The Coming of a Hindu State
The Yogi’s anointment has in one stroke converted an electoral majority into a majoritarian one
Yogi Adityanath, the chief priest of one of the largest temples of Uttar Pradesh, Gorakhnath mutt in Gorakhpur, has been chosen to run the most populous and politically weightiest state in the Indian Union. For long he has dominated the headlines because of his vituperative brand of politics articulated in statements like “given a chance, I will instal Ganesh statues in every mosque”. After the BJP came to power with a landslide in 2014, he did not step back from making offensive speeches. The stoking of sentiments through such bellicose language was what helped the BJP garner massive support in the 2017 election and he has been duly rewarded for his efforts.
Indeed, the newly minted chief minister is the BJP’s fiercest campaigner for Hindutva. He ran a brazenly communal campaign, yet, the decision to appoint him as chief minister is justified on the ground that he is a five-time MP and, for that reason a popular choice. At this time, it could be argued that he has been elected again and again from Gorakhpur—one of the most backward districts of UP—in part because he is the head of a temple and by virtue of his spiritual status can command veneration from voters. He is an icon of militant Hindu sectarianism, who has built his political career by using religious politics as an instrument of electoral mobilisation. By choosing him, the message the BJP sends is that it will continue to try and capture power by resorting to overt communal mobilisation. His choice signals a front-staging of issues such as cow vigilantism, love jihad and forced religious conversion. Crucially, his appointment seems to be clearing the way for the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The elevation of Adityanath came as a surprise to many observers. Critics have highlighted his hate speeches against Muslims, which of course can’t be dismissed as irksome details of his past, best forgotten now that he is chief minister. But beyond minority baiting, the really important issue is the deliberate amalgamation of the spiritual and temporal domains, which has serious consequences for the future of liberal democracy. For the first time in independent India, a head of a religious institution has been appointed to the most important constitutional-political post in a state. This is emblematic of the new institutional relationship between religion and the state being forged under the BJP regime. The ruling regime has ceded considerable power to the spiritual domain—a risky decision in this case because Adityanath is known to be strongly self-governing and defiant.
Secularism is a central idiom in India’s political life. But its meaning has become increasingly contested, hence, secularism as an ideological formation and a set of cultural and political practices has been under attack even though it has emerged as a defining characteristic of modern democratic societies. Even if we approach secularism as a series of constantly evolving and contested processes of defining and redefining the place of religion in public life, the elevation of a priest to the post of chief minister is the most blatant contravention of the separation of religion and state power essential for modernity and democracy. At a minimum, the institutions and authority of the state have to maintain a formal, if not substantive, distinction from those of religion, but this central principle of secularity has been compromised in the machinations of UP politics.
The elevation of Adityanath marks a new moment in modern Indian politics, which may be used to dismantle the fundamentals of our republic. His anointment has in one stroke converted the electoral majority into a majoritarian one. It is an acknowledgement that the BJP’s victory was driven by Hindu consolidation and not the development promises of Narendra Modi. It represents the most explicit and tacky attempt at speeding up the transformation of a secular republic into a Hindu state.