India’s political and religious shift

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Thursday the 6th of June, 2024. This is WORLD Radio and we thank you for listening. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. First up on The World and Everything in It: A political shift in India.

SOUND: [Modi speaking in Hindi]

Prime Minister Narendra Modi heard there on Tuesday claiming victory in national elections. After 6 weeks of voting, with more than 640 million ballots cast, Modi held onto power, but his party’s majority shrank instead of growing as expected. That means Modi’s Hindu nationalist party—BJP—will need help from other political groups to form a government.

This comes after several years of the Hindu nationalist government tolerating attacks on religious minorities in India.

REICHARD: What do the election results mean for India and its Christian citizens?

Joining us now to talk about it is Vishal Mangalwadi. He’s a Christian philosopher and author from India and founding president of the ministry Revelation Movement.

BROWN: Vishal, good morning.

VISHAL MANGALWADI: Good morning. Thank you for having me.

BROWN: 73 years old, described as a charismatic leader. What else can you tell us about Prime Minister Modi and his Hindu nationalist party the Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP?

MANGALWADI: Prime Minister Modi has been humbled. He has begun to promote himself as the incarnation of God and invincible. He had tried to make idol worship as the centerpiece of his election campaign. They invested a lot of time, a lot of money, a lot of energy in making religion the central issue, the Ram temple, the central issue for the election, but the voters ignored that issue. And he is 32 seats short of majority. And therefore he has to rely upon other parties to form a coalition - and those other parties he has humiliated in the past. So it's not going to be easy for him to find coalition partners.

BROWN: As we heard, Modi’s party did not win like it expected, who were the primary challengers the BJP faced, and how did they appeal to voters?

MANGALWADI: Well, the Congress Party led by Rahul Gandhi became a moral force. Now, Rahul himself became a moral force like Mahatma Gandhi. But unfortunately, his party still had a lot of the old style politicians who did not inspire a lot of confidence amongst the voters. So they have not done as well as they could have done. But one thing Rahul has done is genuinely respected his allies. He has championed love, in contrast to hatred. People have taken him seriously that he is sincere. So he has the credibility to keep the alliance with him.

BROWN: So how do these results change the balance of power in India?

MANGALWADI: On the one hand is a militant Hindu party; on the other is everyone else. So the very important thing which most of the news has missed is that during this election process, the lowest castes, Dalits, about 10,000 Hindus, became Buddhists during the election within the last week or so. The lowest classes, the Dalits, and lowest caste that is, are more likely to become Buddhists, but the backward castes, which are estimated to be about 52%, those who quit Hinduism, they're more likely to turn to Christ. And India might see conversions at a scale that we've not seen in 2,000 years.

BROWN: Yeah, as I'm listening to you talk about these potential conversions, I'm wondering, how do you think this potential political setback for Hindu nationalists will affect religious minorities, like Christians, and Muslims in India?

MANGALWADI: One of the important things for the lower class was the Constitution itself. The idea of human equality, which is fundamentally in conflict with Hinduism, because it has never been self-evident to any Indian that all men are created equal. That was a humanist myth, that it is self evident that all men are created equal. This is a revealed truth. And it came into India through the Bible, through the missionary movement, that all people are created equal. And that is enshrined in the Constitution, including the freedom of conscience, the freedom to convert, and those aspects of the Constitution have been under threat—human equality, human dignity, human freedom, the freedom of conscience—and that's one important reason why the lower castes voted against the Hindu party, particularly in north India. The problem is that when a political party such as BJP makes religion its main platform, it forces the opposition to undermine religion itself. And that is going to be the most significant outcome of this election. It might take couple of years while the BJP loses state elections. But after it has lost the state elections—state governments control the police—then the conversion tsunami might happen at a much bigger rate. But I think right now, many of the politicians who have won, they are the ones who are going to support and encourage conversion, they may not be in a position to facilitate, but they certainly would give moral encouragement to other backward castes and lower class to get out of Hinduism.

BROWN: Vishal Mangalwadi is a Christian philosopher and founding president of the Revelation Movement. Vishal, thank you for your time.

MANGALWADI: Thank you for having me. I'm grateful.

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