Thread by @shrikanth_krish

I think this piece does not adequately emphasize the "reactionary" aspect to H-Right, which predominates anything that he mentions

All strands have something in common - they do react to the perceived "existential" threat posed by non Indic religions

hindustantimes.com/columns/how-vd…

Also the "socially orthodox" wing is dismissed rather airily in my view in this piece

Sure. Not a lot of people back the agenda of RRP today verbatim

But social conservatism did underlie much of Gandhian nationalism...Even influenced the politics of say Swatantra party

Today the average "conservative" voter for BJP is just as dismayed by the loss of traditions, and weakening of social mores, as he is from the more standard complaints of "minority appeasement", special status for minorities etc

So social conservatism is underrated

The traditional talking points of the "RSS" wing of Indian RIght wing have been

Minority appeasement
Article 370
UCC
Ram Mandir etc

But as these talking points get obsolete one by one, we need a new agenda

And that will stem from social conservatism - which is dismissed here

This need not necessarily mean "varNa vyavastha" in all its glory - which doesn't have a lot of takers

It will take different forms

E.g. Revival of Agamic rituals in temples
State support for Veda pAThashAlas
etc

Personally speaking I am ambivalent on how far I'd be comfortable with some of the agenda items that might emerge from the plank of social conservatism

But its emergence is sort of inevitable as India modernizes faster

There will be a reaction to modernity in each one of us

The one area where I see social conservative wing being most vocal in future will be in matters of gender roles and also marriage

Already we see the tension on twitter - the tension between upwardly mobile young right-wing women and the more traditional types who resent the redefinition of roles, or rather would like the social change to be more piecemeal with less disruption

This will mostly be a cultural conflict

At this moment, I am not sure how it will manifest itself in matters of politics and legislation

All these tensions are sort of subliminal at the moment

They will gain prominence as society gets wealthier

This reminds me of an old anecdote concerning that arch-conservative Rajagopalachari in the 1950s

A young woman in Madras approached him seeking job opportunities...

He responded -

"‘I wonder how a woman with children can be wanting work! Alas for civilization and the pernicious habit of entrusting the education of children to professional men and ourselves seeking odd work to fill our time!’

This view was hardly a political talking point back in 1950s when just about every woman was a housewife

It will become more of a talking point as more and more women start working in small town India