Comrade Rahul: Dividing India to define politics
NewsBharati 24-Aug-2026 13:09:18 PM
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Rahul Gandhi’s latest performance in Pune has once again brought into focus a political phenomenon that deserves serious examination - the rise of the “dimagi naxal”. The term need not be restricted to those who take up arms against the State. Naxalism can also acquire a sophisticated ideological form one that does not fire bullets but relentlessly attacks institutions, traditions, cultural memory and the intellectual foundations of society. Rahul Gandhi’s politics increasingly appears to fit this template.
The armed Naxal begins with the belief that the existing system is fundamentally illegitimate and therefore must be destroyed. The intellectual version need not carry a weapon. It can work through narratives: divide society into oppressors and victims, identify an ideological enemy, delegitimize inherited institutions and convince an entire generation that liberation requires rejection of its own social and cultural foundations. Rahul Gandhi’s Pune rhetoric provides a striking illustration.
Instead of discussing women’s empowerment primarily through education, employment, entrepreneurship, political representation, safety and economic independence, he chose Manusmriti as a principal ideological antagonist. He presented the “Manusmriti mindset” as a source of women’s suppression and then politically linked that mindset to the BJP and RSS. This is more than ordinary political criticism. It is ideological framing. The message is subtle but consequential: your problem is not simply a particular social practice that requires reform; your problem lies in the civilisational tradition supposedly responsible for it. That distinction matters enormously.
India has repeatedly demonstrated its capacity for reform from within. Indian reformers challenged social evils, questioned established practices and fought for greater equality without asking Indians to hate India itself. A civilization that can examine its weaknesses and correct them is not a failed civilisation. Social reform strengthens civilization; cultural nihilism weakens it. For Rahul Gandhi, however, the vocabulary increasingly appears familiar: BJP, RSS, Manusmriti, patriarchy, institutions, alleged electoral theft and other structures that can be presented as instruments of oppression.
One can disagree with the BJP. That is democracy. But when political discourse repeatedly converts India’s social questions into a morality play between alleged oppressors and alleged victims, something more troubling happens. Society ceases to be viewed as a community capable of disagreement, reform and reconciliation and instead becomes a battlefield of competing identities. That is precisely the psychological terrain in which extremism flourishes. The armed Naxal says: destroy the system. The dimagi naxal says: delegitimize the system first.
Rahul Gandhi’s Pune speech also illustrates another feature of this politics: the weaponization of victimhood. He told young women that they should not be defined merely as daughters, wives or mothers and insisted that a woman belongs to herself. There is nothing objectionable in affirming women’s individual agency. But why must that message be packaged as an assault on an entire civilisational framework? Why tell young Indian women that their freedom requires them to fight a supposedly pervasive “Manusmriti mindset”? Why create the impression that Indian womanhood has historically been nothing more than a cage? India’s women are not waiting for Rahul Gandhi to discover their agency. They are running companies, flying fighter aircraft, leading scientific institutions, entering Parliament, winning sporting honours, building start-ups, administering districts and transforming rural economies. They are shaping India’s present and future. The Indian woman is not a political victim waiting to be liberated by a dynastic politician.
Rahul Gandhi is also not inventing an entirely new political vocabulary. He is reviving a vocabulary used by his ideological forefathers for decades one that often views Indian society primarily through the prism of caste, gender, religion and other fault lines. The objective is political mobilisation: identify divisions, deepen grievances, create constituencies and convert social friction into electoral capital. The tragedy is that, in such politics, the nation becomes secondary to the pursuit of power.
India is no longer presented as a civilisation capable of resolving its contradictions through its own internal capacity for reform. Instead, it is portrayed as a permanent battlefield of competing identities. Every fault line becomes an opportunity, every grievance becomes political ammunition and every social difference becomes a potential vote-bank constituency. This is why the phrase “dimagi naxal” deserves to be understood carefully. Rahul Gandhi may reject the label, but he cannot escape the larger question: when does legitimate criticism become systematic delegitimization?
Rahul Gandhi’s Pune speech therefore deserves to be debated beyond the immediate political controversy. It reveals a style of politics in which historical memory becomes an enemy, tradition becomes suspect, cultural symbols become weapons and social grievances become ideological ammunition. That is precisely where the idea of the dimagi naxal becomes relevant. Rahul Gandhi’s Pune speech has demonstrated that the battle for the Indian mind is far from over.
At Pune’s Chhatron Ki Goonj programme, Rahul Gandhi declared war on what he called the “Manusmriti mindset”, urged young women to “smash patriarchy” and accused the BJP and RSS of wanting to “cage” women. He also attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his reaction to abusive language used by women protesters, arguing that there was no comparable “cultural shock” when boys used such language. Women’s dignity, freedom and equality are entirely legitimate subjects for political debate. But Rahul Gandhi’s method deserves closer scrutiny. The issue is not whether patriarchy or discrimination exists. They do, and they must be addressed. The real question is why every social problem must be converted into an ideological war against India’s civilisational inheritance. That is where the concept of the “dimagi naxal” becomes relevant.
Instead of discussing women’s empowerment primarily through education, employment, entrepreneurship, political representation, safety and economic independence, he chose Manusmriti as a principal ideological antagonist. He presented the “Manusmriti mindset” as a source of women’s suppression and then politically linked that mindset to the BJP and RSS. This is more than ordinary political criticism. It is ideological framing. The message is subtle but consequential: your problem is not simply a particular social practice that requires reform; your problem lies in the civilisational tradition supposedly responsible for it. That distinction matters enormously.
India has repeatedly demonstrated its capacity for reform from within. Indian reformers challenged social evils, questioned established practices and fought for greater equality without asking Indians to hate India itself. A civilization that can examine its weaknesses and correct them is not a failed civilisation. Social reform strengthens civilization; cultural nihilism weakens it. For Rahul Gandhi, however, the vocabulary increasingly appears familiar: BJP, RSS, Manusmriti, patriarchy, institutions, alleged electoral theft and other structures that can be presented as instruments of oppression.
One can disagree with the BJP. That is democracy. But when political discourse repeatedly converts India’s social questions into a morality play between alleged oppressors and alleged victims, something more troubling happens. Society ceases to be viewed as a community capable of disagreement, reform and reconciliation and instead becomes a battlefield of competing identities. That is precisely the psychological terrain in which extremism flourishes. The armed Naxal says: destroy the system. The dimagi naxal says: delegitimize the system first.
Rahul Gandhi’s Pune speech also illustrates another feature of this politics: the weaponization of victimhood. He told young women that they should not be defined merely as daughters, wives or mothers and insisted that a woman belongs to herself. There is nothing objectionable in affirming women’s individual agency. But why must that message be packaged as an assault on an entire civilisational framework? Why tell young Indian women that their freedom requires them to fight a supposedly pervasive “Manusmriti mindset”? Why create the impression that Indian womanhood has historically been nothing more than a cage? India’s women are not waiting for Rahul Gandhi to discover their agency. They are running companies, flying fighter aircraft, leading scientific institutions, entering Parliament, winning sporting honours, building start-ups, administering districts and transforming rural economies. They are shaping India’s present and future. The Indian woman is not a political victim waiting to be liberated by a dynastic politician.
India is no longer presented as a civilisation capable of resolving its contradictions through its own internal capacity for reform. Instead, it is portrayed as a permanent battlefield of competing identities. Every fault line becomes an opportunity, every grievance becomes political ammunition and every social difference becomes a potential vote-bank constituency. This is why the phrase “dimagi naxal” deserves to be understood carefully. Rahul Gandhi may reject the label, but he cannot escape the larger question: when does legitimate criticism become systematic delegitimization?
Rahul Gandhi’s Pune speech therefore deserves to be debated beyond the immediate political controversy. It reveals a style of politics in which historical memory becomes an enemy, tradition becomes suspect, cultural symbols become weapons and social grievances become ideological ammunition. That is precisely where the idea of the dimagi naxal becomes relevant. Rahul Gandhi’s Pune speech has demonstrated that the battle for the Indian mind is far from over.
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