Islamophobia: The Manufactured Illness of Sick Indian Hindutvavādins

Posted on 09/07/2023 (GMT 12: 35 hrs)

License: CC BY 4.0

Abstract

The article critically examines the rise of Islamophobia in India as a constructed phenomenon driven by Hindutva ideology. The author argues that Hindutva, a politico-religious movement, systematically manufactures Islamophobia to consolidate Hindu nationalist power, portraying Muslims as existential threats through narratives of “love jihad,” demographic invasion, and terrorism. Drawing on postcolonial and psychoanalytic frameworks, the article traces this “illness” to colonial legacies, RSS propaganda, and media amplification, which dehumanize Muslims and justify violence against them. It highlights the socio-political consequences, including mob lynchings, discriminatory laws like the CAA-NRC, and the marginalization of Muslim voices. The piece critiques the complicity of India’s ruling elite and calls for dismantling Hindutva’s divisive rhetoric through inclusive dialogue and resistance to nationalist hegemony, warning of democracy’s erosion if unchecked.

INTRODUCTION

The aim of this paper is to highlight the political role that the construct of Islamophobia plays in the contemporary scenario of Indian politics under the crony governmentality of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its associate organizations under the Saṅgh Parivār, viz., how the very construct is presented or propagandized, how it finds manifestation in the public domain, how it relates to the grave socio-economic catastrophes that India is currently facing and so on. The paper also reaffirms the syncretic underpinnings of the geo-political formation of India by often alluding to historical studies, political events and cultural moorings. In doing so, it proposes a political strategy that far transcends the narrow electoral politics of regimented formations to conceive an outlook of resistance that repudiates the narratives of manufactured hate and exclusivist intolerance.

Moreover, the authors of this agit-prop paper use “Islamophobia” as a process of displacement, a metaphor to depict the psychic traits of the Hindutvavādīns, who are indoctrinated by the Saṅgh Parivār with pseudo-narratives of mythical Hinduism. Keeping in mind the seminal work of Susan Sontag: Illness as Metaphor (1978) ⤡, the authors are going to present a picture of contemporary Indian Politics, where the victims are suffering due to the dominant ideology of the Hindutvavādīns, who, in turn, are also suffering from a deep rooted disease, or rather, an anxiety disorder in the form of Islamophobia. The torch-bearers of Hindutvavāda consider the “other” (read Muslims) as cancerous elements of the Indian geo-politics, or as they say, “parasites” living off the nation’s wealth. This reciprocal naming of diseases is infesting both the contestants: victims and victimizers.

Islamophobia: The Manufactured Illness of Sick Indian Hindutvavādins VIEW HERE ⤡ @academia.edu

Islamophobia: The Manufactured Illness of Sick Indian Hindutvavādins VIEW HERE ⤡ @researchgate