The rise and fall of 'political iftar' in India: A short history

For decades, top officials around India came together each Ramadan for "political iftar," a post-colonial, post-independence concept unique to the country.

It began at the behest of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, independent India’s first prime minister when he hosted personal iftar get-togethers at the All India Congress Headquarters in New Delhi.

Nehru would invite his Muslim friends and together they would break bread as they sat down for the post-sunset meal. Nehru’s iftar parties were driven by his personal conviction in the importance of diversity and interfaith initiatives.

The gatherings were by no means a planned mode to reach out to the minority population or necessarily a political activity. They were more of an expression of camaraderie, the undercurrent of which letting the minority Muslim population know that their religious-cultural practices were respected.

This almost seems unimaginable in current times, but this was Nehru’s approach to religion and dedication to a secular government.

Though Nehru was a Hindu and a Brahmin, he was secular in practice and in governance. His religiosity went way beyond the conventional understanding of faith.

Ainslie Thomas Embree, a historian and India expert states in his 1993 essay, Nehru’s Understanding of Social Function of Religion, "Although 80 percent of its people are Hindus, I cannot find that Nehru ever referred to India as a Hindu nation."

Embree further noted, "India, they (leaders of Congress party) insisted, would be a secular state, that is, in the Indian usage of the term: a nation where all religion would be freely practised but none would be favoured over another by the state."

Invariably, such a worldview would result in eating together, aligning with the unique element in the Indian Constitution that pledges "unity in diversity."

Transformation

Post-Nehru, the character of political iftar began to transform. Iftar organised by political parties were increasingly laced with respective ideologies.

The guest lists too became more selective, with invites often sent only to influential Muslims. Critics said these events were starting to take on hints of tokenism, with politicians of different faiths routinely donning symbolic Muslim clothing such as skull caps, scarves and sherwanis.

In the 1970s, political iftar became intertwined with vote bank politics and was rarely an honest marker of inclusiveness. However, in a constitutionally secular country, the culture of throwing iftar parties (with its dose of controversies) continued.

Over the years, all major political players have hosted iftar parties. From Indira Gandhi (India’s first female prime minister, also Nehru’s daughter) to succeeding PMs Rajiv Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and Atal Behari Bajpayee (affiliated to the Bharatiya Janata Party), to important chief ministers like Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna (Uttar Pradesh), to various local leaders and recent former Indian National Congress party president Rahul Gandhi.

It was Indira Gandhi who first gave the iftar party a political colour and twist in the 1970s, strategically using these lavish events to reach out to upper-class, influential Muslims whose support would matter in the electoral playbook.

At the state level, rigorous vote bank politics was always associated with the much-stratified Uttar Pradesh (UP), the largest state in India. In the UP, iftar gatherings were initiated by former Chief Minister Hemvati Nandan Baguna, and still remain in citizens' collective memory.

Notably, Uttar Pradesh is critically important in electoral politics even today, and more so when it comes to Muslim votes. The state currently has a BJP-ruled government with Chief Minister Yogi Adiyanath, who is known for his aggressive Hindutva-driven leadership.

But not every member of BJP or even RSS was a hardliner like Adityanath, oblivious of the country's plural fabric even a decade back. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was an exception even within the Hindutva universe.

Vajpayee was a famed Hindi poet, a veteran political leader who became the first PM affiliated with the BJP. Vajpayee was one of the founding members of Bhartiya Jan Sangh (the BJP’s earlier party name), and a lifelong member of ultra-nationalist Hindutva organisation Rashtriya Sevak Sangh (RSS).

Though BJP’s leadership has been always averse to iftar get-togethers, calling them "pseudo-secular," Vajpayee who served as PM thrice continued in the footsteps of his predecessors like Rajiv Gandhi or even Indira Gandhi.

He went on to delegate the task of organising the iftar party to his only Muslim cabinet minister Shahnawaz Khan every year.

When Manmohan Singh, synonymous with India's economic reforms, became PM after Vajpayee, he too continued the tradition of regularly hosting political iftars at his official residence, with one exception of public tragedy due to devastating floods in the northern state of Uttarakhand.

Declining trend

Notably in 2014, the very year when the BJP swept the general elections for the first time, Khan did not hold any iftar party. When prodded by media, he said he was no longer a parliamentarian and that he had organised previous iftar parties only to abide by and respect veteran leader Vajpayee's desires.

It remains widely known, within the political universe of Hindutva, that Vajpayee was a league apart from many of his peers, and holding iftar parties was a reflection of his alignment to an inclusive cultural practice beyond party objectives.

Post-2014, the scenario further transformed as the BJP-ruled federal government officially gave political iftar a cold shoulder.

In the first year of the new government, no iftar party was hosted or attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Neither did the few Muslim leaders like Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi or Najma Heptullah within the BJP throw a party during Ramadan.

Interestingly Pranab Mukherjee (a lifelong member of Indian National Congress) and then-President of India did host an iftar. But the president is considered a figurehead in Indian politics, and more powerful officials including Modi steered clear of the event.

Although the BJP continued to give iftar parties a pass in subsequent years, citing them as merely a tool of "Muslim appeasement," an affiliate of the party's ideological mentor Rastriya Sevak Sangh’s (RSS) organised political iftar parties in 2016 and 2018.

Heavily criticised both by the Hindu hardliners and secularists, Muslim Rashtriya Munch did not foray into that space again. Meanwhile, members of congress and regional parties have continued the tradition, sending out guest lists for Muslim elites and opposition political parties alike, giving it a tinge of "inclusiveness" albeit token.

Hijacked

Regrettably what was once initiated as a personal gesture of inclusiveness and diversity by Nehru has since been hijacked by his own party, the Indian National Congress, and other players looking to serve and strengthen their own narrow electoral support.

Looking back, Nehru’s gesture may have purported to restore the concept of pluralism. He surely deserves appreciation for his contribution to the harmonious rebuilding of newly independent India, from the clutches of colonialism that was both coercive and divisive at the same time.

Needless to say, the Partition of India has been the most glaring and devastating example of this colonial divisiveness, apart from marking one the largest human displacements and migrations in the world.

With another general election is around the corner, it would be interesting to observe politicians change their minds about political iftars this Ramadan.

So far, the ruling BJP party has not announced any such events, nor has the main opposition Indian National Congress. The exception is one state-level event that was held by Congress-ruled Telegana’s (southern state) Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on the first Friday of Ramadan.

The vexing question that remains is whether the alleged "tokenism and Muslim appeasement" of political iftar parties is a good enough excuse not to hold them, especially in these times of religious majoritarianism.