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Support for Israel is particularly strong among members of the ruling BJP and Hindu nationalist groups, who often label Palestinians as “terrorists”. Despite this, many Indians sympathise with the Palestinian struggle for independence but find it challenging to voice their support in the current political climate. The hashtags #ISupportIsrael, #IndiaWithIsrael, #IndiaStandsWithIsrael and #IsrealUnderFire have been trending in India since the recent war on Gaza began but any trend highlighting the atrocities Israel is committing becomes a hard pill to swallow for its initiators and supporters.
Recently Bollywood celebrities faced backlash for supporting Palestine, including Madhuri Dixit, Nushrratt Bharuccha and Ritika Sajdeh (wife of cricketer Rohit Sharma).
The question is why has the world’s biggest democracy and the non-Muslim country with the largest Muslim population aligned itself with the apartheid regime of Israel instead of Palestine? The answer seems straightforward, it is the ruling far-right BJP alliance that has turned a secular India into polarised polity with an ever increasing anti-Muslim bias owing to its inflammatory rhetoric.
The alliance between India and Israel has increasingly been marked by mutual anti-Muslim sentiments, as both countries view Muslim communities and groups as a threat. Under the leadership of Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Benjamin Netanyahu, this relationship has strengthened military collaboration and ideological alignment, often framed within the context of rising Hindu and Jewish nationalism.
Even worse has been the fact that instead of condemning Israel’s recent crimes against humanity, the BJP-led government has started to emulate them in India especially in the disputed territory of Indian held Jammu and Kashmir.
Indian diplomat Sandeep Chakravorty has sparked controversy by proposing that India implement an “Israeli model” in Kashmir, which includes encouraging Hindu settlements akin to those in occupied Palestinian areas. Addressing Kashmiri Hindus in New York, he argued this strategy could enhance security and facilitate the return of refugees. His comments have faced significant backlash, with Pakistani officials and Kashmiri scholars denouncing them as reflective of a settler-colonial agenda that threatens the region’s demographic balance.
Another reason why both states get along well with each other is their sham democratic practices. Before the Modi government came to office, India was a decent democracy but now things have changed drastically as the BJP has introduced the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) 2019 – which allows non-Muslim religious minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to seek citizenship – a measure that threatens Muslims into submission and keep them under check. In contrast, Israel is doing the same – or in fact even worse – to Palestinians whose lives, property, economy and liberty are all under constant threat of erasure.
Ideological resonance between Zionism and Hindutva is another reason behind India’s waning support for the Palestine cause and mild response against the atrocities of apartheid regime in the Middle East. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and later Hindu nationalist thinkers, such as M.S. Golwalkar, were fascinated by the success of Zionism in creating a Jewish state in Israel. They viewed it as a prototype for their aspiration of establishing a Hindu Rashtra in India. This admiration stemmed from shared ethno-nationalist ideologies that prioritise race and territory.
An expansionist agenda also glues the two together. The concepts of ‘Akhand Bharat’ (Undivided India) and the expanded borders of Israel are driven by nationalist and exclusionary ideologies. The Akhand Bharat vision seeks to incorporate neighbouring countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar into a greater Hindu India. Similarly, the Greater Israel movement advocates for the annexation of the West Bank and other occupied Palestinian territories, Jordan, parts of Iraq and Egypt.
These expansionist agendas are often fuelled by religious and ethnic nationalism, portraying minorities as threats to the dominant group’s identity and interests. By demonising and scapegoating minorities, the far-right governments can consolidate their power and distract from their failures in governance.
However, such expansionist policies are not only unethical but also impractical and detrimental to regional stability and peace. They perpetuate conflicts displace populations and divert resources from pressing domestic issues like poverty, inequality and development.
Thus it would not be wrong to suggest that the current strengthening of bonds between India and Israel is more grounded in their ethno-nationalist worldviews and hostility to Muslims rather than mutual strategic interests. But any bond that is based on hatred against any community doesn’t persist forever and crumbles under the weight of its own policies. Thus it would be wise for India and Israel to revise their adversarial approach against their foes and minorities for a lasting peace in Middle East and South Asia. As continued hostilities would further exacerbate existential threats for them rather than resolving existing ones.
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