Weaponised Pluralism: Why Hindu Nationalists Need Muslim Friends

Abstract

This dissertation seeks to answer the question, why do bigots act like pluralists? It examines the Muslim wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the apex organisation of the violent Hindu nationalist movement, to understand why exclusivist ethno-religious organisations in democracies choreograph performances of minority inclusion, engagement and mixture. This thesis concludes that they do so as one solution to the political problem of appealing to potential pluralist supports while not alienating core bigoted constituencies. Indeed, not only do such pluralist performances not alienate bigots, counterintuitively, they appeal to them. Pluralist performances appeal to bigots through three key mechanisms: rituals of subservience dressed as intergroup engagement, the categorisation of Good and Bad minority members, and the co-optation of minority members into positions of symbolically significant power. Drawing on interview-based fieldwork conducted in India in 2018-19, primary source material from the RSS' Muslim wing, and participant observation of this Muslim wing's events, this thesis proposes the concept of weaponised pluralism, a political strategy where pluralist performances counterintuitively reinforce, rather than resolve, ethnic and religious hierarchies.