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The Slow Death of India’s Secular Democracy

Violent Hindu nationalism has accelerated at critical moments when putatively secular politicians have used religion to gain an electoral advantage. This process, a century in the making, is now culminating in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s open rejection of any pretense of secularism.

PRINCETON – On January 22, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will preside over the consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. Executive power will symbolically fuse with the Hindu religion – harking back to myths of Indian rulers as incarnations of Supreme Lord Vishnu – at the former site of the Babri Mosque, demolished by self-styled “angry Hindus” in 1992.

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