Majoritarianism is a pushback against political mobilisation by the marginalised: Thomas Blom Hansen
Why do parties with ideologies corrosive to basic democratic values - liberty, equality, and fraternity - enjoy democratic endorsements in India and elsewhere? An easy observation is that there is popular attraction for ‘strong’ leaders, free-market policies, and promises of ‘regaining lost glory’. Thomas Blom Hansen, Reliance-Dhirubhai Ambani Professor and Chair, Department of Anthropology, Stanford University, U.S., and a scholar on Hindu nationalism, decodes the electoral success of majoritarianism to the multiple resentments created by deepening of democracies, which empowered marginalised groups but also created pushback from entrenched social hierarchies. These counter-acting forces, he points out, provides electoral space for such parties.
Prof. Hansen also explains how the Bharatiya Janata Party grew on criticisms of democratic expansion, why the Indian National Congress lost the political narrative, and the fallout of the Indian Left’s failure to read caste and communal dynamics. The “old secularism” in India, he asserts, “has run its course”. The way forward is to transcend mere “tolerance” of minorities, and “assertively embrace” India’s diversity “as it is lived and experienced by the majority”. Excerpts from a conversation with Saptarshi Bhattacharya, Senior Coordinator, The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy, in Chennai on April 03, 2024: