Book: TWILIGHT PRISONERS: THE RISE OF THE HINDU RIGHT AND THE FALL OF DEMOCRACY IN INDIA
Author: Siddhartha Deb
Published by: Context
Price: Rs 599
Even though the Bharatiya Janata Party’s third term in office has kicked off with pomp and prejudices carried forward, the rise of an Opposition has given hope for India’s future. Arriving in this season of change, in prose that is rousing and alive, Siddhartha Deb’s Twilight Prisoners alerts us to the fact that the fight against Hindutva is far from over. Deb’s masterful research reveals that even the biggest names in the BJP are fundamentally mere foot soldiers of a more damaging ideology. Deb writes: “Under the tutelage of the BJP, a model of entrepreneurial Hindutva has been unleashed, with new organizations that carry out independent acts of violence, though with the tacit support and encouragement of establishment Hindutva.” The roots of Narendra Modi’s India are situated in the radical insecurities of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which has encouraged desperate actors to play out its vile scripts.
In nine essays, the book offers a panoramic view of the “culture of impunity promoted by India’s Hindu right,” which finds legal and socio-religious explanations to acquit its supporters of crimes as heinous as pogroms and extrajudicial killings but clamps down on students and activists advocating for human rights. The first essay is a revealing profile of the prime minister, exposing the historical network of Hindutva’s political machinery that enabled Modi’s ascent to power. The Bhopal gas tragedy, the state of Burmese dissidents in Manipur, and the arbitrary violence of the National Register of Citizens in Assam feature in successive essays. The most arresting of these essays is about Deb’s visit to Ayodhya in 2021. In winding, remarkable sentences, Deb reconstructs Ayodhya’s streets and guides the reader through the heartland of BJP’s communal politics to reveal how the promise of development in the city has been mostly facetious. “What else was the entire project of Ramrajya other than endless symbolism evoked to obscure tawdry reality?” Deb ponders.
The final essays in the book are about the decline of press freedom in the country as platforms “seesaw between tawdry consumerism and rancorous nationalism”. In an essay on Gauri Lankesh’s murder, the statistics about rising political assassinations in the country are alarming to read. The essay on the Bhima Koregaon incarcerations and political surveillance reveals the nexus between majoritarianism and crony capitalism. Finally, a profile of Arundhati Roy celebrates her unmatched wisdom and fortitude.
Each of these essays is packed with incredible insight and, in Deb’s hypnotic prose, they achieve a quality not easily found in books on the rise of the Hindu Right. This makes Twilight Prisoners a valuable addition to the body of work that needs to be read like our lives depend on it.
