The opposition’s surrender to Hindutva has only raised the bar for what can polarise voters

I write in The Print:

Hindutva as electoral politics spreads primarily through polarisation. Here’s an early example. M.S. Golwalkar, the influential second chief of the RSS, told Amul’s Verghese Kurien that the cow protection issue was for him a means of uniting the people. It was politics, not faith.

The idea of polarisation is to take an issue and make it the central political agenda. Every person must decide whether they are for that issue or against it. Even if you are against the issue, you are helping it, because you are inevitably discussing the issue. That’s how the agenda is set. Golwalkar wanted to put Jawaharlal Nehru on the mat: are you for cow protection or not? If you are for cow protection, Golwalkar wins. If you are against it, Golwalkar still wins, because then he’s shown Nehru to be anti-Hindu.