BJP's innovative attempts at forging a new national identity

Constructing a shared national identity is the typical challenge of pluralistic societies like India. However, the definition of Indianness is changing of late. The reintegration of Hinduism – both in its past glory and its "persecution" at the hands of "invaders" – as the defining feature of Indian identity has assumed a new salience. What was held in check by a secular state is now a matter of state propagation.

Several events suggest that the present political dispensation is trying to define Indianness as pan-geographical Hindu unity. Two recent examples come from Gujarat -- the state-sponsored Madhavpur Mela in Porbandar organised from March 30 to April 3 and the Saurashtra-Tamil Sangam held at Gir-Somnath from April 17 to 30. A Kasi-Tamil Sangamam organised last year in Varanasi also sought to do the same.

The Madhavpur Mela celebrates the mythological marriage of the Hindu God Krishna (who, having fled Mathura, became the ruler of Dwarka) with Rukmani. Rukmani, it is now claimed, was a princess of the Idu Mishmi tribe of Arunachal Pradesh. The five-day celebration begins with Varanagi or Fuleku, the royal wedding procession, followed by the wedding ceremony and culminates in a grand reception welcoming the bride and the groom home.

In his March 2022 radio monologue "Mann ki Baat", Prime Minister Narendra Modi devoted time to the Madhavpur Mela, linking it to the integration of the North-East with mainland India. He said it represented the "deep bond between India's East and West" and was "a very beautiful example of 'Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat (One India, Excellent India)'."

The Madhavpur Mela was a small affair till recently, organised by the local village panchayat. In 2018, the organisation of the fair was taken over by the state government and scaled up with the help of the Union Ministry of Culture and the Union Ministry for the Development of North Eastern States. The chief ministers of the northeastern states and some Mishmi tribesmen are regularly invited to the fair and form Rukmani's wedding party. This year Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma led the wedding party, describing himself in a tweet as a "Gharati" or representative of the bride's family. 

Anthropologists are sceptical of linking the Idu Mishmis to the Rukmini legend. Some claim a Central Indian origin for Rukmini. However, if the animist Idu Mishmis are happy with the myth and Hinduisation of their culture, so be it. However, the construction of a modern myth establishing Hindu antecedents for the tiny tribe of 30,000 Idu Mishmis is undeniably linked to the BJP's larger project.

The Saurashtra-Tamil Sangam is also a part of this project. It was first celebrated by the then chief minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, in 2006 at Saurashtra University. This has been upscaled to a 10-day event, with defence minister Rajnath Singh inaugurating it this year on April 17. Prime Minister Modi is expected to grace the concluding ceremony.

Connecting Tamils of Saurashtrian origin, a BJP state minister spelt out the components of the new myth: "The cultural unity of India was there in historical times also and we are going to highlight it now. They (Saurashtrian Tamils) have been living there and have assimilated in the culture there. But their migration from their motherland was one of the biggest in history. Following invasions by Mahmud of Ghazni and Alauddin Khilji, they had to leave their motherland." This programme is also being organised under the rubric of "Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat".

The Saurashtra migrants to Tamil Nadu were skilled silk weavers who were initially granted patronage by the Vijayanagara Kings and migrated to Madurai after Vijayanagara's decline. There is no historical evidence which suggests forced migration because of the sacking of the Somnath Temple. They are nevertheless being told that they were cut off from their roots by Muslim invaders and should renew them.

The ten-day celebrations align with the month-long Kasi-Tamil Sangamam organised by the Modi government in Varanasi in 2022 to reinforce "centuries-old civilisational links between the North and the South." Dravidian parties have criticised the event as an attempt to "impose Hindi" and "saffron thinking". However, it is less about targeting voters in Tamil Nadu than establishing a national identity based on Hinduism and its cultural traits.

This was not how Indian identity was conceived by those who led India to freedom. They did not want to define Indian identity in terms of unified culture or religion -- fearing it would create a "Hindu Pakistan". Instead, they chose to fashion a national identity based on mutual goals that all residents of Independent India wished to accomplish for themselves, which would unite them into one nation. Such a national identity, by definition, has to surpass all diversities and unite the people into a single national identity.

The path to such a national identity lay through citizenship which committed all Indians to a set of values and beliefs described in the Constitution of India. The marriage of Rukmani from Arunachal Pradesh to Lord Krishna of Dwarka in Gujarat cannot be the basis of Indian identity – it has to be premised on the commitment of the people of Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat and other states of India to constitutional citizenship. Similarly, reinforcing cultural links between Varanasi and Tamil Nadu or Gujarati settlers of Tamil Nadu and today's Saurashtra is not going to achieve the commonality of Constitutional beliefs.

That superordinate identity is now sought to be reinvented in the "navel of Hindutva" in the communally surcharged state of Gujarat. High-sounding slogans like "Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat" have become a subterfuge for state patronage of communal politics valuing one religious-cultural identity over others. The emergent paternalistic state promotes communal identity by supporting the building of Hindu temples, cleaning up temple complexes and converting them into modern theme parks for religious tourism (teerthatan) where one can both pray and enjoy the tourist sites. It places primacy on the Hindu cultural identity of India over its secular national identity based on constitutional beliefs. If this is the excellence that is being sought for India, we will be better off without it. Disclaimer: These are personal views of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of www.business-standard.com or the Business Standard newspaper