Edited by:
Thomas Blom Hansen, Stanford University
Srirupa Roy, Centre for Modern Indian Studies, University of Gottingen
About the book:
Saffron Republic examines the phenomenon of contemporary Hindu nationalism or ‘new Hindutva’ that is presently the dominant ideological and political-electoral formation in India. There is a rich body of work on Hindu nationalism, but its main focus is on an earlier moment of insurgent movement politics in the 1980 and 1990s. In contrast, new Hindutva is a governmental formation that converges with wider global currents and enjoys mainstream acceptance. To understand these new political forms and their implications for democratic futures, a fresh set of reflections is in order. This book approaches contemporary Hindutva as an example of a democratic authoritarianism or an authoritarian populism, a politics that simultaneously advances and violates ideas and practices of popular and constitutional democracy.
The book is a collective effort in anticipatory writing that engages a particularly fraught present to understand its implications for democratic futures.
First Edition | May 2022 | 330 pages
978-1-009-10048-9 (Hb)
Series: Metamorphoses of the Political: Multidisciplinary Approaches
