Differently Imagined: Minorities and Majoritarian Politics in India
| Published date | 01 June 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/23210230241235353 |
| Author | Amit Ranjan |
| Date | 01 June 2024 |
Differently Imagined: Minorities and
Majoritarian Politics in India
Amit Ranjan1
Abstract
The rise of the BJP is usually credited for the shift towards the Hindutva politics in India, but other
political parties are also not immune to using confession for electoral purposes. This article discusses
how, despite living together for years, a large number of Hindus differently imagine the citizens belong-
ing to the minority religious communities and vice versa. The article then examines the political events
of the 1980s and analyses how they are linked with the contemporary social and political developments
in India.
Keywords
Hindutva, imagination, Muslims, Sikhs, territory
In May 2014, as anticipated by many psephologists, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National
Democratic Alliance (NDA) was elected into power in India. The BJP won 282 out of 543 parliamentary
seats and got 31% of the total polled votes. The NDA won 336 seats. In the next parliamentary elections
in 2019, the BJP improved its seat tally to 303, getting about 38% of total votes. The NDA got 353 seats
in 2019. Not only in the parliamentary elections, the BJP, since 2014, has also single-handedly or in an
alliance formed governments in 14 Indian states. In some states, such as Karnataka (2019), Madhya
Pradesh (2020), Goa (2017), Arunachal Pradesh (2016) and Maharashtra (2022), where it could not win
a majority, the BJP deftly dislodged the sitting government and came into power by carrying out
‘Operation Lotus’ (Ranjan, 2022).
One of the major factors for the BJP’s electoral performance is an increasing religious consciousness
among India’s majority community. A large section of the Hindu population suffers from minority
syndrome, where they see themselves as a suppressed group while seeing minorities flourishing due to
policy of appeasement carried out under the rule of, what they call, ‘non-Hindu and secular’ political
parties. The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also popularly called Hindu Hriday Samrat
Original Article
Studies in Indian Politics
12(1) 52–64, 2024
© 2024 Lokniti, Centre for the
Study of Developing Societies
Article reuse guidelines:
in.sagepub.com/journals-permissions-india
DOI: 10.1177/23210230241235353
journals.sagepub.com/home/inp
1 Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore, Singapore
Corresponding author:
Amit Ranjan, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore, 29 Heng Mui Keng Terrace,
Singapore 119620, Singapore.
E-mail: amitranjan.jnu@gmail.com
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