Studies in Indian Politics, Volume 11, Issue 2, Page 346-347, December 2023.
Nazima Parveen, Contested Homelands: Politics of Space and Identity. New Delhi: Bloomsbury, 2021, 311 pages, ₹1,299.
Category Archives: SAGE Publications India: Studies in Indian Politics: Table of Contents
The Shifting Trajectories of Hindutva: Bharat Sevashram Sangha and the Making of a Saffron Wave in Contemporary West Bengal
Studies in Indian Politics, Volume 11, Issue 2, Page 180-191, December 2023.
This article strives to explore the ways in which the politics of Hindutva, as represented by the Sangh Parivar, permeated new organizational and ideological spaces in Bengal following the Lok Sabha election of 2014. The article specifically delves into the case of the Bharat Sevashram Sangha, a significant Hindu spiritual and philanthropic entity in Bengal. The Bharat Sevashram Sangha and the Sangh-Parivar represent distinct but interconnected manifestations of the broader Hindutva ideology. With a focus on the Bharat Sevashram Sangha’s position on the configuration of Hindutva, this article revolves around deciphering the intricate interplay between religion and politics within the context of the Bharat Sevashram Sangha’s engagement with the Hindu right-wing organizations. Moreover, the article seeks to unveil how the Bharat Sevashram Sangha’s spiritual and cultural visions converged with a strategic political consciousness and potentially paved the way for the emergence of new opportunities for right-wing political forces within the state.
This article strives to explore the ways in which the politics of Hindutva, as represented by the Sangh Parivar, permeated new organizational and ideological spaces in Bengal following the Lok Sabha election of 2014. The article specifically delves into the case of the Bharat Sevashram Sangha, a significant Hindu spiritual and philanthropic entity in Bengal. The Bharat Sevashram Sangha and the Sangh-Parivar represent distinct but interconnected manifestations of the broader Hindutva ideology. With a focus on the Bharat Sevashram Sangha’s position on the configuration of Hindutva, this article revolves around deciphering the intricate interplay between religion and politics within the context of the Bharat Sevashram Sangha’s engagement with the Hindu right-wing organizations. Moreover, the article seeks to unveil how the Bharat Sevashram Sangha’s spiritual and cultural visions converged with a strategic political consciousness and potentially paved the way for the emergence of new opportunities for right-wing political forces within the state.
Teaching International Relations Through Films
Studies in Indian Politics, Volume 11, Issue 2, Page 335-341, December 2023.
Introduction to Special Section: The Indian Voter
Studies in Indian Politics, Volume 11, Issue 2, Page 205-207, December 2023.
Media Exposure and Vote Choice in India, 1996–2019
Studies in Indian Politics, Volume 11, Issue 2, Page 317-334, December 2023.
This article examines the relationship between media consumption and voting choices in India in the context of increasing exposure to media, both traditional and new. Using media exposure-related data from the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies’ (CSDS) national election surveys since 1996, it makes a few key assertions. Historically, there has been a positive relationship between traditional news media exposure and voting for the BJP, i.e., the greater the voters’ TV and newspaper consumption, the higher their support for the BJP. With respect to the Congress party, the tendency has generally been the opposite. This pattern now extends to social media exposure as well. However, this impact of media exposure on voting preferences that’s visible at the broad level weakens considerably when slicing the data further by socio-demographic factors. It has been found that the trend of the BJP’s vote share rising with increasing exposure to media is not consistent across the categories of age, education, and caste during many elections. If there is one election, however, that bucked this trend, it was the 2014 Lok Sabha election. The article argues that the BJP was successful in recognizing this and capitalized on it through an extensive media and communications campaign in 2014.
This article examines the relationship between media consumption and voting choices in India in the context of increasing exposure to media, both traditional and new. Using media exposure-related data from the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies’ (CSDS) national election surveys since 1996, it makes a few key assertions. Historically, there has been a positive relationship between traditional news media exposure and voting for the BJP, i.e., the greater the voters’ TV and newspaper consumption, the higher their support for the BJP. With respect to the Congress party, the tendency has generally been the opposite. This pattern now extends to social media exposure as well. However, this impact of media exposure on voting preferences that’s visible at the broad level weakens considerably when slicing the data further by socio-demographic factors. It has been found that the trend of the BJP’s vote share rising with increasing exposure to media is not consistent across the categories of age, education, and caste during many elections. If there is one election, however, that bucked this trend, it was the 2014 Lok Sabha election. The article argues that the BJP was successful in recognizing this and capitalized on it through an extensive media and communications campaign in 2014.
Economic Ideology in Indian Politics: Why Do Elite and Mass Politics Differ?
Studies in Indian Politics, Volume 11, Issue 2, Page 274-288, December 2023.
A long line of scholarship has argued that ideological division structures party politics in many parts of the world. In India, however, there is a long-held consensus that the parties do not sort themselves ideologically, especially regarding economic policymaking. The paper analyses National Election Studies data between 1996 and 2019 by Lokniti-CSDS, and shows that voters cluster around the centre-left position on economic issues. Nevertheless, there are discernible ideological differences among the party members. The Bhartiya Janata Party members are more likely to favour privatisation, and members of Left parties prefer labour rights. These ideological differences are also evident in our analysis of the manifestos of political parties since 1952 and an expert survey conducted in 2022. We argue that these elite differences in economic policy do not translate into mass politics because all political parties present the State as the solution to economic deprivation. The rise of welfare populism in Indian politics in the past two decades, we suggest, is a result of centralisation within political parties in which the welfare promises are directly linked to the party leaders.
A long line of scholarship has argued that ideological division structures party politics in many parts of the world. In India, however, there is a long-held consensus that the parties do not sort themselves ideologically, especially regarding economic policymaking. The paper analyses National Election Studies data between 1996 and 2019 by Lokniti-CSDS, and shows that voters cluster around the centre-left position on economic issues. Nevertheless, there are discernible ideological differences among the party members. The Bhartiya Janata Party members are more likely to favour privatisation, and members of Left parties prefer labour rights. These ideological differences are also evident in our analysis of the manifestos of political parties since 1952 and an expert survey conducted in 2022. We argue that these elite differences in economic policy do not translate into mass politics because all political parties present the State as the solution to economic deprivation. The rise of welfare populism in Indian politics in the past two decades, we suggest, is a result of centralisation within political parties in which the welfare promises are directly linked to the party leaders.
Book review: Amit Ahuja and Devesh Kapur (Eds), Internal Security in India: Violence, Order and the State
Studies in Indian Politics, Volume 11, Issue 2, Page 342-344, December 2023.
Amit Ahuja and Devesh Kapur (Eds), Internal Security in India: Violence, Order and the State. New York: Oxford University Press, 2023, 393 pp., ₹525.
Amit Ahuja and Devesh Kapur (Eds), Internal Security in India: Violence, Order and the State. New York: Oxford University Press, 2023, 393 pp., ₹525.
Book review: Vasanthi Srinivasan, Virtue and Human Ends: Political Ideas From Indian Classics
Studies in Indian Politics, Volume 11, Issue 2, Page 349-351, December 2023.
Vasanthi Srinivasan, Virtue and Human Ends: Political Ideas From Indian Classics. Hyderabad: Orient BlackSwan, 2021, 202 pages, ₹685.
Vasanthi Srinivasan, Virtue and Human Ends: Political Ideas From Indian Classics. Hyderabad: Orient BlackSwan, 2021, 202 pages, ₹685.
Dewan Chaman Lall: From Trade Unions to the Indian Union, 1946–1966
Studies in Indian Politics, Volume 11, Issue 2, Page 192-204, December 2023.
This article is about the afterlife of Dewan Chaman Lall’s interwar internationalism. Exploring the trajectory of his public career from 1946, it shows how Lall, an Oxford-educated trade unionist, and an ally of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, took a nationalist turn in his later political interventions on/after (a) Partition of British India, (b) the dispute on the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, and (c) on the government of India’s worsening border relations with the People’s Republic of China. Simultaneously, his understandings on issues like press freedom/official secrets, evacuee property exchange/sale, Sikh linguistic autonomy and labour/capital equation turned status quo-ist. By putting together his contributions on these national questions and juxtaposing them vis-à-vis his earlier avatar, this article also signifies the shift that took place in the perspectives of those who, like Lall, hitherto enveloped by empire, emerged in nation-statehood post-1945.
This article is about the afterlife of Dewan Chaman Lall’s interwar internationalism. Exploring the trajectory of his public career from 1946, it shows how Lall, an Oxford-educated trade unionist, and an ally of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, took a nationalist turn in his later political interventions on/after (a) Partition of British India, (b) the dispute on the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, and (c) on the government of India’s worsening border relations with the People’s Republic of China. Simultaneously, his understandings on issues like press freedom/official secrets, evacuee property exchange/sale, Sikh linguistic autonomy and labour/capital equation turned status quo-ist. By putting together his contributions on these national questions and juxtaposing them vis-à-vis his earlier avatar, this article also signifies the shift that took place in the perspectives of those who, like Lall, hitherto enveloped by empire, emerged in nation-statehood post-1945.
From the Nation’s ‘Steel Frame’ to Insubordinate Workers: Tracing Changes in the Figure of the Post-colonial Civil Servant from 1947 to 1966
Studies in Indian Politics, Volume 11, Issue 2, Page 170-179, December 2023.
The Indian Civil Service, and consequently, the Indian bureaucracy, was reformed periodically, starting in 1854, then in 1966, and then later in 2007. Each process of reform generated a set of reports known as the Administrative Reforms Commission reports which provide us with an analytical picture of the mode of historical state-rationality espoused at that time. While, usually, these reports were aimed at reforming the bureaucracy, they also betrayed the anxieties of the Indian state itself. Primarily using these reports from the 1966 period, this article examines the post-colonial Indian bureaucracy through three facets, namely, aesthetic imagery, Public Administration, and the notion of the public. Ultimately, it attempts to track changes in state-ideology from 1947 to 1966, through the figure of the civil servant.
The Indian Civil Service, and consequently, the Indian bureaucracy, was reformed periodically, starting in 1854, then in 1966, and then later in 2007. Each process of reform generated a set of reports known as the Administrative Reforms Commission reports which provide us with an analytical picture of the mode of historical state-rationality espoused at that time. While, usually, these reports were aimed at reforming the bureaucracy, they also betrayed the anxieties of the Indian state itself. Primarily using these reports from the 1966 period, this article examines the post-colonial Indian bureaucracy through three facets, namely, aesthetic imagery, Public Administration, and the notion of the public. Ultimately, it attempts to track changes in state-ideology from 1947 to 1966, through the figure of the civil servant.