When India overtook China as the world’s most populous country this April, commentators quickly declared it the “Indian century”, largely to reflect on the so-called “demographic dividend”. By 2030, India’s working-age population to total population ratio will reach 70%, the highest of any major economy in the world. It’s a workforce of extraordinary magnitude – fully a quarter of the world’s – and a consumer class with equally extraordinary potential.
powerhouse of the world
However, there have been other Indian centuries too – one that faced colonial oppression before attaining independence in 1947. For a millennium before the British arrived, India, along with China, was a powerhouse; By the 1600s it is estimated to have held a quarter of the world’s production capacity. The imperial capital at Delhi was the destination of ambassadors, from the court of King James I to the Emperor of Ayutthaya in present-day Thailand; poets and painters and musicians from Central and West Asia, and craftsmen from as far away as Italy, who brought with them the pietra dura artistry that adorns the Taj Mahal.
That century was only the last of many centuries marked by breathtaking achievements. How to even start a list? the invention of zero, making algebra and calculus possible, and eventually the computer; a perfection of linguistics equaled only by the West in the 20th century; a language landscape unlike that of Rome or China, in which authors in dozens of languages produced works of transcendental beauty; the weavers who clothed the world in Africa and beyond; Metallurgists who created corrosion-resistant iron 2,000 years ago. and the farmers who sent the world new grains—and varieties of cumin, cardamom, and others—who also demonstrated how to live with animals facing extinction everywhere.
Colonialism destroyed much of the tradition that made India great, but the country began to reclaim its heritage in 1947, after four decades of the most creative mobilization for independence in history. Although the democratic constitution of independent India may have been written by an Indian who studied at Columbia University, BR Ambedkar, the republican practices and federalism enshrined in it have deep roots in the country; And while independent India’s self-description, “Unity in Diversity”, may have become a mere slogan today, it was exemplified in India’s long historical record of pluralism.
Under Narendra Modi’s government, the remarkable achievements of India’s distant and recent past, above all, the singular achievement of learning to live with religious and cultural differences, are now under threat. since he became prime minister in 2014 (after a youth stint in the ranks of a paramilitary organization supporting Hindu nationalism, and then a long stint as chief minister of Gujarat state, where he was accused of – and is now is also suspected by many) of the 2002 mass murder of Muslim civilians, despite his acquittal by the courts, Mr. Modi ushered in a practice of intrusive state power and majoritarian nationalism that India has not yet seen It is unlike anything that has happened, while destroying a lot to make India great.
a systematic campaign
Last year, watchdog groups (including Genocide Watch, echoed by a study by Georgetown University) issued warnings about the organized persecution of India’s Muslims (14% of the population, about 200 million). It cited, in particular, the 2019 revocation of Kashmir’s special autonomous status, ending seven decades of security; The Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens, together aimed at driving out Muslim refugees from Bangladesh, but at reducing second-class citizenship, to millions of Indian Muslims who lacked documents, which many Indians has not got; and anti-conversion laws, which the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has found inconsistent with human rights.
And that is to say, the daily arrests and detentions of Muslims without any legal basis, and the repeated beatings and lynching of Muslim shopkeepers and traders, mean nothing. In a word, Mr. Modi’s government oppresses Muslims by enacting laws and government practices that violate human rights, while maintaining silence on the atrocities committed against them by the malign forces unleashed by its own religious nationalism.
Under Mr Modi, the government has launched a systematic campaign to destroy civil society, outlawing non-governmental organizations (NGOs), undermining universities, think tanks and research centres, and harassing the free press.
In its documentary ‘India: The Modi Question’ last winter, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reviewed a 2002 British government document that held Mr Modi “directly responsible” for the massacre of Muslims during the Gujarat riots was found, and that the violence had “all the hallmarks of a massacre”. Two months later, the BBC’s Mumbai and New Delhi offices were raided by the Central Board of Direct Taxes, citing “irregularities and discrepancies” in the broadcaster’s taxes.
Comparable tactics have been used against environmental groups including Oxfam India, the Environics Trust, and the Legal Initiative for Forests and Environment (LIFE, whose director, lawyer Ritvik Dutta, has been persecuted by the Central Bureau of Investigation), as well as India Leading public policy think tank Center for Policy Research (CPR) against. In each case, their foreign contribution licenses were revoked, effectively ending their ability to function.
There has been a focused attack to undermine the intellectual and administrative autonomy of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, the most prestigious institution of higher education in the country, and research institutes such as the Center for the Study of Developing Societies and the Center for the Studies in New Delhi. Long admired for its intellectual independence, the Calcutta Institute of Social Sciences has suddenly had its budget cut by the central government.
The free press has been virtually silenced. “Violation of Press Freedom in India” (a report by the International Press Institute) identified 83 violations between April and September, 2022. “In the last eight years, the Modi government and the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] Supporters have attempted to silence independent media through attacks and repressive laws…. At least 18 journalists faced physical attacks and violence during this monitoring period, involving both state and non-state actors.
adani saga
Some of these abuses and attacks have targeted legitimate opposition to the activities of one company: Adani Enterprises, whose directors are close to Modi.
This global conglomerate headquartered in India has been in the news a lot. In November, The New York Times reported that the company’s chairman, Gautam Adani, had been named as the richest man in Asia. Shortly thereafter a New York financial research firm revealed it was running “the biggest scam in corporate history”. Mr. Adani’s coal mines and his close relationship with Mr. Modi would also be making news.
NGOs are investigating the horrific environmental destruction perpetrated by Mr Adani in his quest for some of the world’s dirtiest coal – including the devastation of some of the world’s most biodiverse areas in eastern India and the wholesale eradication of villages and indigenous life. Yet, it is Mr. Adani’s critics who have been punished by the government, as The Washington Post reported, not the frauds he committed, nor the prime minister, who have been blamed for his hard work in securing lucrative coal deals. have helped.
Religious persecution, attacks on NGOs, independent research centers and the press are bad enough. Further fueling environmental chaos, of potentially global proportions but devastating for India in particular – Mr Adani has been named by Oxfam as the third most guilty carbon billionaire in the world – shows the true scope of the problem.
As chief minister, Mr. Modi was denied a visa to the United States in 2005 because of his alleged involvement in the Gujarat carnage. This week he arrives on a state visit to the United States, despite the fact that his record on human rights and civil liberties is in many ways poor since he was elected prime minister in 2014. The plain fact is that this record has been completely ignored by Presidents Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden. If, as the White House has put it, Indian leaders will visit to “reinforce our two countries’ shared commitment to a free, open, prosperous and secure Indo-Pacific region”, what freedoms should US leaders expect? I need to talk seriously. And openness means more in India now. India will be able to inaugurate an ‘Indian Century’ only when its great tradition of pluralism and respect for diversity is re-established.
Aqeel Bilgrami is the Sidney Morgenbesser Professor of Philosophy, Professor, Committee on Global Thought, Columbia University. Sheldon Pollock is Arvind Raghunathan Professor Emeritus of South Asian Studies at Columbia University