Why does Hindutva hear one hunger strike but not the other?

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak* 

Hunger strikes are moral strategies in politics, used to awaken the human consciousness of the governing classes. As a political strategy, it has been employed in various struggles against ruling elites to humanise power and democratise society for the greater common good. Mahatma Gandhi used the hunger strike to appeal to the political consciousness of the masses, urging them to join the anti-colonial struggle against British rule. He also wielded the threat of "fast unto death" as a strategy to appeal to the moral conscience of society to end communal conflict between Hindus and Muslims during the partition of India. The strategy worked; the Noakhali riots were halted by Gandhi's non-violent intervention.

As a political tactic, hunger strikes were utilised by anti-colonial movements in India, Africa, and Ireland. Hunger strikes have even been adopted by prisoners to secure demands from prison administrations. Thus, the hunger strike endures as a shared strategic language of non-violent resistance. From Gandhi to Sonam Wangchuk, post-colonial India has witnessed numerous hunger strikes as a form of non-violent protest rooted in the ideals of self-sacrifice. Gandhi called this a method of self-discipline and personal purification that appeals to the moral conscience of both ruler and ruled, steering them toward peace and non-violence to transform individuals and society alike.

These protests have played a major role in shaping Indian politics, deepening Indian democracy, and expanding citizenship rights. Self-sacrifice through hunger strike serves as a moral compass in non-violent politics. This strategy has been adopted by all political parties, non-political groups, and individuals to achieve their goals, regardless of ideological divides. Mahatma Gandhi was on a hunger strike for 21 days, but Irom Sharmila holds the record for the longest such protest in India's history. She refused food for 16 years to demand the abolition of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, surviving only because authorities force-fed her through a nasal tube.

In April 2011, the reactionary Gandhian social activist Anna Hazare—backed by the RSS and the BJP—began an indefinite hunger strike at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on the 5th of that month. Launching his "India Against Corruption" movement, he transformed it into a mass campaign that was ultimately responsible for dislodging the United Progressive Alliance government led by the Congress Party. This movement proved crucial to the political whirlwind that brought the Modi-led BJP government to power, which rules India today.

The movement also gave birth to a new political party called the Aam Aadmi Party, which effectively NGO-ised politics and functioned as a shock absorber for the ruling classes. Despite its good intentions in the fight against corruption, the movement neutralised many small and large radical political movements across the country and further depoliticised the political landscape in India. In response to Hazare's 13-day hunger strike, the UPA government listened to the issues raised by the movement, debated them in parliament, and took action by passing the Lokpal Bill. The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act was formally enacted by the Indian Parliament under the UPA government.

Despite this legislative achievement, popular support for Anna Hazare's movement proved to be the death knell for the UPA regime. It ended the Congress Party's dominance across the country and created a political opportunity for the consolidation and rise of the RSS and BJP, ultimately leading to the formation of Narendra Modi's government, which governs India today. Under Hindutva crony capitalism, corruption has become decentralised and normalised in India. Yet today, Anna Hazare and his India Against Corruption group are invisible in the fight against corruption in contemporary India. The movement now appears to have been a reactionary political scam, intended merely to bring the BJP to power. For Hazare, Hindutva corruption seems to be a nationalist act of patriotic people—which is precisely why he remains silent and invisible now. The BJP, along with Hazare's activist companions like Kiran Bedi and Arvind Kejriwal, are the direct beneficiaries of this movement.

Sonam Wangchuk is known not only for his educational innovations and environmentalism but also as an activist who has staged hunger strikes in Ladakh for statehood and water and environmental conservation projects. He began his hunger strike at the same venue—Jantar Mantar in New Delhi—on 28th June 2026. However, Wangchuk's demands were simpler than Anna Hazare's. He called for the resignation of the incompetent Union Higher Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, holding him accountable for the recent NEET paper leaks that resulted in the deaths of many students. Many students are yet to recover from the mental trauma.

Even after 22 days of his hunger strike, the Modi-led BJP government did not listen to his moral appeal. Instead, police forcibly removed him from the site and admitted him to a hospital. The BJP government chose to stand by its incompetent minister at the cost of public accountability and performance. It did not surrender to the demands of the thousands of people led by Sonam Wangchuk, because Hindutva politics lacks democratic ethos and a moral compass. Death does not disturb a death cult in political praxis. Hindutva is not only destroying India's educational systems but also ruining its constitutional democracy and democratic culture.

Hindutva politics is a political and economic project of both national and global capitalist classes, directed by Yankee imperialism. Hindutva is neither a nationalistic nor a patriotic force; rather, it is a reactionary cultural project of crony capitalists designed to uphold the interests of corporations at the expense of the Indian people. People's democratic movements in the form of hunger strikes do not appeal to the Hindutva government, as it lacks any moral compass.

Hindutva politics is designed to enforce authoritarianism in governance, capitalism in economics, Brahminical caste-based order in society, and reactionary thought in culture—achieving all these objectives through the centralisation of power and authority. Within such a Hindutva framework, individual hunger strikes or fasts unto death are ineffective. What is needed is a united mass movement against Hindutva ideology and its government—just as Anna Hazare's movement ended the Congress-led UPA government. The time has come for a mass strike against Hindutva ideology to end its regime and ensure the survival of constitutional democracy in India.

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*Academic based in UK