Alienating Hindus broke Congress. It must win them back to survive

Illustration for representation| Ramandeep Kaur |ThePrint

The Indian National Congress, once the towering force of India’s freedom struggle and post-independence politics, has seen its dominance erode dramatically over the past few decades. From commanding near-universal support in the mid-20th century to struggling for relevance in the 21st, the party’s decline is a story of shifting loyalties and missed opportunities.

At its heart lies the alienation of the Hindu masses—its historical bedrock—compounded by a cascade of governance failures, economic missteps, regional fragmentation, and leadership woes. This article explores how the loss of Hindu trust set the stage for Congress’s fall, with subsequent crises amplifying an already deepening wound.

The Hindu backbone: Congress’s strength

For much of its history, Congress drew its strength from the Hindu masses. Leaders like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, with his fiery nationalism, and Mahatma Gandhi, with his blend of Hindu symbolism and mass mobilisation, cemented the party as the voice of India’s majority community during the fight against British rule.

Post-independence, this trust endured under Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, and PV Narasimha Rao, despite challenges. The Hindu electorate, roughly three-fourths of India’s population, saw Congress as their champion—a perception bolstered by its role in securing independence and its ability to weave Hindu cultural threads into a broader secular fabric.

Yet beneath this loyalty simmered grievances that would eventually fracture the bond. The Partition of 1947, with its attendant genocidal violence and the displacement of millions of Hindus, left scars that Congress struggled to heal. Many Hindus felt the party had failed to protect their interests during this traumatic division—a sentiment compounded by policies perceived as denying constitutional equality, especially in religious and educational matters.

Sore spots included the perceived pampering of the Muslim community, seen as responsible for Partition and its horrors; state control of temples but not masjids and churches; the retention of separate personal laws and polygamy for Muslims while secularising Hindu personal law; special educational rights for minorities; and a general policy of minority appeasement. Despite these undercurrents, the charisma of Congress leaders kept Hindu support intact for decades, masking the growing disconnect.

Hindu awakening and disillusionment

The shift began in the mid-1990s. As the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rose, most notably through the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, the Hindu masses started questioning Congress’s commitment to their interests. What had once been awe for Gandhi and Nehru morphed into scepticism. Hindus increasingly saw Congress as a party more invested in minority appeasement than in addressing their religious, cultural, and political aspirations.

This alienation wasn’t immediate but gradual, fuelled by decades of perceived slights: the failure to decisively address genuine Hindu grievances such as constitutional inequality and state control of temples; the prioritisation of minority, especially Muslim, interests; and the lack of a robust counter to the BJP’s Hindu narrative. By the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Hindu electorate—Congress’s core—began drifting away, setting the stage for a decline that other factors would soon magnify.

The perfect storm: exacerbating forces

While Hindu alienation was the foundational crack, it alone might not have toppled Congress had it not been for a confluence of additional crises that exploited this vulnerability.

Governance failures and corruption: The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) years, from 2004 to 2014, were marred by high-profile scandals that shattered public trust. With Hindu support already waning, these governance lapses hit harder, as Congress could no longer rely on a loyal base to forgive its missteps. The BJP seized the moment, branding Congress as corrupt and out of touch, further eroding its appeal.

Economic misalignment: Post-1991 liberalisation transformed India’s electorate, with a rising middle class demanding growth, jobs, and infrastructure. Congress, despite initiating reforms under PV Narasimha Rao, failed to evolve its image beyond welfare schemes like MGNREGA and Muslim appeasement. As Hindu voters joined this aspirational wave, the BJP’s pro-development and pro-Hindu rhetoric outshone Congress’s offerings, widening the gap left by Hindu disillusionment.

Rise of regionalism: The fragmentation of Indian politics through regional parties like the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Nationalist Congress Party, YSR Congress Party, and Trinamool Congress further weakened Congress. As Hindus drifted away, the party leaned on minority votes, only to lose those to regional players offering localised incentives. This left Congress squeezed between a shrinking Hindu base and a fracturing coalition.

Leadership vacuum: The Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, once a unifying force, faltered with Rahul Gandhi’s inability to inspire. Lacking the charisma of his forebears, he couldn’t reclaim the Hindu masses. This leadership crisis exacerbated the party’s woes, leaving it rudderless as its core support slipped away.

Shift in Muslim vote

Historically, Congress relied on Muslim support as a counterweight to its Hindu base. Yet, as Hindus withdrew, Muslims too began voting tactically, favouring regional parties to counter the BJP’s rise, rather than sticking with a weakening Congress.

This shift, while significant, was more a symptom of Congress’s broader collapse than its cause, underscoring how the loss of Hindu trust left the party vulnerable on all fronts.

Evidence in the numbers

The data reflects this unravelling. Congress’s vote share plummeted from 47.8 per cent in 1984—buoyed by Hindu sympathy after Indira’s assassination—to a mere 19.5 per cent in 2014, as the BJP’s Hindu-centric platform soared from 28 per cent in 1998 to 31 per cent in 2014 and beyond.

In states like Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and Andhra Pradesh, Congress all but vanished, while corruption and leadership critiques dominated national headlines. The Hindu alienation, paired with these amplifying factors, paints a compelling picture of a party undone by its own history.

Can Congress recover?

As of today, Congress faces a precarious future. The Hindu exodus shows no signs of reversing, with the BJP firmly entrenched as the dominant force in Hindu-majority regions. Congress’s half-hearted attempts to reclaim Hindu support through gestures like temple visits or alliances with regional players have yielded mixed results, often alienating minorities without winning back Hindus. The party’s vote share in the 2024 elections remained below 25 per cent, a far cry from its past dominance.

Yet recovery isn’t impossible. Bold moves could shift the tide. Creating a dedicated wing to address legitimate Hindu concerns—such as cultural preservation and equitable policies—might signal a genuine re-engagement with its lost base. Proposing a central temple law to liberate over 2,00,000 temples from government control could resonate deeply, tapping into long-standing Hindu demands for religious autonomy. Similarly, revisiting Syed Shahabuddin’s 1995 Bill in Parliament to amend Article 30 of the Constitution, ensuring Hindus get equal rights to establish and manage educational institutions, could address perceptions of constitutional inequity. These steps, if executed with conviction, could be game-changers, rekindling Hindu trust without abandoning Congress’s secular roots.

A significant Hindu constituency remains disenchanted with the BJP. Betrayed by the ruling party’s reluctance to free temples, address constitutional disparities, and its intensified minority appeasement—coupled with the Sangh Parivar’s pseudo-Hindutva rhetoric—this group feels politically orphaned. Silenced by the lack of viable alternatives, these disillusioned Hindus represent a latent force that Congress could harness. By positioning itself as a credible voice for their dismay and offering substantive action rather than empty promises, Congress could rebuild bridges with the Hindu masses, capitalising on the BJP’s unfulfilled pledges.

However, the path is fraught with challenges. A reinvigorated leadership must pair these initiatives with economic pragmatism and a robust counter to the BJP’s pseudo-Hindutva narrative. Tackling corruption perceptions and rebuilding grassroots strength are equally critical.

The window is narrow: the longer Hindus remain aligned with the BJP, the harder it becomes to reclaim them, especially as regional parties continue to fragment the electorate. Without such a radical overhaul, Congress risks fading into irrelevance—a shadow of its storied past. The prognosis remains cautiously pessimistic, but these strategic pivots offer a glimmer of hope, if the party can muster the will to act.

A core wound amplified

The decline of Congress is not a simple tale of corruption or regionalism alone. At its core, it is the story of a party that lost the trust of the Hindu masses who once sustained it—a trust frayed by Partition, constitutional inequality, policy choices, and the rise of a rival that tapped into Hindu grievances.

This alienation opened the door to a perfect storm of governance scandals, economic disconnect, regional competition, and leadership failures, each compounding the last. Today, as Congress struggles to reclaim its past glory, it faces the daunting task of rebuilding not just a coalition, but the faith of a community that was once its own.

The lesson is clear: a party cannot survive losing its bedrock, especially when the winds of change blow as fiercely as they do in modern India.

The author is a retired IPS officer and a former Director, CBI. Views are personal.

(Edited by Asavari Singh)