MAGA & Hindutva: Powerful, But Vulnerable, Conservative Ideologies

Make America Great Again (MAGA) and Hindutva are spectacularly successful political ideologies in two countries across two continents, separated by at least two great oceans, in two of the largest democracies on our planet.

US President Donald Trump used MAGA to author an electoral victory that’s perhaps unparalleled in America since 1789. He won a second term, following a huge loss in the previous round, in the teeth of criminal convictions and legal challenges that would have felled any exceptional politician. Across the world, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Chief Mohan Bhagwat wielded Hindutva to prise three successive parliamentary triumphs – an unprecedented feat in the six decades since Jawaharlal Nehru (India’s first prime minister).

MAGA & Hindutva are deeply conservative ideologies with elemental similarities. Fierce ethno-religious nationalism – bordering on jingoism – is innate to both. MAGA believes in white evangelical Christian American values, side-stepping minorities and excluding non-white immigrants. Hindutva proudly proclaims Hindu supremacy – envisioning India as a Hindu-centric nation and 'othering' minorities as inferior and unwelcome.

Both hark back to a glorious past. While Hindutva invokes several centuries of ancient civilisational purity that was violated by Muslim and British invaders for a thousand years before Independence, MAGA is of recent vintage. It talks of America’s post-World War II dominance that has been violated by spineless Washington elites and globalisers.

Both share a visceral hatred of secular liberals, coining abuses like sickular and lib-tards (liberal bastards).

Fearmongering is at the heart of their political mobilisation – while MAGA screams about Haitian immigrants who “are eating your dogs and cats”, Hindutva shrilly accuses Muslims of trapping innocent Hindu girls in marriage to usurp properties and alter demographics, calling it “love jihad”. Both use symbols to embellish their appeal – MAGA uses the American flag, Hindutva uses the saffron colour of Brahmanical Hinduism to create devoted followers.

Of course, there are a few differences between MAGA and Hindutva. While Hindutva’s overriding objective is to create a Hindu Rashtra (State), defining all citizens as “cultural Hindus” irrespective of their religion, MAGA’s aim is somewhat less sweeping and more contemporary. It’s not as bothered about cultural homogeneity as with reasserting America’s economic hegemony and expelling unwanted immigrants. Nonetheless, the similarities dwarf these marginal differences.

But there is one more, as yet unarticulated, somewhat subterranean similarity – both are feeling the heat from “political Frankensteins”.

What or Who is a Political Frankenstein?

A strong political leader and/or movement is launched. It’s polarising, disruptive, almost always authoritarian. Aggressive evangelisers hop on to the bandwagon but begin to get more strident than the original leader(ship). Before long, the ultra-radicals have taken control and obliterated the creators, becoming “political Frankensteins”.

While this phenomenon is likely to be as ancient as humankind itself, it got historical currency in the movement for Irish independence in the 1800s, when Daniel O’Connell’s moderate movement was usurped by the radical Young Ireland faction, leading to O’Connell’s arrest and irrelevance.

Quite remarkably, even the Soviet Union's last leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s effacement at the hands of glasnost and perestroika is cited as an instance of ascendant political Frankensteins neutralising him. So, although his pro-democracy policies were positive, they were too rapid and disruptive to overcome an entrenched communist state.

Are MAGA & Hindutva Facing the Spectre of Political Frankensteins?

Young (31-year-old) and restive Laura Loomer was a twice-defeated Republican Congressional candidate from Florida when she latched on to Trump’s third election campaign in 2024. She had gained wide infamy for peddling hate and conspiracies.

A self-confessed “proud Islamophobe”, she propagated the wild theory that 9/11 was orchestrated by “insiders”. Perhaps she won Trump’s heart with her excoriating tweet – “the White House will smell of curry” – to denounce Kamala Harris. Trump was quick to enlist her as a companion campaigner, calling her a “free spirit” and somebody “you want on your side”. In a sense, she became Steve Bannon Mark II for the 2024 campaign.

Imagine Donald’s consternation when both Loomer and Bannon turned on M/s Musk and Trump for supporting H1B visas, mostly to Indians. M/s Loomer and Bannon saw it as a cardinal refutation of their America-first/anti-immigrant platform. They let the sh@# fly as only they can. “Our country was built by white Europeans, actually. Not third world invaders from India,” cried Loomer. “The workers here under this programme should be deported… Deport them now and hire American citizens with the same skill set,” thumped Bannon.

At first, M/s Musk and Trump tried to rubbish this rebellion. But quickly, they realised M/s Loomer and Bannon were gaining traction with MAGA loyalists, so they sued for peace. But M/s Loomer and Bannon are in no mood for compromise. They are smelling a bigger victory, even the unthinkable, ie wresting control of MAGA from Trump. Understandably, Trump now sees them as “near political Frankensteins” who need to be humoured; this weak-kneed response is so uncharacteristic of Donald J Trump!

Across two ponds, Loomer and Bannon can count on Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati (chief priest, Dasna Devi Temple in Ghaziabad) and T Raja Singh Lodh (the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Telangana MLA) as fellow provocateurs. “Madrasas and Aligarh Muslim University should be blown up,” thundered Narsinghanand (he was arrested for this remark). “If they take one Hindu girl, we’ll take 10 of theirs,” threatened Raja Singh.

While these two bhakts and hundreds of others have said even worse things, it has made the RSS chief supremely cognisant of their potential to hijack Hindutva into a dangerously militant zone, effectively becoming “political Frankensteins”.

So, sarsanghchalak Bhagwat has consistently tried to mute, even outlaw, some of these rabidly communal bazookas. “If we don’t accept Muslims, it’s not Hindutva… After the construction of Ram Mandir, some people think they can become leaders of Hindus by raking up similar issues in new places. This is not acceptable… Why look for a shivling in every masjid? Every day a new dispute is bring raked up. How can this be allowed? This cannot continue… India needs to show that we can live together.”

It’s clear that both MAGA and Hindutva, basking in the glory of their political triumphs, seem equally concerned at how vulnerable they are to political Frankensteins hijacking their movements, infusing unimaginable, uncontrollable amounts of toxicity, eventually ending in incalculable destruction.

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