The Great Betrayal: Hindutva’s War On The Working Class – OpEd

Hindutva was never a movement of the masses; it was a movement against them. It marched to power draped in the tricolour, promising the rebirth of a proud, self-reliant India, but in reality, it delivered a neo-colonial order where capital reigns supreme and labor is shackled. In Narendra Modi’s India, the factory floor is silent with suppression, the farmland is scorched with debt, and the streets are loud with cries of division—Hindutva’s grand distraction.

The rise of Modi’s Hindutva regime has followed a calculated path: it hijacked the grievances of a people battered by decades of neoliberalism and repackaged their suffering as cultural and religious victimhood. It fused the language of economic justice with reactionary nationalism, creating a potent brew of resentment and false hope. And yet, despite the rhetoric of Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India), Modi’s Hindutva government has presided over the most aggressive period of neoliberal expansion in India’s history, handing over public assets to billionaires while selling religious revival as compensation for declining wages and vanishing social protections.

But the economic realities of this betrayal are beginning to catch up with Modi’s Hindutva experiment. The economic crisis deepens, unemployment soars, and the grand illusion fractures. Modi’s global standing, once bolstered by the West’s cynical embrace of India as a counterweight to China, now teeters on the precipice of India’s own domestic contradictions. The limits of his religious nationalist strategy are clearer than ever. What happens when the working class—Hindus and Muslims alike—finally recognize the lie at the heart of Hindutva?

The Bourgeois Mask of Hindutva  

In its early years, Hindutva attempted to co-opt the language of economic justice, presenting itself as a nationalist alternative to the Western-imposed neoliberal order. This was always a deception. From the Vajpayee era to Modi’s reign, every Hindutva-led government has embraced and accelerated the very economic policies that have immiserated millions.

Hindutva’s class character is unmistakable—it is a movement of the upper castes, the elite, and the corporate bourgeoisie, masquerading as a force of cultural renaissance. It does not seek to dismantle the structures of exploitation but rather to fortify them, replacing class consciousness with a manufactured Hindu identity that cuts across economic lines. By setting working-class Hindus against Muslims, Dalits, and dissenters, Hindutva ensures that the real enemy—the ruling class—remains unchallenged.

The Crisis of Hindutva’s Economic Model  

Despite the spectacle of Modi’s state-led nationalism, India’s economic indicators tell a starkly different story.

– “Unemployment is at a four-decade high”, disproportionately affecting young people and rural workers. Even among those employed, precarious informal labor dominates, ensuring that workers remain powerless against capital.

– “Wealth inequality has reached obscene levels”, with billionaires—many of whom have deep ties to Modi’s party—amassing fortunes while real wages stagnate or decline.

– “Agrarian distress has pushed thousands of farmers to suicide”, even as the government relentlessly privatizes agricultural markets and dismantles state support systems.

– “Public sector disintegration” has seen railways, telecom, and energy handed over to corporate behemoths, leaving workers without protections and citizens without essential services.

What remains of Modi’s economic strategy is the cynical repackaging of failure as strength. Every corporate sellout is framed as a step towards modernization; every economic downturn is painted as a temporary setback on the path to greatness. The middle class, struggling under rising costs, finds solace in temple-building; the unemployed are encouraged to blame migrants, Muslims, or imagined enemies of the Hindu nation. But economic pain is indifferent to ideology—it accumulates, it lingers, and eventually, it erupts.

Modi’s Diminishing Global Standing 

Hindutva’s domestic contradictions are now mirrored in Modi’s declining global stature. Once lauded as the West’s answer to China’s growing power, Modi’s India was courted by the U.S. and Europe as an economic and strategic partner. But this honeymoon phase is showing signs of strain.

– The crackdown on dissent, from opposition leaders to independent journalists, has drawn increasing condemnation.

– Western investors, once enamoured with Modi’s pro-business rhetoric, are growing wary of political instability and weakening economic fundamentals.

– India’s neutral stance on Russia and its backchannel dealings with China undermine its reliability as a Western ally.

– The unchecked rise of Hindu majoritarianism has eroded India’s reputation as a pluralist democracy, complicating its diplomatic engagement with Muslim-majority countries and the Global South.

While Modi’s government remains defiant, relying on spectacle—be it global summits or stadium-sized diaspora events—to project strength, these cosmetic victories cannot mask the fundamental weaknesses of his model.

The Limits of Religious Nationalism 

Modi’s continued dominance relies on Hindutva’s ability to sustain a permanent state of cultural conflict, keeping the masses engaged in battles that do nothing to improve their material conditions. Yet, history tells us that no regime can indefinitely suppress class struggle by substituting it with communal strife.

The working-class Hindu is beginning to ask why their ‘great civilization’ does not protect them from economic misery. The Hindu farmer, once swayed by Hindutva’s rhetoric, has faced off against Modi’s government in historic protests. The youth, promised a golden future, see only joblessness and police repression. Even the middle class, the most loyal segment of Modi’s base, feels the weight of inflation, crumbling infrastructure, and stagnant wages. The promise of a Hindu Rashtra (Hindu Nation) does not fill an empty stomach.

The question is not whether Hindutva will fail—it will, because it offers no real solutions to the economic crises it exacerbates. The question is how long it will take for the working class to recognize that their true struggle is not against fellow citizens of different religions but against the political and economic system that exploits them all.

The Future: Hindutva’s Final Form?  

If left unchallenged, Hindutva will not create a Hindu state but a Hindutva-capitalist state, where working-class Hindus are just as oppressed as their Muslim, Dalit, and tribal counterparts. The model is not Vedic utopia but a caste-ridden, hyper-exploitative dystopia where oligarchs rule with saffron banners flying high.

But the cracks are showing. The anger of the unemployed worker, the betrayed farmer, and the disillusioned middle class is mounting. The question is not if Hindutva’s illusion will shatter but when—and what will rise from its ruins.

History teaches us that every fascist movement claims invincibility until the moment it collapses under the weight of its own contradictions. Hindutva’s contradictions are growing by the day. The tide is turning. And when it does, Hindutva’s greatest betrayal—that of the working class—will be its undoing.