The BJP and Hindu Nationalism: Centrist Politics and Majoritarian Impulses

Palshikar, Suhas

doi:10.1080/00856401.2015.1089460

Cited by 44 publications

(20 citation statements)

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“…While the idea of “national heritage” (Harris, 2015, p. 712) is always a contested one, Modi’s Twitter is unequivocally Hindu with few references to major non-Hindu religious holidays and no references to non-Hindu religious figures. According to Palshikar (2015), majoritarian Hindutva is more than intercommunity violence; it is about holding and articulating a set of views and ideas that uphold a majoritarian worldview. Modi’s Twitter messages are full of incipient and majoritarian sentiment that tries to retain a “centrist” image but continuously pushes the center toward a pro-Hindutva platform. Recognition of human or minority rights as integral to socioeconomic development and a functioning democracy.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making of Selfie Nationalism: Narendra Modi, the Paradigm Shift to Social Media Governance, and Crisis of Democracy

Rao

2018

Journal of Communication Inquiry

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The 2014 general elections in India marked a new media beginning. It catapulted Narendra Modi onto the national political scene through his clever use of digital media space as a form of public relations. This article uses rhetorical analysis to analyze 1,230 of Modi’s tweets between April 15 and August 15, 2017. I suggest that Modi’s emphasis on social media governance leads to “selfie nationalism,” a clear break from Mohandas Gandhi’s advocacy of “spiritual nationalism.” Modi’s nationalism is based on a belief in right-wing Hinduism, a relentless advocacy for business, his presentation of himself as both a global leader and a commoner who can identify with Indians of all castes and classes, and his silence on minority rights, poverty, free press, judiciary and legislative processes, and India’s plural religious traditions. I conclude that with the rise of Modi’s brand of “selfie nationalism,” coupled with increasing rural-urban polarization, democracy in India is more akin to what O’Donnell refers to as “delegative” rather than representational democracy.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making of Selfie Nationalism: Narendra Modi, the Paradigm Shift to Social Media Governance, and Crisis of Democracy

Rao

2018

Journal of Communication Inquiry

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“…In spite of explicitly campaigning against this from early 1990s, when the BJP came to power in 1999, they promoted precisely these policies. 40 The BJP Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha during the NDA rule (1998)(1999)(2000)(2001)(2002) redefined swadeshi to mean the following: 41 I understand swadeshi basically as a concept which will make India great. And India can be great only when we become an economic superpower .... We can be great by being able to compete.…”

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confidence: 99%

The Political Project of Postcolonial Neoliberal Nationalism

Kaul¹

2019

INPP

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The starting point of this article is the recognition of globally proliferating right-wing electoral successes of a specific kind that rely upon a weaving together of seemingly contradictory aspects of neoliberalism and nationalism. An important dimension of these globally occurring changes is that they reflect something more than simply the empirical instantiation of a right-wing success in any one specific context. They require us to unravel and understand the transmutations in the nature of the political and the economic in the contemporary postcolonial world. Here, I focus on the relevance of uncovering the powerful weave of nationalism, neoliberalism, and postcolonialism that lies behind such configurations of power; a governmentality I refer to as PNN (postcolonial neoliberal nationalism). An understanding of PNN requires us to challenge the a priori availability of analysis of either neoliberalism or nationalism in isolation; neoliberalism and nationalism are not only not contradictory to each other, but as projects of reforming imaginaries, they co-constitute the ideas of "market/economy" and "nation/culture. " Furthermore, PNN makes visible the ambivalent status of "the West, " since it is imbued with the historical legacy of colonial memory recalled into the present as a revanchist pride, and combined with the conflicting aspirational/actual consumption desires to emulate the capitalist imperial metropolitan fantasies. I use the example of India to illustrate how PNN has been enacted as a technique of governmentality by the Modi-led BJP government through the reformulation of Swadeshi and the Make in India project.

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“…In 2019, 49.4% of respondents reported that they agreed with this statement, compared to only 35% in 2004 (Lokniti, n.d.). Supporters of this viewpoint are not confined to BJP voters, indicating that the ‘center’ has moved ‘towards a more and more majoritarian and pro‐Hindutva platform’ (Palshikar, 2015, p. 732). Even in the face of a world changing Pandemic, Covid19 has led to increased demonization of, and violence against, Muslims in India (Ellis‐Petersen & Rahman, 2020).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

How can we model ethnic democracy? An application to contemporary India

Adeney

2020

Nations and Nationalism

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The status of India as the world's largest democracy is often lauded, but the re‐election of the overtly Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party in 2019 has increased concerns about the threat to India's multinational democracy and the rule of law. India is not the only democracy facing challenges related to majoritarian nationalism; there has been a worldwide rise in the language of majority ‘rights’ in democratic systems. The importance of analysing the extent to which the rights of majorities are being increasingly institutionalized within democratic systems has therefore increased. It is vitally important to identify whether tendencies toward ethnic democracy are increasing (and the conditions under which they do so). There may well be red flags that emerge in democratic systems, heralding the potential direction of travel. This article proposes a methodology to identify degrees of ethnic democracy using a combination of formal and informal measures and illustrates it by assessing India through an examination of anti‐Muslim policies and rhetoric.

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The BJP and Hindu Nationalism: Centrist Politics and Majoritarian Impulses

Cited by 44 publications

References 0 publications

Making of Selfie Nationalism: Narendra Modi, the Paradigm Shift to Social Media Governance, and Crisis of Democracy

Making of Selfie Nationalism: Narendra Modi, the Paradigm Shift to Social Media Governance, and Crisis of Democracy

The Political Project of Postcolonial Neoliberal Nationalism

How can we model ethnic democracy? An application to contemporary India

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