India is perhaps the world’s most complex nation. There
was no nation of India until 1947, but the history of the Indian subcontinent
is a long and complex one. There were numerous empires, kingdoms, and
sultanates that ruled various parts of the area over the centuries.
The subcontinent was (and is) populated by a host of
different ethnic groups. Even today India has 22 separate official languages and
at least 121 languages altogether.
India is also quite complex religiously. The major religion,
of course, is Hinduism. But “India” was also the birthplace of Buddhism,
Sikhism, and Jainism. There are also a large number of Christians in India; for
example, there are only two countries in the world with more Methodists than in
India.
India began to come under greater and greater European
influence/rule after about 1500, first by the Portuguese followed by the Dutch
and then especially after the formation of the English East India Company in
1600.
After the short-lived independence movement of 1857, “India”
was under the British Raj, the rule of the British Crown, from 1858 until 1947,
when it finally achieved its independence.
India will soon become the world’s most populous nation. India
is projected to surpass China as the world’s most populous country just next
year, according to the 27th edition of the United Nations’ World
Population Prospects, released about a month ago.
The population of China was 1,144 million in 1990 compared
with India’s 861 million. But with the continuation of India’s rapid growth
rate causing its population to surpass China’s, next year nearly 19% of the
people in the world will live in India.
With nearly one out of five of the world’s population living
in the one nation, India will increasingly have significant impact on the world
as a whole.
Is India still the world’s largest democracy? As
India celebrates its 75th birthday today, there will be those who
will again point out that, among other things, it is the “world’s largest
democracy.”
On January 26, 1950, when the Indian constitution took
effect, the Republic of India did in fact become the most populous democracy in
the world—and it has been so regarded until the present. But there are some who
now question whether India, in fact, is still a democracy.
In The World Ahead 2022,
published in Nov. 2021 by The Economist, the first article about Asia is
regarding India, and it was titled “A museum for democracy?”
Democracy is in danger there as in other places in the
world, including the U.S. That danger both there and here is rooted largely in
religious nationalism.
Hindu nationalism (Hindutva) in India and Christian
nationalism in the U.S. are both linked to religious fundamentalism—and both
are a real danger to the perpetuation of democracy.
In my book Fed Up with Fundamentalism (2007, 2020), I
have a short sub-section titled “Hindu Fundamentalism.” There I briefly
introduce the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). That is the Party of Narendra Modi,
the current Prime Minister of India, who was first elected PM in 2014.
Under Modi, the BJP is now much stronger than when the first
edition of my book was published.
Hindutva is an ideology that disregards Indian Christians
and other religious minority believers as true Indians because they have
allegiances that lie outside India, and it asserts the country should be
purified of their presence.
To be real democracies, both the Republic of India (75 years
old today) and the USA (which turned 246 years old this July 4) must accept the
diversity and the equality of its citizenry, seeking the greatest good for all
citizens regardless of ethnicity or religious affiliation.
Christians in India, of course, oppose Hindu nationalism
there. Many progressive Christians in the U.S. also oppose Christian
nationalism here (see Christians
Against Christian Nationalism).
_____
** On Aug. 12, The
Washington Post posted “As
India marks its first 75 years, Gandhi is downplayed, even derided.” I was
sad to see that.
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