In Hindu rashtra Gujarat, Hindutva remains dominant but it’s no longer the only key to victory. For the Sangh Parivar, the 2002 post-Godhra riots marked the apotheosis of Hindu hegemony, a time when supremacy was finally established over the Muslim ‘enemy’.
For the ‘secular’ opposition, 2002 was the biggest stick to beat the Modi-led dispensation with. But this time in the clamour of the 2017 assembly elections there’s an intriguing silence about 2002. Names such as Best Bakery, Gulberg Society, Zahira Sheikh or Bilkees Bano are only dots on a bloodied map that no one cares to openly remember. Now that Gujarat is firmly established as a Hindu rashtra, Polls 2017 are seeing the end of 2002.
Today’s Gujarat is a post-Hindutva Read More
