In his political column, On the Other Hand, Hayden Barnes examines Narendra Modi’s autocratic and Islamophobic tendencies and their impact on the world’s biggest democracy. Artwork by Rachel Macnaghten.
“The clearest illustration of Hindu nationalism and supremacist ambitions is the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB). In short, this bill grants citizenship to those who failed to qualify for the National Register of Citizens (NRC) – everyone except Muslims. The pluralism, the secularism, the multiculturalism, the cosmopolitanism of Gandhi and Nehru is being treated like an offensive building: knock it down, Modi says, and build something new.”