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This article reflects on the relationship between Hindu nationalism and democracy and how the former emerges from within democracy only to subvert it. The essay outlines important conceptual issues in the relationship between Hindu nationalism and democracy, discusses the relationship between the idea of a ‘Hindu Rashtra’ and ‘Hindu Rajya’, and delves into the complex interplay between Hindu nationalism and caste. This article ultimately argues that Hindu nationalism’s alignment with authoritarianism in a political style does not simply corrode democracy, but it also undermines all values. The objective of this analysis is not to provide a comprehensive explanation of the rise of Hindu nationalism, as much as to reflect on the ways in which its ideology operates at multiple levels.

The Indian Supreme Court’s chief duty is to interpret and enforce the Constitution of 1950. Running to more than a hundred-thousand words in its English-language version, this document is the longest basic law of any of the world’s independent countries. It contains, at latest count, 444 articles and a dozen schedules. Since its original adoption, it has been amended more than a hundred times, and now fills about 250 printed pages. It is fair to say that the Supreme Court, operating under the aegis of this book-sized liberal constitution, has by and large played a significant and even pivotal role in sustaining India’s liberal-democratic institutions and upholding the rule of law. 1 The Court’s justices, who by law now number twenty-six, have over the years carved out an independent role for the Court in the matter of judicial appointments and transfers, upheld extensive judicial review of executive action, and even declared several constitutional amendments unconstitutional. The Court upon which they sit is one of the world’s most powerful judicial bodies, and yet precisely because of this its career has been and remains shadowed by irony and controversy, with implications for democracy that are both positive and problematic. A simple issue-wise scorecard of the Court’s contribution to maintaining liberty and the rule of law might begin by noting that the Court has generally upheld basic freedoms associated with liberal democracy, albeit with some glaring exceptions. The Court has a relatively weak record when it comes to questioning executive action in cases of preventive detention. While the Court has generally upheld the right to free expression, it has given the state more leeway in Pratap Bhanu Mehta is president of the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi. His most recent publications include The Burden of Democracy (2004) and India’s Public Institutions (coedited with Devesh Kapur, 2005). His essay “Hinduism and Self-Rule” appeared in the July 2004 issue of the Journal of Democracy.

This paper argues that Weber ought to be read as a comparative ethicist who brings his German intellectual inheritance, especially Schopenauer and Nietzsche, to a dialogue with ethical traditions in India and China. It shows that Weber not only had a supple understanding of the tensions within Hindu ethics, his own account of value often closely corresponds to Hindu axiology and was enriched by an encounter with it.

What I require is a convening of my culture's criteria, in order to confront them with my words and life as I pursue them and as I may pursue them; and at the same time to confront my words and life as I pursue them with the life my culture's words may imagine for me: to confront the culture with itself, along the lines it meets in me. Stanley Cavell

Introduction - Subroto Roy and William E James The State of Governance - James Manor Language, Religion and Politics - Paul R Brass Problems of Federal Leadership - Bhagwan Dua Planning and Foreign Trade Reconsidered - T N Srinivasan A Memorandum to the Government of India 1955 - Milton Freidman Fiscal Finance and Money Supply - Amaresh Bagchi Economics of Food and Agriculture - Kalanidhi Subbarao Nutrition and Health - Anil Deolalikar Historical Roots of Economic Policy - B R Tomlinson