India's Silent Emotive Majority

Will positive emotions of love, compassion and care hold similar velocity to counter-mobilise Rightwing Hindutva?

- Ajay Gudavarthy

DEMOCRACIES across the globe are undergoing a deep churning and we do not know, as yet, if this will eventually settle down into a more inclusive social equilibrium challenging old and conventional understanding of social change, or remain stuck as a prolonged period of uncertainty bordering on a nihilistic outlook. This special issue cannot possibly address this complexity and provide an easy answer, but what it can certainly do is to throw up new questions that have been waiting on the margins to gain a better grip on what this new global churning is all about.

The rise of the ultra-Right and its cultural nationalist politics are a symptom, and not the substance of the current uncertainty. It is part of the crisis and not its resolution. The crisis is much larger than what is represented by the Rightwing political mobilisation. If the global rise of the Right is a part and not the (exclusive) source of the crisis, then we need to locate the consent to what has come to be the illiberal turn as part of a larger change the world is undergoing. As much of the recent reflections consider Rightwing politics the source and substance of the current impasse, this special issue of Outlook on ‘Hindutva beyond Islamophobia’ attempts to offer readers a fresh perspective by focusing on issues that have not been spoken and written about before.