Ayodhya and the Politics of India's Secularism: A Double-Standards Discourse

Abstract

Ironically, on the very day that the above was published, the Babri Masjid was destroyed by a 300,000-strong mob in Ayodhya. The demolition of the mosque plunged India into the worst outbreak of communal violence since partition, with 1,700 dead and 5,500 injured. The savage communal riots in Calcutta, seat of a Communist Party government for more than a decade, and Bombay, home to the Laxmiputras (sons of Laxmi, the wealth goddess), sent shock waves through a country unaccustomed to seeing such eruptions in its principal cosmopolitan cities. Scenes of Muslims in the thousands crowding railway stations in a desperate effort to escape from Bombay were reminiscent of the mass exodus after the post-partition riots. Other costs included serious doubts about the capacity of the political system to cope with the crisis of confidence and the fright given to international investors just when they were beginning to accept the government's commitment to economic liberalization and reforms. The militant Hindus gloat over the avenging of past centuries of Muslim rule, while the average Indian Muslim is sullen, frustrated, and bitter. The English language press in India reported and reacted to the events in the language of secularism, constitutionalism, and rule of law. I shall argue here that the communalization of politics by the Bharatiya Janata Party