The Nehruvian Trap: How Hindus Became Political Minorities in a Hindu Nation

The Nehruvian Trap: How Hindus Became Political Minorities in a Hindu Nation At the dawn of India's independence, Hindus made up more than 80% of the population. Yet within decades, they found themselves politically restrained, culturally silenced and institutionally disempowered. How did the majority community in a civilizational nation become conditioned to act like a minority? The Nehruvian Trap, traces the roots of this paradox back to Jawaharlal Nehru's vision of secularism - one that demanded restraint from Hindus while extending appeasement to minorities. Drawing on historical records, parliamentary debates and decades of political practice, the book uncovers: The silencing of Hindu-Sikh refugees after Partition while minority reassurance dominated state policy. Nehru's handling of Kashmir, Article 370 and the erasure of Pandit voices. The asymmetry of law - Hindu Code Bill reforms vs. untouched Muslim Personal Law. The state takeover of Hindu temples while Waqf and church properties remained autonomous. The rise of vote-bank politics: Muslims consolidated as a bloc, Hindus divided by caste. The rewriting of textbooks that erased Hindu trauma and equated secularism with Hindu restraint. The continuity of this model under Indira and Rajiv Gandhi, from Emergency politics to the Shah Bano case. Far from being a relic of the past, the Nehruvian framework continues to shape India's political and cultural landscape. With clarity and rigor, Kumar exposes how a flawed model of secularism institutionalized inequality and conditioned Hindus into political silence. Provocative, deeply researched and unapologetically honest, The Nehruvian Trap is a call to re-examine India's unfinished project of decolonization - and to restore the principle of true equality before the law: autonomy for all, appeasement for none. A must-read for anyone seeking to understand the fault lines of Indian democracy, the legacy of Nehru and the path to reclaiming political agency without sliding into majoritarianism.