Religious populism in India : a case study analysis of India's elections

• Main Author: Gupta. Radhika
• Other Authors: Christopher Holman
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2021
• Subjects: Social sciences::Political science
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/150771
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The rise of populism across the world has been a palpable phenomenon across the globe, with right-wing populism on the rise since the early 2010s. Yet, the term often is ridden with ambiguity, and variants of populism such as religious populism have not received adequate academic attention. This paper will therefore first seek to define the term religious populism in order to address the literature gap, while drawing establishing the relationship between the various elements of this definition. This definition encompasses 6 elements: the ‘people’, ‘the ‘elite’, the ‘other’, the ‘general will’, institutions and charismatic leadership. This paper will then use this definition to address how religious populism has manifested in India, specifically through a comparative case-study analysis of Narendra Modi’s two elections in 2014 and 2019. These elements manifest through a homogenised, Hindu definition of the ‘people’ being pitted against a corrupt elite and cultural ‘others’ who threaten the identity of ‘the people’. The general will of the people makes itself apparent in electoral rhetoric, and this general will inches the country towards a more authoritarian streak. Institutions also create prime conditions for the Bharatiya Janata Party to exploit, and the charismatic leadership of Modi ties the narrative together.