The purveyors of Hindutva are never short of projects. That is not surprising, since there is nothing complicated in the theme they wish to propound. The theme is hate. Their latest project is to get schoolchildren to swear an oath that they will fight, die and kill in order to bring about a Hindu rashtra. There is something indescribably vicious in teaching children that killing is normal, and the organizers of the event do not baulk at using deception to get the job done. In the Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh, an apparently innocuous television crew persuaded some children from a school to go to a park for a debate on national duty which would be filmed. There was no debate, but a swearing ceremony focused on hatred and violence — no doubt the organizers’ idea of rashtra dharma. The incident was displayed in a video on the Twitter handle of a news channel head, who declared that such oaths were being administered to children in a number of places. Another such video from Delhi had surfaced before this — there have been no arrests.

These oaths for children fall into the context of a larger project to spread hatred against minorities. While young people are being readied for violence — the votaries of Hindutva should be complimented for their ruthless frankness — attacks on churches in the season of goodwill towards all provide a spectacle of intolerance and arrogant disrespect. Without commenting on the attacks, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government has ensured that Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity cannot receive foreign funds. The Centre’s silence is a message in itself. In Uttarakhand, speakers in a Dharma Sansad meet spoke of an ethnic cleansing of the largest minority community to create a Hindu rashtra. They also went to the police station to register a first information report against five clerics of the community and can be seen in a video confabulating with a smiling policeman who, they said, would be on the complainants’ side. In Raipur, at a similar conclave, one speaker hailed Mahatma Gandhi’s killer while declaring that the Mahatma had destroyed the nation. He has been arrested — rather unusually so.

While the government’s silence spells encouragement for the adherents of Hindutva, it can also be imagined as an electoral strategy before five states go for elections. The Hindu rashtra, it probably hopes, would be an effective carrot for the majority of voters. To mobilize them, all that is needed is hate. The job now is to inject hatred at every level, even among schoolchildren. They are the voters of the future, so they must be taught violent intolerance of religious difference. Since the government appears complicit in the project to normalize hatred — it appears to see nothing wrong — the only way to neutralize the seeping poison in public life would be resistance from the people. There need be no violence: the ballot is enough.

The purveyors of Hindutva are never short of projects. That is not surprising, since there is nothing complicated in the theme they wish to propound. The theme is hate. Their latest project is to get schoolchildren to swear an oath that they will fight, die and kill in order to bring about a Hindu rashtra. There is something indescribably vicious in teaching children that killing is normal, and the organizers of the event do not baulk at using deception to get the job done. In the Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh, an apparently innocuous television crew persuaded some children from a school to go to a park for a debate on national duty which would be filmed. There was no debate, but a swearing ceremony focused on hatred and violence — no doubt the organizers’ idea of rashtra dharma. The incident was displayed in a video on the Twitter handle of a news channel head, who declared that such oaths were being administered to children in a number of places. Another such video from Delhi had surfaced before this — there have been no arrests.

These oaths for children fall into the context of a larger project to spread hatred against minorities. While young people are being readied for violence — the votaries of Hindutva should be complimented for their ruthless frankness — attacks on churches in the season of goodwill towards all provide a spectacle of intolerance and arrogant disrespect. Without commenting on the attacks, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government has ensured that Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity cannot receive foreign funds. The Centre’s silence is a message in itself. In Uttarakhand, speakers in a Dharma Sansad meet spoke of an ethnic cleansing of the largest minority community to create a Hindu rashtra. They also went to the police station to register a first information report against five clerics of the community and can be seen in a video confabulating with a smiling policeman who, they said, would be on the complainants’ side. In Raipur, at a similar conclave, one speaker hailed Mahatma Gandhi’s killer while declaring that the Mahatma had destroyed the nation. He has been arrested — rather unusually so.

While the government’s silence spells encouragement for the adherents of Hindutva, it can also be imagined as an electoral strategy before five states go for elections. The Hindu rashtra, it probably hopes, would be an effective carrot for the majority of voters. To mobilize them, all that is needed is hate. The job now is to inject hatred at every level, even among schoolchildren. They are the voters of the future, so they must be taught violent intolerance of religious difference. Since the government appears complicit in the project to normalize hatred — it appears to see nothing wrong — the only way to neutralize the seeping poison in public life would be resistance from the people. There need be no violence: the ballot is enough.