The Politics of Majoritarianism in India

Within Hinduism just as within Christianity there is also pluralism a diversity of views. Will that ensure that the ideology of this sort of majoritarianism will be contested? I would never say that there is no liberal opposition towards going on in India. It's just that the levers of the state and the co-optation of the media are so strong.

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Is there liberal opposition to what is going on, even in a more diverse India with a raucous democratic tradition?

Synopsis: Each fourth Friday of the month, The Straits Times' US bureau chief Nirmal Ghosh presents an Asian perspective of the biggest global talking points with expert guests.

In this episode, we discuss how and why, across the complex region of South Asia, majorities are convinced that minorities are a threat.

South Asia is a region of some two billion, but right-wing politics and religious majoritarianism, the arms of the state and the media, are coming together to threaten democracy and the health and longevity of states. The politics of hate in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka is fuelling, and feeds off, religious majoritarianism.

Nirmal Ghosh hosts Farahnaz Ispahani, a former journalist, former member of Pakistan’s parliament, and currently a senior fellow at the Religious Freedom Institute in Washington DC, and Salil Tripathi, author, journalist and member of the Board of PEN International.

Highlights (click/tap above):

1:40 Why Pakistan is the worst among "religious majoritarian states" in South Asia; add to that a "nuclear-armed Pakistan with an economy in free fall"

3:40 On the history and similar trajectory in Bangladesh and also, how "the liberal Pakistani used to look up to India for its democratic roots and tradition, when now… if you're Muslim, you can't be safe in India."

9:05 How the religious right and the political right have come together to make the majority feel they're under threat from the minority

12:16 How this trend is happening, as our guest expert offers daily life examples in India

17:15 On how the media in these South Asia countries could amplify divisions

Produced by: Nirmal Ghosh (nirmal@sph.com.sg), Ernest Luis, Hadyu Rahim and Fa’izah Sani

Edited by: Hadyu Rahim and Fa’izah Sani

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