Introduction

This chapter is a reflection on how changes in our idea of the nation determine the pragmatics of the academy in contemporary India. More particularly, it examines how the predominantly secularized, ‘Hindu’ academy has responded to the threat posed by the political upsurge of right-wing, Hindu majoritarianism. It argues that the academy has responded by a peculiar politics of its own, which, by virtue of its apparently oppositional and progressive stance, cheats itself into feeling that it is fighting religious fanaticism, but actually blocks it from doing so. This ‘false consciousness’ prevents the academy from discharging its larger social and cultural responsibilities, something that it appears so eager to do. In other words, much of the counter-communalistic academic discourse is, paradoxically, a distorted reflection of the very thing that it seeks to defeat and destroy. This discourse, which has its own paranoias and insecurities, upon closer scrutiny reveals an uncanny resemblance to Hindu extremism. Consequently, the secular academy is not just fearful and aggressive, but also partial and selective in its methods and strategies.

Simply speaking, academic Hinduphobia is born out of the insecurities of the secular Hindu intelligentsia. Alarmed that the very middle classes whose vanguard and champion it supposed itself to be was now deserting it lured by what was so obviously an inferior ideology, it has reacted with predictable anger and bitterness. This secular intelligentsia had almost come to equate Hinduism with its brand of secularism, having been paternalistically tolerant of minority fanaticism, whether Muslim, Sikh, radical, or caste-based.