India declines chance to assert itself as a Hindu nation at G20
National Post, 08 September 2023
A great opportunity was missed to learn from the experiences of others on how to minimize religious conflict and avoid violence.
The G20 summit in Delhi this weekend will be nothing if not inclusive. Yet not as inclusive as it should have been; an important religious initiative from last year’s G20 has been left aside.
The theme chosen by the Indian hosts is “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.” It is derived from a Sanskrit phrase meaning the that “the world is a family”; the English version is “One Earth, One Family, One Future.”
The organizers wish to highlight the “value of all life human, animal, plant, and microorganisms — and their interconnectedness on the planet Earth and in the wider universe.” Fittingly then, the International Solar Alliance (ISA) will be in attendance.
Yet amongst the vast conferencing class descending upon Delhi in these days, prominent religious leaders will not be among them. That’s a pity, after a most promising initiative last year in Indonesia. At the Bali summit, Indonesia used its presidency of the G20 to convene an impressive forum of religious leaders; it became known as the “R20”.
While leaders from all major faiths were present, at the heart of the Bali forum was the decision by Indonesia to entrust the leadership of the R20 to Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), a moderate Indonesian Muslim group with some 110 million members — the largest Muslim organization in the world. In turn, NU’s general chairman, Yahya Cholil Staquf (known as Pak Yahya), invited the secretary general of the Muslim World League (MWL), Sheikh Mohammad bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa, to co-chair the R20 with him.
As I wrote last year, that was immensely significant. The MWL is based in Saudi Arabia and has long been associated with the Wahhabi vision of Islam promoted for decades by the House of Saud, both home and abroad. NU advocates for an explicitly “moderate” Islam, open and tolerant of pluralism. In bringing the NU and MWL into joint leadership of the R20, practical points of contact were established and an alternative Islamic experience was offered from Asia to Arabia.
The hope was that what began in Indonesia might continue this year in India, the world’s largest Hindu country, and then next year in Brazil, the world’s largest Catholic country. Those hopes have not been realized.
The government of Narendra Modi has made Hindu identity a key part of its nationalist politics. That has increased tensions with the very large Muslim and very small Christian minorities. Had India decided to give the R20 a prominent role in the summit, the same theological and political work done last year could have been advanced in a Hindu context.
That India will be a Hindu country — as Indonesia is a Muslim one — is simply a fact. The question is how to affirm, even assert, that identity without the rough edges that can wound religious minorities. So a great opportunity was missed, to explore Hindu resources for pluralism and tolerance, and to learn from the experiences of others on how to minimize religious conflict and avoid violence.
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