Thread by @aseema01

Indian politics has thrown up certain puzzles in the past decade or so and especially after the recent elections: Why did the BJP win UP assembly elections despite anti-incumbency and economic distress?

At one level, this question resonates with a jointly co-authored article that brings together the question of economic reforms and politics success. That article is at the level of policy and strategy : www-tandfonline-com.ccl.idm.oclc.org/doi/full/10.10…

But, there are many other puzzles. Why are the upper castes such a loyal BJP vote-bank? Why does an ideological consensus regarding Hindutva pervade public life?

How did some family members, friends, neighbors, and co-workers become willing participants in a Hindu-centric political discourse and sensibility? How do ordinary members of society frame, interpret and transform their identities towards a majoritarian direction?

Let me share some tidbits from a new project that traces a bottom-up, demand side, analysis of Hindu nationalism. I spent 5 years working on this project and starting Summer 2020 began writing it with @priyam_manisha

We offer a social theory of politics that builds upon but also goes beyond excellent research on parties, and elections.

In this paper, soon to be published in Modern Asian Studies bit.ly/3LQiX3x, we create a typology of profiles of ordinary middle-class Indians: Willing ethnic nationalists, Hardlines, Bystanders, and moderates based on our fieldwork and research in psy. and history.

We argue: ‘Hindu nationalism in India could be fruitfully analyzed by focusing on the processes through which ideas of exclusive nationalism spread among common middle classes and are expressed in micro-level psychological changes at the individual level.’

The consolidation of Hindu nationalism is being authored not only by parties or the state, but also by societal actors, specifically, ordinary middle-class Indians. Hindu nationalism has been spreading in micro-public spheres in times of apparent peace and between elections.

We also analyze inter-linked micro-level mechanisms such as diffusion and emulation of Hindu-centric beliefs and ideas, mobilization by hardliners and organizations, and impunity protected by state agencies, which helps create willing ethnic nationalists and sustains HN.

We conclude; ‘Top-down drivers such as party strategy, beliefs of leaders, and electoral calculations combine with micro-level changes in people sensibilities and everyday resentments to produce a deep, wide, and assertive Hindu-centric tsunami that is here to stay.”

This paper relied on a massive literature on Hindu nationalism: Paul Brass, John Zavos, Thomas Hansen, @Basu2Amrita , @jaffrelotc (2021; 2019;2017 etc.), @GillesVerniers , @ProfVarshney , @KatAdeney , Pradeep Chhibber, @rahul_tverma among many many others.

We also relied on survey data from CSDS-Lokniti lokniti.org
and azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/events/2021/po…
lokniti.org/PoliticsandSoc…
and Pew Survey on Religion in India: pewresearch.org/religion/2021/…

We build upon ideas found in Mona Mehta about “mundane everyday conflict”, institutionalized everyday communalism (Pai and Kuamr 2018), & new framings on how Hindu nationalism operates. We esp. note the prescient findings by @PalshikarSuhas (EPW 2004) and Pai and @sajjanjnu

Ultimately, we offer suggestive insights and a new research agenda for future studies of Hindu and rightwing nationalism rather than assume the last word on the role of bottom-up as well as ways of combining the top down and bottom-up dynamics and mechanisms.

We thank many for comments and feedback: especially R1 and R2, @aamneeti, @SudhaPai2, @ProfAmitAhuja, @AjayVerghese, @adam_m_auerbach, @PalshikarSuhas, Rina Kashyap, @p_gupta93, @sanjaycsds