By Raghav Bahl
Make America Great Again (MAGA) and Hindutva are spectacularly successful political ideologies in two countries across two continents, separated by at least two great oceans, in two of the largest democracies on our planet.
US President Donald Trump used MAGA to author an electoral victory that’s perhaps unparalleled in America since 1789. He won a second term, following a huge loss in the previous round, in the teeth of criminal convictions and legal challenges that would have felled any exceptional politician. Across the world, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Chief Mohan Bhagwat wielded Hindutva to prise three successive parliamentary triumphs – an unprecedented feat in the six decades since Jawaharlal Nehru (India’s first prime minister).
MAGA & Hindutva are deeply conservative ideologies with elemental similarities. Fierce ethno-religious nationalism – bordering on jingoism – is innate to both. MAGA believes in white evangelical Christian American values, side-stepping minorities and excluding non-white immigrants. Hindutva proudly proclaims Hindu supremacy – envisioning India as a Hindu-centric nation and ‘othering’ minorities as inferior and unwelcome.
Both hark back to a glorious past. While Hindutva invokes several centuries of ancient civilisational purity that was violated by Muslim and British invaders for a thousand years before Independence, MAGA is of recent vintage. It talks of America’s post-World War II dominance that has been violated by spineless Washington elites and globalisers.
Both share a visceral hatred of secular liberals, coining abuses like sickular and lib-tards (liberal bastards).
Fearmongering is at the heart of their political mobilisation – while MAGA screams about Haitian immigrants who “are eating your dogs and cats”, Hindutva shrilly accuses Muslims of trapping innocent Hindu girls in marriage to usurp properties and alter demographics, calling it “love jihad”. Both use symbols to embellish their appeal – MAGA uses the American flag, Hindutva uses the saffron colour of Brahmanical Hinduism to create devoted followers.
This story was originally published in thequint.com. Read the full story here.
