The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was formed in 1925 to unite Hindus. Today, its far-right nationalist ideology has gone mainstream thanks to Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.
On today’s Don’t Call Me Resilient podcast, political scientist Sikata Banerjee and cinema studies scholar Rakesh Sengupta explain how cinema and social media in India may be helping to sway voters.
The government’s alleged targeting of opposition figures, as well as a new system allowing anonymous donations to political parties, is believed to have given the BJP a huge edge.
Preminda Jacob, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Ahead of elections in India, a series of films that promote the ruling party’s right-wing ideology are seeking to influence voters. An art historian explains how the trend started.
The Ram temple, built on the site of a destroyed mosque, could be used by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party to mobilise his Hindu nationalist supporters ahead of the elections.
The move to rename India as ‘Bharat’ is part of a push by the Hindu nationalist right to create an ideologically pure state that in reality never existed.