Recent protests – from Gen Z to Gen alpha, in combination with a combative Rahul Gandhi, weave a disturbing picture of a nation-in-crisis. To be precise, it is the Narendra Modi Government that suddenly looks like a ship caught in a stormy sea. The disquiet is so deep and widespread that merchants of doom have started predicting a collapse sooner than later.These developments, however, must be celebrated with caution. The Jantar Mantar uprising indeed triggered a phase of crisis for the government but a nationwide movement with defined objectives will have to be launched for any significant victory for the warriors and advocates of secular democracy. Recent developments call for a serious investigation into the paralysis in the Hindutva ecosystem that threatens the ideology’s survival. This is necessary, for it is closely linked to the revival of our democracy.It is doubtless difficult to rationalise this sudden drift for a government that has firm control over key democratic institutions, media, and all other instruments of the state. The propaganda machinery has failed to clear the mist.The decline of the ideology that drives the Modi regimeDiversionary ploys are falling flat. The reason is that the crisis has little to do with structures; it signals the decline of the ideology that drives the Modi regime. The ideology has exhausted its appeal. Believe it or not, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) brand of Hindutva is in its most challenging phase. Its vitality and desirability were always in question among intellectuals but the society has now awakened to wonder whether politics can be run through religious principles.Do ideologies survive on tricks? Can ideologies sustain themselves on the fuel of hypocrisy and deception? Even the right wing in the West invented the whole range of ideas around individual freedoms, socio-economic prosperity, and a harmonious world. Fascism was its extreme form. Hindutva imitated it and did not move beyond hate politics.Why are the masters of narrative finding it difficult to invent new themes and distracting stories? Why is the well-oiled propaganda machinery looking exhausted? Why do all attempts at negative portrayal of opponents fail to yield results? The answer lies in the ideological construct of Hindutva. How can dated ideas of supremacy and dominance survive a modern challenge? Its survival for a full hundred years is a miracle in itself.The main reason Hindutva ideology has survived so long lies not in its philosophical strength, but in its ability to mask its true content. It can adopt one popular form or another at a designated time. It has mastered the art of playing a borrowed character. The best example comes from the freedom struggle. The RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha were absent from the freedom struggle till the end. They even collaborated with the British during World War II by recruiting soldiers for the British Army.The Hindu Mahasabha allied with the Muslim League just a few years before the partition to form governments in Muslim-majority states. However, none of these acts prevented Hindutva outfits from claiming a patriotic image and declaring themselves the champions of Akhand Bharat (One India). We can also see its blatant hypocrisy in its demand for full integration of Jammu and Kashmir into the Indian Union and reading down of Article 370. The Hindutva forces aligned with the ruler of Jammu and Kashmir, Maharaja Hari Singh, who sought independent status for his state and delayed its accession to India. Sheikh Abdullah’s secular and democratic leadership led the state to join India.The crisis prime minister Modi is witnessing at the moment has its origin in the ideological limitations of Hindutva. We can see it in the current debate on Manusmriti. Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Smash Patriarchy’ call at an all-girl rally in Pune has thrown an insurmountable challenge at the Modi regime. The BJP cannot escape it by using the old trick of hiding behind religion and terming the opposition to Manusmriti as an attack on Hinduism. MS Golwalkar, the longest-serving RSS chief, considers Manu the greatest lawgiver and condemns Constitution-makers for adopting a West-inspired constitution while ignoring a lawgiver like Manu.However, it is defending the indefensible and trying to promote the book that has been infamous for its support for the subjugation of non-Dwija castes and women. It endorses violence against them. Mahatma Phule and Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar found the book to be the source of caste discrimination and violence. Dr Ambedkar went so far as to burn it in 1927. On one hand, the RSS and the BJP pretend to create an equity-based society, and on the other, they defend Manusmriti. How can people who are trying to free themselves from the bondage of the caste system accept such hypocrisies?The book’s colonial connection is no less significant. The book is supposed to have been compiled in the second century A.D. and is one of the earliest books to be discovered and translated by the British. Sir William Jones translated it in 1794. The East India Company used the book to make laws for the inhabitants in the regions under their control. The text helped them to divide them into categories and reinforce caste hierarchy. Like the British, the RSS admires the book and its author for their endorsement of the caste hierarchy, gender based discrimination and violence.The RSS and the BJP should have understood over the last decades the need for reforming its ideology. Atal Bihari Vajpayee did strike compromises on the core elements of their ideology but Modi resurrected the original form. Though the ruling establishment would like to hide the turbulence, Modi and his core team can’t ignore the disturbing signals. The optics of a reluctant minister forced to resign and an FIR lodged on pellet gun injury against the will of the home minister are not an exhilarating experience for a megalomaniac government. The prime minister and the home minister skipped the monsoon session of parliament to avoid an encounter with a belligerent opposition led by Rahul Gandhi. That episode might have left indelible scars on the government’s self-esteem.As if these incidents were not devastating enough for the Hindutva forces, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat undertook the difficult challenge of selling his flawed ideology to the global audience. His US tour couldn’t have come at a more awkward time. The uproarious resistance to Bhagwat in the US and Canada confirms their inability to impress the international audience despite being in power for so long. People there are identifying RSS with religious and racial supremacists in their own regions. The long-cherished claim to Vishwaguru status for India, a catchphrase of RSS rhetoric, is being rejected even before its proper scrutiny.Hindutva’s adherence to diversionary rhetoricCan Hindutva survive on its own in the absence of borrowed narratives, institutional manipulations, and violence by its allied organisations such as Bajrang Dal? The concept of cultural supremacy and branding Muslims and Christians as aliens in their own land has been borrowed from Nazi philosophy. Can its support for the archaic social structure based on caste hierarchy survive the challenges of the modern age? Its 100-year history testifies to Hindutva’s adherence to diversionary rhetoric such as development and prosperity for the common people – Rs 15 lakh to everybody type bogus promises.Modi demonstrated this deceptive trick in 2014. He successfully adopted a political persona which concealed his real politics. His regime in Gujarat is infamous for the genocide of 2002, and his 12-year rule made the state the third hungriest place in the country with high ratios of economic and social disparities. In 1947, the RSS had taken advantage of the partition-anxiety of common Hindus.In 2014, it played upon the anxiety of common people in the wake of corruption scandals during the Manmohan rule. He boldly sold the Gujarat model, weaving an image of a magician who would lift India’s economy to dizzying heights. Modi wore the mask of modernity and development, keeping the communal intent hidden from public glare. The revivalist image was lapped up and he won the election, never to mention the Gujarat model again.Is it not ridiculous to see a full-time sanyasi, Adityanath, talking of smart cities, semiconductor industries or a high-tech defence establishment? He is a seer from Nath Sampraday, a sect opposed to Brahmanism, but he champions all that ensures Brahmanical restoration. The only thing that has been consistent in their journey is their hatred towards minorities. They cannot sail without it. However, the ideology is eating into the vitals of Indian civilisation, which has accommodated various streams of thought from across the world since ancient times.No religion or idea on the planet should lament its absence in the Indian discourse. The ideology of the RSS is antithetical to the amalgamation. They do talk of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (the world is a family), but demolish the concept by adopting exclusivism –one nation, one culture, one language. Hope the RSS will learn the right lessons from Bhagwat’s foreign trip and internalise the message that the soul of Vasudhaiva Kutumbkam can’t fit into the frame of divisive politics.Anil Sinha is a senior journalist.