General Election 2019: Hindu nationalism has found a new home in Arunachal Pradesh

Addressing the crowd gathered at Aalo (West Siang district) on 30 March, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Arunachal Pradesh “a shield for the country with the people zealously guarding the border as sentinels”. In line with his ‘Main bhi Chowkidar’ retort to the opposition’s chant of ‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’, he asked people in this frontier state to vote for a ‘chowkidar’, who would provide security to the country.

Referring to the Indian air strikes on Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist camps in Balakot, the PM attacked opposition parties saying, “When India hit terrorists in their houses, what was the stand of opposition parties you have all seen”. He accused the opposition of “speaking the language of terror groups” and “supporting another neighbor when India was working hard to protect its territory”, an obvious reference to China. With an ongoing dispute over the line of actual control (LAC), out of which AP shares a 1030 kilometer border with China, the latter has never recognized it as a part of India.

While dangling the carrot of central funds is a long standing tradition during elections in any of the North Eastern states, invoking nationalist sentiments on the heels of a terror strike may be the first. Arunachal Pradesh has a history of voting the ruling party at the Centre to the state. In 2014, the Indian National Congress won 42 of the 60 seats in the assembly election while the United Progressive Alliance was still in power at the Centre.

“We look at the Centre and the resources but ultimately it is the psychology of the people here to be a part of the central government that we are so accustomed to”, said Nani Bath, a political science professor at Rajiv Gandhi University. “There is no ideological commitment here”, he added.

The last five years has seen one of the most unstable state assemblies, riddled with several controversies of corruption and unconstitutional political stunts, not to mention the suicide of Kalikho Pul in August 2016. In December 2014, the then CM and present MLA and MP candidate from Arunachal West, Nabam Tuki, dropped Pul from the cabinet. Shortly after, the Bhartiya Janata Party led central government appointed Governor Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa advances the assembly session by a month leading the state to a political turmoil and a month long presidential rule in early 2016. After being appointed CM in July, present CM Pema Khandu quit the Congress party along with 43 MLAs to join People’s Party of Arunachal and later, BJP in December.

‘Money, clan then party’

However, as per Bath, the series of party defections have no impact on constituencies that vote on money and kinship and favour the party in power despite the toll it has taken on administration and governance. Referring to the 25 BJP MLAs who defected to the National People’s Party in March 2019, he told BBC Hindi, “For those who did not get BJP tickets, there was no alternative but to go to NPP. Anyway, most of the candidates put up by the BJP will be winning”.

A senior BJP leader candidly told BBC Hindi that money, clan and muscle power ruled the roost here, adding that the BJP will easily win at least 40 seats in the assembly this time. The only exception to this, he said, was Janata Dal (Secular) MP candidate Jarjum Ete who will likely be a runner up to Union Minister Kiren Rijiju, on condition of anonymity.

Ete, the lone female MP candidate from Arunachal, quit the Congress party on 15 March after she was denied a ticket for the third time despite a recommendation from the central leadership. Her brothers, Jarpum and Jarkar Gamlin, also, switched to NPP after they were snubbed by the BJP for assembly tickets despite being sitting ministers.

As per party observers, Rijiju has had an influential hand in determining the ticket fate of the Gamlin family. “Rijiju suspected that the Gamlin brothers would campaign for their sister, who was looking to stand from Congress”, the senior BJP leader said. Meanwhile, Tuki’s name as the MP candidate came as a shock since he never even filed his nomination for the seat.

Political observers say that Tuki is keen on returning to power in the state rather than go to parliament. “BJP did not issue their ticket to a strong candidate from Sagalee (Tuki’s constituency). My guess is that there’s an understanding between Rijiju and Tuki.”, Bath told BBC Hindi. Given that Tuki’s declared assets are the highest among all the contesting candidates, many are calling the fight between Ete and Rijiju a ‘David versus Goliath’ match.

However, Congress State President Takam Sanjoy claims that while the party cannot “match the BJP onslaught of money culture”, they will still emerge victorious. “We may not all alone form the government but we have close partners who are totally against this incumbent government and want the BJP out of the state”, he told BBC Hindi. Several BJP leaders, on the other hand, are confident about winning, at least, 40 seats on their own and forming alliances with smaller parties.

Moreover, he added, that it was the party’s decision to field former CMs of Nagaland, Meghalaya and Arunachal as LS candidates, particularly Tuki, who has a strong grassroots connection. However, party observers have commented that Ete got caught between the power struggle between Tuki and Sanjoy, who wants to keep the former CM out of the state.

Hindutva backed nationalism on the rise

The sentiment of identifying as ‘Indian’ in Arunachal is the strongest than in any other North Eastern states. Post the Chinese aggression in 1962, the erstwhile North East Frontier Agency was pumped with a host of programmes on nationalism like the Ramakrishna mission at the behest of the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

After an initial attempt at making in roads failed in the 60s, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh found the perfect window of opportunity in national integration initiatives of the Central government. Education, particularly the spread of Hindi as a national language, was the easiest entry point.

“Everybody in Arunachal is in one way or the other associated with the Sangh parivar, whether it’s ABVP, VHP or the Vivekananda Kendra Vidyalaya”, said Bath, who completed his schooling from VKV. Since its inception in 1977, it currently has 37 schools running in Arunachal Pradesh. “They’re into social, medical or education services so you practically become a part of them”

A direct impact of this is visible in the way that Arunachalis have adopted Hindi as a bridge language between the 26 major tribes and several hundred sub tribes and clans. Joram Anya Tana, an Assistant Professor of Hindi at the Dera Natung Government College in Itanagar, said that she chose Hindi as a medium for its beauty and has translated Arunachali literature in Nishyi dialect.

“Meri daadi kaha karti thi ki jo humari lok kathayein hai usko duniya ko maloom hona hai. Unka yeh kehna tha ki Nishyi ke sambandh mein kai galat famiyan hai. Logo ko lagta hai ki woh bahar roop se baaju bal pe vishwas karte hai, unke andar mein komalta nahi hai”, she said. “Humari hriday mein kitni komal dharayein behti hai, us baat ko saabit karne ke liye humare lok sahitya ko tumhe likhna hoga”.

Sponsored by the state government, Anya completed her high school diploma at Banasthali Vidyapeeth in Rajasthan and attended Miranda House College in Delhi University. While married to a Christian, Anya is a prominent member of the local chapter of the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the RSS. As per her, ABVP in Arunachal works as an ‘apolitical’ organization engaged in social work and inculcating tribal youth with a sense of responsibility and purpose. Unlike other states, where tribal student organisations and unions lead the way, Anya says there’s a sore lack of a role model here.

“I see that in Modi because he works 18 hours a day. I wonder what kind of strength does he possess that he can go on and on like that”, she said.

While the first ABVP office was only set up 9 years ago in Itanagar, the student organization has been active in the state since 1961, Tana Roja, a first semester student at Dera Natung Government College told BBC Hindi. “Former Chief Minister Gegang Apang was part of the first batch and had participated in the first Student Experience in Inter State Living programme (a month long seven state cultural and educational tour)”, he said. Apang, who formed the first BJP government in the state 16 years ago, recently quit the party citing “a leadership that hates decentralization or democratic decision making” as one of the causes.

Roja joined ABVP in 2016 when he was in class 9 through a General Knowledge test conducted on 9 July for school toppers, where 400 students participated in this. “I was in class 9 then and didn’t have much idea about ABVP back then. There’s a lot of focus on personal development and we got to interact with inspirational figures like Mohonto Panging (first Indian pilot of Arunachal Pradesh), Tapir Mra (Mt. Everest climber) and Jenny Hei (cartoonist)”, he said.

Shubham Srivastava, the District Coordinator of Itanagar ABVP branch estimated the membership figures have crossed over 10,000, including students and teachers. Interestingly, one of the bylaws of the influential All Arunachal Pradesh Students Union is that students who take membership in political student organisations like NSUI, ABVP or SFI are not eligible for membership in AAPSU and district student unions.

“We adopted this bylaw because we do not want our campuses to be politicized as we’ve seen happening in universities in other states”, said Marli Kamki, an AAPSU member to BBC Hindi. Nor is AAPSU cautioned about the increasing membership of ABVP in the state. “When Congress was in power, more students were a part of NSUI. Now, they’re enrolling in ABVP since BJP is at the Centre. It’s all about the funds”, said another AAPSU member who asked not to be named.

In a similar yet surer way, the indigenous faith movement in the state has been well co-opted by the RSS since it began encouraging major tribal religions like Donyi Polo to resist Christian proselytization. With Christianity (30.26%) overtaking Hinduism (29.04%) as the largest religion in the 2011 census, the 4.5% drop in Donyi Polo followers has caused much worry.

Tajom Tasung, who serves as Vice President of the Indigenous Faith & Cultural Society of Arunachal Pradesh, told BBC Hindi that the RK mission schools had helped to preserve indigenous culture via Hindu mantras and lifestyle.

“There is hardly any difference between Hindu and indigenous faith since we also worship nature. Hindu log bhi toh bhi bhoomi ko bhagwan maante hai humare jaise”, he said. When asked if a sizable population of tribals were converting to the indigenous faiths, Tasung said 10% of the Adi belt had converted back to Donyi Polo. “When tribals adopt the religion, we call it ‘homecoming’ (ghar wapsi)”.

Courtesy the groundwork of the RSS and the recent infiltration of district ABVP units from higher secondary school level to colleges, Hindu nationalism has seen a surge among the local tribal population in the state. Bath said his own son was very kicked about the Balakot strike since he strongly identified as a ‘nationalist’. “Nationalism has been the policies of the successive governments here and because of this Modi is very popular. Even if people don’t want to vote for Rijiju, they want Modi back”, he added.

Considering RSS’ and the indigenous faith movement have become so enmeshed together, many political leaders were not willing to speak to BBC Hindi on record about the threat to tribal identity. Ete, who has her grounding in land and gender activism, said that tribal youth are now slowly realizing how their identity was seeing a shift, however, needs a platform for exposure. “Unko bhi diya jalaane ke liye ek mahaul chahiye. Toofan mein diya jalake koi faida nahi hai”

An edited and Hindi translated version of this story was first carried in BBC Hindi.