Is Hindutva ideology contributing to the India-Pakistan conflict?

5 May 2020

The first rule of unrestricted warfare is that there are no rules. As the world struggles to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, India and Pakistan have once again engaged in cross-border skirmishes even amidst a global pandemic.

For observers of South Asia this is unsurprising as this is the part of the continuing low intensity conflict between the region’s two nuclear armed rivals. Operating below the nuclear threshold, both India Pakistan tend to strike each other through several, diversified means, be it conventional military strikes as witnessed in February 2019, or via political and economic maneuvers to thwart stability of the other.

A critical dimension to the hybrid conflict between India-Pakistan is information warfare, which is fought in the mind of every citizen. The idea is to construct a reality to serve political objectives and propagate narratives as deemed fit for national interest.

Hindutva ideology appears to be a vehicle of such an approach. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has since 2014 increasingly propagated the sense of Hindu nationalism in the social fiber of India, all the while shifting the political environment in favor of Hindutva and perpetuating in the media an “us vs them” discourse.

On the Pakistani side, the perception of rising Hindu nationalism in India is serving to underscore Muslim nationalism and the security dilemma. This has imbued nationalistic rhetoric onto both sides and intensifies the rivalry between the two countries and cements the narrative proclaimed by either side.

Building perceptions: Hindutva as a civilizational construct

The India-Pakistan conflict finds roots in the civilizational clash. The Hindu vs. Muslims animosity shaped the 1947 partition of the subcontinent and thereafter relations between both nations. Where previously the Indian narrative maintained a secular edifice, Hindutva ideology calls for Hindu Rashtra, a majoritarian Hindu state. While in India pursing this ideology is deepening nationalist perceptions, in Pakistan, as a spillover, it is reinforcing the partition-old security concerns regarding the safety of Muslims in South Asia.

In India, Hindutva has critically shifted the narratives away from secularism in the socio-cultural, and political settings. Building on ancient Brahmin traditions, Hindutva believes in an exclusive Hindu nationalism.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a nationalist organization that advocates Hindutva, romanticizes the ancient Hindu rule on the subcontinent, seeing Hindus as a superior race. Seeking to revive such a rule, the governing BJP, the political wing of RSS and the dominant polical party in India, has politicized the public narratives in favor of Hindutva mindset, to which even opposition parties acknowledge. The intolerance towards minorities, mob lynching of Muslims for instance, justify the changing socio-cultural perceptions. Also on the political front, policies such as the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and Ayoda Verdict are emblematic of the efforts to build similar perceptions in India.

Such an ideology practiced in India reinforces the threat perception in Pakistan. The ideological foundation of Pakistan, the Two-Nation theory, considers Muslims and Hindus as two separate nations. Believing that they would not be able to practice their religion freely alongside a Hindu majority, thus the Muslims of the subcontinent sought a separate homeland.

Drawing the bases to Muslim nationalism, Pakistan’s threat perception has remained Indian centric. Looking at Hindutva taking a center stage, and Muslims being demonized in India, the security concerns in Pakistan are further strengthened. For one, it underpins the perceived security threats that a Hindu majority might pose to the Muslim minority.

The strategic thinking in Pakistan believes in an existential threat posed to its territorial integrity from the conventionally superior India. Also, if the recent Citzenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens foments further unrest in India, as Pakistan’s Imran Khan warned it would, Pakistan would not be able to to cater to an influx of refugees, given the economic challenges at already at hand.

Intensifying hybrid conflict

The preceding perceptions strengthen the adversarial mindset in both countries, leading them to promote their version of reality and advance their own rhetoric. For instance, the battle of narratives has been on full display since India revoked Article 370 and 35A of Indian constitution, ending the special status of Kashmir.

While Indian government argued that it was to foster development in Kashmir, the Pakistani government continues to point it out as a Hindutva-driven agenda. Along this line, Pakistan stresses on the state repression, carried out by Indian forces, on Kashmiris, depriving them of their freedom and right of self-determination for one. India, on the other hand, accuses Pakistan of aiding militant groups operating in Kashmir, and India at large.

With both India and Pakistan playing the blame-game, while bolstering their own rhetoric, it is reflective of the nationalist discourses that are overtaking relations between two nuclear armed rivals.

With this perception-building, Hindutva ideology remains decisive in determining state actions and shaping policies. The surgical strikes launched by India against Pakistan are a key example: The BJP’s electoral base weights heavily towards the anti-Pakistan narrative. Appeasing the nationalist sentiments in domestic audience,Narendra Modis’ government conducted “non-military pre-emptive strikes” in Balakot in reaction to the Pulwama attack, claimed by a militant group- Jaish-e-Mohammad, which killed over 40 personnel of Indian forces.

In Pakistan, the strikes entrenched the established narrative of aggressive Indian posture and the need to retaliate in self-defense, leading to Operation Swift Retort. This escalation pattern implies that nationalist discourses might as well in future call for hard-line actions in response to military moves in South Asia. Even the nationalist domestic policies speak to the concerns in Pakistan. With CAA and NRC reiterating Pakistan’s securitization narrative, it would use indirect maneuvers to fend off threats.

A hybrid adversary seeks to paralyze the opponent. One way to do so is by restricting the alliance buildup of the adversary. Pakistan and India use diplomatic maneuvering against each other. Arguing that Pakistan sponsors terrorism in India, the Indian government had sought to diplomatically isolate Pakistan in the international community.

Successful or not, Hindutva ideology has given Pakistan the chance to use the same strategy against India. Pakistani government has labelled BJP as a fascist government in retrospect to its “annexation of Kashmir.” On various international platforms, Pakistan has voiced the Muslim atrocities conducted by the Indian government.

Pakistan has been fairly successful considering how India is receiving backlash from those Muslim countries which were previously exercising calculated restraint. For example, while United Arab Emirates (UAE) awarded PM Modi with Highest Civilian Award amidst the Kashmir crisis last August, Royal Family and important figures in UAE have criticized the Islamophobia emanating from India.

For the future, Pakistan-India hybrid conflict would exacerbate, with Hindutva ideology playing its part. Hindutva has charged the antagonistic mindset and nationalist perspectives on both sides.

The Hindu-vs Muslim nationalism emboldens the long-established security dilemma and trust deficit, meanwhile further dictating nationalist state policies and actions in similar perspective. Under the nuclear umbrella, perception dissonance, low-intensity conventional strikes, and diplomatic isolation between India Pakistan would intensify.

DISCLAIMER: All views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent that of the 9DASHLINE.com platform.

Author biography

Kashoon Leeza is Islamabad-based analyst and Teacher and Research Associate at School of Politics and International Relations, Quaid- e-Azam University. She has done Bachelors in International Relations. She contributes to South Asian Voices. She interned on a women empowerment project in Turkey, AIESEC. Her research interest includes Conflict Studies, Foreign Policy, Indo-Pacific, International Law, women empowerment and minority issues. Image credit: Ministry of External Affairs (India)/Flickr.

South Asia, Editor's Picks9DLMay 5, 2020India, South Asia, Modi, Pakistan