India’s 200 million Muslims are at the mercy of an ultra-nationalist government that looks to create an exclusively Hindu Bharat or homeland. Since the rise of the BJP government, led by Narendra Modi, Muslims have been subject to discrimination, alienation, daily religious abuse, economic marginalisation, state-sanctioned mob violence and pogroms like in Gujarat in 2002. This Hindu nationalism is underpinned by a pernicious cultural and political ideology, Hindutva, framed by antagonism towards Islam and a rewriting of Indian history.  

Our guest this week, Professor Irfan Ahmed, will help us understand the precarious state of India’s Muslims and the Hindutva ideology. Born in India,  he now lives in Istanbul, where he is a professor of sociology and anthropology at Ibn Haldun University. Before Istanbul, he was a research professor in Germany at Max Plank Institute, and he has taught anthropology and politics in the Netherlands and Australia. He has written numerous books and articles on India and Islam and recently published a provocative piece on Hindu Orientalism.

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