Full Description
In May 2019, Narendra Modi won the world's largest election. Defying expectations, he led his Bharatiya Janata Party to a resounding victory, with the highest vote share for any party in thirty years, and was re-elected as India's Prime Minister.
What accounts for the scale of Modi's win? Why, despite economic hardship and social strife, did Indians vote so overwhelmingly for him and the BJP? This book explains the economic, social and cultural processes that shaped political passions in India during the spring and summer of 2019. It takes an interdisciplinary approach, bringing together a stellar team of economists, political scientists, sociologists, historians and geographers to explain Modi's win. Together, the contributors compel us to take seriously the 'structures of feeling' in politics.
Love him or hate him, Modi secured for himself a decisive re-election as India's Prime Minister. Passionate politics is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how that happened.
Contents
Introduction: Passionate politics in India today - Indrajit Roy
Part I: Fear, love and fake news
1 Ordinary conspiracy theories and everyday communalism: Hindutva on the Indian cyberspace - Amogh Dhar Sharma
2 People-led campaigns in the 2019 general election: A case study of #Academics4NaMo - Swadesh Singh
Part II: The emotive politics of Hindu nationalism
3 Neoliberalism and cultural majoritarianism in India - Ajay Gudavarthy
4 The BJP and the war on history - Shalini Sharma
5 The passionate politics of the Savarna poor - Indrajit Roy
6 Seeking humanist Hinduism: Education and new Gurukul coaching models of Hindutva
- Suryakant Waghmore
Part III: Love, hate and Kashmir
7 The historical roots of conflict over/in Kashmir - Sarah Ansari
8 This side of paradise: The rise, fall and decimation of regional politics in Kashmir - Shaswati Das
9 The fear of Indian settler colonialism and the battle for Kashmir's soul - Ather Zia
Part IV: Women, gender and love
10 Love taboos: Hindus, Muslims and moral panics - Charu Gupta
11 Why is romance political? - Sneha Krishnan
Part V: What young Indians want
12 In pursuit of Parivartan: Youth agency and the 2019 general election in Sikkim - Mabel Denzin Gergan and Charisma K. Lepcha
13 What do young people want from elections? - Sneha Krishnan
Part VI: The economics of India's passionate politics
14 Social oppression and exploitation of Adivasis and Dalits in contemporary India - Jens Lerche and
Alpa Shah
15 Two large shocks and a long-term problem: The economic performance of the Modi government,
2009-14 - Kunal Sen
16 Agrarian crisis, farmers' protests and women's assertion - Nitya Rao
Part VII: India tomorrow
17 The Modi government's authoritarian project in India - James Manor
18 The 2019 elections and their implications for Muslim politics - Mujibur Rehman
19 Cementing emotions: The new reasoning of majoritarian politics - Gurpreet Mahajan
Index
