Cuckoo nationalism: Gandhi in Modi’s India

Menon, Gayatri (2022) Cuckoo nationalism: Gandhi in Modi’s India. Today’s Totalitarianism.

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Abstract

The right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with Narendra Modi at its helm, won the Indian national election in 2014, and again in 2019. Its tenure has been marked by growing authoritarianism, where dissent is increasingly criminalised, violence against minorities finds increasing impunity, and policymaking by diktat is becoming the norm. The deterioration of democratic practice has been accompanied by deteriorating material conditions for the working poor. Many flagship development initiatives introduced by the BJP government, such as the Swachh Bharat (Clean India) Mission, which sought to bring open-defecation to an end, or economic policies such as demonetisation, which sought to rid the economy of ‘black’ money, have failed to meet their stated objectives.

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Newspaper Article

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Menon, Gayatri

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