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Article published In: The Populist Radical Right Beyond Europe
Edited by Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser and Lisa Zanotti
[Journal of Language and Politics 22:3] 2023
► pp. 360–377

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Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)

The overlooked populist radical right party

ORCiD logo with link | Tilburg University
 | University of Georgia
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with Tilburg University.

Published online: 9 May 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.22134.lei
Abstract
This article situates the largest political party in the world, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India, within the literature on the populist radical right. After providing a brief overview of Hindutva ideology and organizations, with a particular focus on the BJP, it analyzes how nativism, populism, and authoritarianism are key defining elements in both theory and practice for the BJP. It further examines two important ideological tenets that go beyond these three defining attributes of the (European) populist radical right – anti-colonialism and neoliberalism – which lend towards the success of the BJP. Since holding a majority in national government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP has been able to implement its vision of creating a Hindustan, or Hindu ethnostate. Like other populist radical right parties in power, the BJP is more radical in deeds than in words, but the future of the party without Modi’s leadership is uncertain.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.A short history of Hindutva
  • 3.The Bharatiya Janata Party
  • 4.The BJP in Theory versus Practice
    • 4.1Nativism
    • 4.2Populism
    • 4.3Authoritarianism
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Note
  • References
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