, India made a decisive U-turn on decades-long tradition and abstained from a U.N. resolution calling for a humanitarian truce in Gaza. Meanwhile, large groups of Indian citizens, Hindu fundamentalists, organised a demonstration in support of Israel outside the country’s embassy in Delhi. In one video, Subedhar Lalit, a former soldier, can be heard saying, “We only have one message: Israel should give us citizenship, enlist us in their army, and together, we will eliminate these Islamic jihadists, enemies of humanity, from the planet.”

Modi is determinedly redefining the idea of being Indian as being “anti-Muslim,” fuelling a perpetual distraction from a distressed economy.  When the government decided to send 35,000 workers to Israel as substitutes for Palestinian labor, Chaudhary Ranbir Singh, an unemployed postgraduate in history stated simply, "I am aware of the threat in Israel due to the war with Hamas, but it's better to die while working there than to die of hunger here."

The Progressive International stands with the forces struggling to keep India’s democratic promise - a state for all its citizens - alive.

Art of the Week: Rah Naqvi is an Indian artist based in Amsterdam. Their work engages in themes of religious and societal polarisation. By using familiar motifs, Naqvi navigates complex subjects of belonging and imposed colonial identities.

Yatra depicts the annual Rath Yatra in Ahmedabad, a religious procession feared by Muslim residents due to historic Hindu-Muslim tensions. However, Naqvi’s Yatra, made in collaboration with master craftsman Chandrakant Chitara, depicts an alternative reality, where the the two communities celebrate together harmoniously.