The Biggest Vote

Today's guest blogger is Zeenat Rahman, Senior Program Coordinator for Public Affairs at the Interfaith Youth Core.

With over 700 million Indians eligible to vote, India just held the largest democratic election in the world -- a remarkable election in which millions of often poor and sometimes illiterate come out to vote. But something even more remarkable happened in this election -- Indian people avowed the importance of pluralism as an intrinsic value of their democratic nation.

The Hindu nationalist platform of the BJP, whose leaders past actions have directly incited Hindu Muslim communal violence did not have traction with voters, and the Congress-led alliance won 262 seats compared to 158 by the BJP-led group.

This has left a lot of members of the BJP scratching their heads wondering how the gap could be so large.

As events in 1993 in Bombay, and 2002 in Gujurat have shown, this party's leadership has a history of bridge burning instead of bridge building.

In 2008, the world held its breath as it watched the attacks in Mumbai, waiting to see if this horrible chain of events would cause division and violence amongst Hindus and Muslims in India.

It didn't. India used this election to demonstrate that its brilliance and its strength is in its diversity.

"This is a very serious moment in the BJP's history. Its worldview is out of touch with the changing aspirations of new India. Its grammar and idiom is not shared by a majority of Indians," said Mahesh Rangarajan, an independent analyst in New Delhi. "In this election, the pluralistic impulse of Indians has re-coalesced. The BJP has to break out of the rigidity in their thinking."

At the Interfaith Youth Core, Zeenat Rahman oversees policy initiatives and international programs, as well as strategic media outreach; she frequently travels abroad to speak about the importance of interfaith youth work in promoting civic engagement and healthy integration amongst youth. Zeenat is a member of the Transatlantic Network 2020 -- a program sponsored by the British Council and is an 08-09 Fellow with the American Muslim Civic Leaders Institute at the University of Southern California's Center for Religion and Civic Culture. Zeenat completed her Master's Degree at the University of Chicago's Center for Middle East Studies; her thesis work focused on Muslim youth and the territorializing of Muslim religious institutions in America. Currently, Zeenat is one of the co-creators of a play based on Muslim women and their real life experiences, told in monologue format.

The content of this blog reflects the views of its author and does not necessarily reflect the views of either Eboo Patel or the Interfaith Youth Core.

By Eboo Patel  |  May 20, 2009; 11:58 AM ET  | Category:  Interfaith Issues , Religion & Leadership , Religion & Politics , Religious Conflict , The Faith Divide Save & Share:                 
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