Comment by Riaz Haq 3 hours ago

Narendra Modi and the battle for India

https://www.economist.com/briefing/2026/10/29/narendra-modi-and-the...

Discrimination against Muslims in Modi’s India 

Under Mr Modi India has become more brash, nationalistic and Hindu, and, bluntly, a more forbidding place for the country’s 200m Muslims (just under a seventh of the population). This is the most controversial part of his legacy. It is also where opposition to Mr Modi has been least effective.

The most visible change is that Mr Modi has fused religious nationalism with politics. As prime minister he has regularly taken part in ceremonies and rituals—above all the consecration of the Ram Temple on the site of a former mosque in Ayodhya, fulfilling a decades-long campaign. The bjp has pushed through citizenship laws and begun to overhaul Muslim family law. Although the word “secular” remains in the constitution, Mr Modi has damaged the principle that India is a republic that treats all religions equally.

This is unlikely to be reversed. “Hindutva [Hindu-ness] is still a powerful magnet for the middle class,” says Rajdeep Sardesai, a tv anchor and political analyst. bjp chief ministers have emulated Mr Modi—and taken his ideology to new extremes. Opposition politicians have joined in “temple hopping” and “soft Hindutva”. The Cockroach Janta Party (cjp), the youth movement at the centre of the protests, has notably steered clear of religious issues.

Since his fateful first year as chief minister in Gujarat, Mr Modi has fostered a culture of permissiveness around anti-Muslim bigotry and violence. bjp politicians call Muslims “infiltrators” and “encroachers” and issue threats against them. Communal violence has continued to fall from its peak in the 1980s, a period marred by regular bloody riots. But there has been a rise in targeted attacks on Muslims by vigilante groups, which often meet with impunity. This will be the most damaging part of Mr Modi’s legacy—and it, too, will be difficult to reverse.

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