The Untruth of an Indian Majority

Although India might rank second to China in terms of population, as far as sheer diversity is concerned, we’re head and shoulders ahead of the rest.

The Indian Constitution recognizes seventeen languages – while there are around forty-odd others that are native tongues to at least a million folks each. And, by the way, these are all completely different languages. If we were to talk in terms of dialects, the tally would be put around 22,000! What’s beautiful, however, is the fact that the native speakers of each one of these languages fall into a linguistic minority - for no one language is spoken by a majority of the population, i.e. more than 50%. There are many who believe (wrongly, may I add) that Hindi is the national language. While Hindi may certainly be understood by a large number of Indians – it is largely confined to a limited geographic region. For instance, Hindi is alien to most ears in the South of India. Indeed, the people of the South in particular aren’t too welcoming of it either. Not many know that some years back, the people of Tamil Nadu violently resisted the imposition of Hindi as a part of educational curriculums much to the consternation of the Centre in New Delhi.

As far as the oh-so-touchy topic of religion is concerned, we are home to every major religion known to man. Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Parsees, Jews, Baha’is, Buddhists, Jains.. you name it, we carry it. We are a “god-infested” country, as Salman Rushdie wrote years back. Yes, it is true that around 80% of India’s population is Hindu and the shallow brigadiers of saffronism will, undoubtedly, do their utmost to have that 80% believe that they are a “majority.” Therefore, according to their logic, India should be a “Hindu Rashtra.”

Hogwash.

No one in India is part of a majority when the classifications of ethnicity, language and religion are all applied simultaneously. An illiterate Hindutva activist in fascist-controlled Gujarat may well believe he is a part of the Indian majority, but the fact that he’s Gujarati automatically puts him in the minority in any other Indian state. His mother tongue of Gujarati puts him in the minority everywhere else outside his home state. Even his masculinity would put him in the minority in a state like Kerala that boasts more women than men. Even his religious affinity would put him in the minority in several towns and districts in India that are home to Muslim majorities and in one whole state, that of Jammu & Kashmir, that is predominantly Muslim. Aha!

Arguably, people in India identify more with ethnicity than religion – although the deluded fundamentalist elements will have you believe otherwise. You might often notice Indians banding together based more on their geographic affinities than anything else. After all, two Tamilians, albeit of different faiths, would find more in common than, say, a Tamilian and a Punjabi of the same.

My point is, it is sheer lunacy to classify Hindus as a majority in a country as diverse as India – they are a majority solely on paper.

While 80% of India is, technically, Hindu - Hinduism is such that the nuances of belief, ritual and custom are very different in the different corners of the country. Officially, it’s the same religion, but the reality is that there’s no such thing as a common Hindu dogma that can serve to unite two very distinct ethnic groups through religion. Unlike the Semitic faiths, the sense of collective identity is naturally weak and attempts by the Hindutva movement to, essentially, unite Hindus by semitizing the faith in order to foster such identity is a spineless attempt at gaining political power – the ethnic identities are too weighty to be displaced by a shared perception of Hinduism.

The fact is that India is divided based on linguistics – the Tamils, Malayalis, Gujaratis – all have their own states based on their respective tongues. The only reason the Hindutva movement has grown out of oblivion in India is because of sheer propaganda and brain-washing tactics by the saffron brigade. We are, and have historically been, a secular nation that respects, provides for and lives in harmony with a plethora of religions and ethnicities. There have been people of every faith who have occupied positions of prominence in India and that’s the way things should remain. Just look at our armed forces for an example of secular practices. Or look at big business. Or our beloved Bollywood. Or even the august group of men who rallied the then undivided country for our independence from the British.

Secular India is facing its toughest challenges ever. The notion that Hindus form a potentially powerful majority in the country is a myth. Nothing else. India is not a Hindu country in the same way it is not a Hindi-speaking nation. The sooner our politicians, people and the world community realize this, the better.