Modi's India: Hindu Nationalism and the Rise of Ethnic Democracy

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In Ahmedabad, Modi renewed his acquaintance with Inamdar, who was based at the Hedgewar Bhavan (RSS headquarters) in the city. [66] [67] [68] Modi's first-known political activity as an adult was in 1971 when he joined a Jana Sangh Satyagraha in Delhi led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee to enlist to fight in the Bangladesh Liberation War. [69] [70] The Indira Gandhi-led central government prohibited open support for the Mukti Bahini; according to Modi, he was briefly held in Tihar Jail. [71] [72] [73] After the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, Modi left his uncle's employ and became a full-time pracharak (campaigner) for the RSS, [74] working under Inamdar. [75] Shortly before the war, Modi took part in a non-violent protest in New Delhi against the Indian government, for which he was arrested; because of this arrest, Inamdar decided to mentor Modi. [75] According to Modi, he was part of a Satyagraha that led to a political war. [72] [i] Modi’s India: Hindu Nationalism and the Rise of Ethnic Democracy ; Christophe Jaffrelot, Translated by Cynthia Schoch, Princeton University Press & Context/Westland, ₹899. Modi repealed 1,200 obsolete laws in first three years as prime minister; 1,301 such laws had been repealed by previous governments in the previous 64 years. [244] [245] [246] Modi launched the Digital India programme with the goal of ensuring government services are available electronically, build infrastructure to provide high-speed Internet access to rural areas, boost manufacturing of electronic goods in the country, and promote digital literacy. [247] [248] Narendra Modi is the leader of the world’s largest democracy, a man who has been elected twice as India’s prime minister and is widely seen as the most powerful politician of his generation. Seen by the west as an important bulwark against Chinese domination of Asia, he has been courted as a key ally by both the US and the UK.

On 13 October 2018, Modi was named the BJP candidate for prime minister in the 2019 general election. [224] The BJP's chief campaigner was its president Amit Shah. Modi launched the party's Main Bhi Chowkidar ("I too am a watchman") campaign ahead of the general election, against the INC's campaign slogan Chowkidar Chor Hai ("The watchman is a thief"). [225] In 2018, the Telugu Desam Party split from the NDA over the campaign for special status for Andhra Pradesh. [226] In response to the apparent censorship, student groups across India set up screenings of the documentary but had to face arrest, violence by rightwing groups and accusations of “treason”. In 2001, Modi was appointed Chief Minister of Gujarat and elected to the legislative assembly soon after. His administration is considered complicit in the 2002 Gujarat riots, [d] and has been criticised for its management of the crisis. A little over 1,000 people were killed, according to official records, three-quarters of whom were Muslim; independent sources estimated 2,000 deaths, mostly Muslim. [11] A Special Investigation Team appointed by the Supreme Court of India in 2012 found no evidence to initiate prosecution proceedings against him. [e] While his policies as chief minister, which were credited for encouraging economic growth, were praised, Modi's administration was criticised for failing to significantly improve health, poverty and education indices in the state. [f] In the 2014 Indian general election, Modi led the BJP to a parliamentary majority, the first for a party since 1984. His administration increased direct foreign investment, and it reduced spending on healthcare, education, and social-welfare programmes. Modi began a high-profile sanitation campaign, controversially initiated the 2016 demonetisation of high-denomination banknotes and introduced the Goods and Services Tax, and weakened or abolished environmental and labour laws. It was also raised in the UK parliament, where the Labour MP Imran Hussain challenged the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, over the British government’s alleged knowledge of Modi’s role during in the violence. “I am not sure that I agree at all with the characterisation,” responded Sunak.In December 2021, Modi signed an agreement with Russian leader Vladimir Putin to extend military technical cooperation. [399] The Modi government bought the S-400 missile system, an anti-missile striking system, strengthening the relationship between the two nations. [400] India refused to condemn the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and stayed neutral. [399] [401] The Indian government's Operation Ganga initiative sought to return Indians stranded in Ukraine during the war. More than 19,000 Indian nationals were evacuated, [402] [403] including some from neighbouring countries. [404] Environment Modi (right) at CoP21 Climate Conference, in Paris, announcing the founding of an International Solar Alliance (ISA). November 2015. The Modi government has also been notoriously thin-skinned about international criticism. Among those rebuked for speaking out are Greta Thunberg, the climate activist, and the singer Rihanna, who both expressed support for farmers protesting against Modi’s policies and who were subsequently the subject of a damning foreign ministry statement. What have been the implications for the BBC? Modi’s India is an exhaustive account of contemporary Indian politics, which impressively draws on numerous sources and examines a range of issues . . . . this work emerges as an important contribution to the study of the future of democracy in India and beyond."—Pratim Ghosal, Commonwealth & Comparative Politics In 2008, Modi published a Gujarati book titled Jyotipunj, which contains profiles of RSS leaders. The longest was of M. S. Golwalkar, under whose leadership the RSS expanded and whom Modi refers to as Pujniya Shri Guruji ("Guru worthy of worship"). [506] According to The Economic Times, Modi's intention was to explain the workings of the RSS to his readers, and to reassure RSS members he remained ideologically aligned with them. The first episode of the documentary revisits allegations from two decades ago, when Modi was chief minister of Gujarat. It was during this time that 60 Hindu pilgrims were killed when their train carriage was set alight. The cause of the fire was disputed but the Muslim community was blamed and it set off a wave of bloody retaliatory violence, with Hindu mobs targeting the homes of Muslims across the state. More than 1,000 people died in the riots, most of them Muslims.

Modi rose within the party and was named a member of its National Election Committee in 1990, helping organise Advani's Ram Rath Yatra in 1990 and Murli Manohar Joshi's 1991–1992 Ekta Yatra (Journey for Unity). [49] [101] [102] Modi took a brief break from politics in 1992 to establish a school in Ahmedabad, and due to friction with Shankersinh Vaghela, a BJP MP from Gujarat. [102] Modi returned to electoral politics in 1994, partly at the insistence of Advani; as party secretary, Modi's electoral strategy was considered central to the BJP victory in the 1995 state assembly election. [103] [104] In November of that year, Modi was appointed BJP national secretary and transferred to New Delhi, where he assumed responsibility for party activities in Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. [105] The following year, Shankersinh Vaghela, a prominent BJP leader from Gujarat, defected to the Indian National Congress (Congress) after losing his parliamentary seat in the Lok Sabha election. [49] Modi, who was on the selection committee for the 1998 Gujarat Legislative Assembly election, favoured supporters of BJP leader Keshubhai Patel over those supporting Vaghela to end factional division in the party. His strategy was credited as central to the BJP winning an overall majority in the 1998 election, [106] and Modi was promoted to BJP general secretary (organisation) in May of that year. [107] Chief Minister of Gujarat Taking office The BJP won 31 percent of the vote, [38] and more-than-doubled its number of seats in the Lok Sabha to 282, becoming the first party to win a majority of seats on its own since 1984. [210] [211] Voter dissatisfaction with the Congress and with regional parties in North India, and support from the RSS were reasons for the BJP's success. [211] [207] In states such as Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP performed well, it drew exceptionally high support from upper-caste Hindus, and its Muslim vote increased to 10 percent. The BJP performed particularly well in parts of the country that had recently experienced violence between Hindus and Muslims. [211] The magnitude of the BJP's victory led many commentators to say the election constituted a political realignment away from progressive parties towards the right-wing. [39] [185] [211] [216] [217] Modi's tweet announcing his victory was described as being emblematic of the political realignment away from a secular, socialist state towards capitalism and Hindu cultural nationalism. [218] From the early 1990s, French political scientist Christophe Jaffrelot has written about Indian politics in the present, catching every wave as it crests. Over the past three decades he has produced some 30 books, monographs and edited volumes, in French and English, on all the salient political phenomena in India. A police officer stands at the entrance of the BBC office building in New Delhi on 14 February during a raid by Indian tax authorities. Photograph: Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty Images Shortly after Modi was re-elected in 2019, his government scrapped the disputed region’s special status guaranteed by the constitution and turned it into a federal territory.

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Right now, we are witnessing a slow genocide of minorities. The lives of India’s 200 million Muslims are at stake, and the Biden administration can no longer afford to stay silent. This meeting is the right time to send a stern message to India,” Syed Ali, the president of an advocacy group, the Indian American Muslim Council, told Al Jazeera. For cost savings, you can change your plan at any time online in the “Settings & Account” section. If you’d like to retain your premium access and save 20%, you can opt to pay annually at the end of the trial.