One nation, one voice: Dissent, diversity and other enemies in Modi’s India

Until the deadly stampede that claimed 30 lives at the Mahakumbh last week, one of the Earth’s greatest gatherings of humanity had been used to convey Narendra Modi’s oft-repeated message of oneness – reducing the sometimes-incomprehensible plurality of 1.4 billion people and their myriad tongues and cultures to the singular.

Easy to comprehend and easier to market, Modi’s oneness is couched in terms of national unity but what it really calls for is Hindu unity. The message of the Maha Kumbh, in the words of the government of Uttar Pradesh, was “Unity in Diversity, Strength in Togetherness”.

This was a smoothened and gentrified version of Chief Minister Adityanath’s crude “Batenge toh katenga” (if you are divided you will be cut down) – meant to scare his Hindu voters – and Modi’s milder “Ek hai to safe hai” (if you are one, you are safe).

Reducing billions to “one” is an ongoing project encompassing many expressly stated purposes, however clumsy. One nation. One civil code. One election. One market. One exam. One language. One subscription (if you haven’t heard of the last, it’s meant for scientific journals for research laboratories).

Various elements of this project make a lot of Indians nervous, including Modi’s allies. A key ruling coalition member,…

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