A fall into Abyss: India's growing love affair with extremism

Sadhvi Pragya, a member of parliament from Bhopal, while ago in a media interaction said Nathuram Godse; the man who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi was a patriot. This ignited a huge nationwide controversy causing the Prime minister to say that he'll never be able to forgive Pragya. Despite this, every day we hear influential leaders from political parties having their share of ridiculous and absurd statements. Is this just the meaningless blabber of extremist leaders or is something dangerous?

The new normal

What if I had told you a couple of decades ago that in this very country, the killing of Mahatma Gandhi will be celebrated, or a union minister would honor the murder accused with garlands, or someone with terrorism charges will become a member of parliament? All this would have seemed a little too far-fetched but as of now all the aforementioned has already happened and most of the nation's population appears to be fine with it. 

Today you hear political leaders talking about the eradication of religious minorities from this country more frequently than talking about a blueprint for the growth of the nation. All these acts and words no matter how random or stupid they sound serve a purpose. They manage to draw public attention towards something which earlier nobody cared enough about, Even if they failed to generate support and are rejected by the public. what they do is shift the popular national agenda rightwards and legitimize "a little less extremism" and make it look more acceptable.  

The Overton Window 

There is an interesting concept in social science called the Overton window. The Overton window is the range of policies and ideas that are socially appropriate to the general public at a given time. Different political parties each representing a certain ideology attempt to shift this window of thought toward their agenda. The concept suggests introducing ideas in public not only the appealing and acceptable ones but also the extreme and unthinkable. The media then debates for hours over such issues and the public consumes it, what it does is bring ideas into the public debate which previously were unspoken of. This not only affects the minds of the masses subliminally but also makes space for less radical ideas to appear admissible.

The current ruling party and its ideological allies have mastered this craft over time. And it is because of this that their long-awaited dream of "Hindu-Rashtra" is now a foreseeable possibility.

Poster boys of Extremism 

 

The Bhartiya Janta Party has used this phenomenon of rightward shifting of popular agenda not only for ideas but also for leaders.

Think of a time when L.K. Advani used to be the face of extremist right-wing in India, his speeches and ideas were controversial and a matter of debate and he seemed a little "too much" for mainstream national politics. But after the entry of Narendra Modi in the picture and his image of a proud radical Hindu, Advani was no longer the "extreme" but rather a little acceptable. 

Similar was the case for Narendra Modi, around 2013-14 when Modi was working to strengthen his candidature as the prime minister of the World's Largest Democracy. A sudden wave of extremist leaders with a taste for violence and Islamophobia in common emerged from the BJP. Which helped to improve the controversial image of Modi as a statesman. 

This cycle keeps repeating in Indian politics when a low-level extreme leader suddenly does or says something which makes the higher ones look decent and alright.