On rationalist-Hindutva conflictuality in Indian Punjab

Abstract

This paper recounts the history of conflictual encounters between Hindu nationalist and rationalist activists in Indian Punjab. Rationalist and Hindutva activists alike suffered at the hand of Sikh militants in the 1980s and early 1990s. Once, by the mid 1990s, the latter had been subdued, Hindutva groups were able to grow in strength, soon replacing the Sikh militancy as the principal threat to the rationalists. The rationalists’ episodic dealings with the Hindu right have seen the movement subjected to a composite approach of ‘lawfare’ and other acts of intimidation, reflecting how Hindutva forces frequently employ public spectacles of assertion alongside various extra-legal acts of moral policing to generate the plausible threat of violence that ensures local laws controlling offensive speech will be selectively interpreted in their favour. For instance, legal attempts to ban rationalist books in the state have been frequent and in 2008 Hindutva mobs threatened to set fire to shops that persisted in selling rationalist literature. Hindutva activists assert that a ‘foreign hand’ directs rationalist activities which are ultimately geared towards Christian missionisation. Punjabi rationalist dealings with Hindu nationalist groups provide a helpful reminder that Hindu right targeting of rationalists did not commence with the globally reported murder of Dr Dabholkar in Maharashtra in 2013: the Hindutva threat to them has a significant pre-history elsewhere in India.