Hindu Nationalism and the New Jim Crow

Bibliographic Data

ID6287625
AuthorsAshutosh Varshney (0000-0002-0215-9790), Connor Staggs
Year2024
Volume35
Issue1
Pages5-18
Publication date2024-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of democracy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1045-5736 • E-ISSN: 1086-3214
PublisherProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/jod.2024.a915345
OpenAlexW4389767244
LanguageEN
Citations received13

This essay draws a parallel between the political and social dynamics of Hindu nationalism in India under Narendra Modi and the policies of racial segregation of the Jim Crow era in the United States (from approximately 1880 to 1965). As with the marginalization of black Americans based on race during Jim Crow, Hindu nationalism aims to marginalize Muslim Indians based on religion. Methods similar to those used in the Jim Crow South—including exclusionary laws, segregation, and vigilante violence—are now being deployed in India to subdue Muslims. Such actions go against the principles of equality established by India's 1950 Constitution. As in the Jim Crow South, the judiciary in India has proven slow to play its assigned role as guarantor of liberal constitutionalism. Friends of liberal, constitutional democracy will be wise not to count on judges to salvage the situation. In the end, only the voters can decide to stop Hindu nationalism, or else underwrite its final advance

Constitution · Constitutionalism · Democracy · Hindu nationalism · Hinduism · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Gender Studies · Indian History and Philosophy · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies · South Asian Cinema and Culture · South Asian Studies and Conflicts

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