Populism in India

Jaffrelot, Christophe; Tillin, Louise

doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198803560.013.7

Cited by 33 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Hence, as in America, there is also non-BJP regional support for populism that is not centred on Modi (Subramanian 2007). There are also regionally strong forms of populism (Jaffrelot and Tillin 2017). For example, Wyatt (2013) documents populism in Tamil Nadu and its Dravidian nationalist parties, which have adopted the strategy that is typical of Indian populist parties of give-aways to loyal supporters, including televisions and cheap rice (which make this type of populism close to 'clientelism').…”

Section: A Populist Leader Spearheads Hindu Nationalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Political power and the globalizing spread of populist politics

Schroeder

2020

Journal of Political Power

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

There has been growing interest in populism since the election of Donald Trump and Brexit in 2016. Academic discussion of populism is, of course, not new (Ionescu and Gellner 1969).There is now an extensive literature about populisms past and present and for several parts of the world (see Mudde and Kaltwasser 2017). Recent interest in this phenomenon has been sparked by the ongoing rise of populist power -if a major facet of power is seen as populists entering governments. These successes raise the question whether the current wave of populism is part of a wider realignment of political power, perhaps beyond left and right, and if so, what the causes of this realignment are. This paper will argue that there has, indeed, been such a realignment, which will be illustrated here by reference to four countries: the United States (US), Sweden, India and China. The rationale for focusing on these four cases has been made on a number of occasions, but briefly, they can be seen as being most dissimilar cases among advanced democracies (Pontusson 2005) and among the major models -an imperfect democracy in India and an authoritarian regime in China -for developing countries (Bardhan 2010). Despite this variety, these four countries have seen advances of right-wing populist forces. This paper argues that the recent success of populism in all four countries can be attributed not -as dominant explanations would have it -to economic and cultural power, but rather primarily to political power. In particular, in all four countries, there are growing constraints on the state's provision of citizenship rights which leads to a 'my nation first' politics of 'the people' -defined exclusively -against elites, and which seeks to prioritize the rights of these 'people' within the state. The explanation builds on Mann's theory of power and his account of citizenship struggles vis-à-vis the state, extending these struggles into the 21 st century. And while this explanation applies to all four cases, there are important differences between them which, it will be argued, illuminate the wider dynamic of right-wing populism.

show abstract

Section: A Populist Leader Spearheads Hindu Nationalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Political power and the globalizing spread of populist politics

Schroeder

2020

Journal of Political Power

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The main reason being that popular support does not entail straightforward demagogic populism, Mahatma Gandhi's IDD is popular rather than populist (Santos 2016). Indira Gandhi 'identified a category of political leadership in India characterised by direct, personalised appeals to "the people" by leaders who deploy particular cultural registers to secure and maintain political power by circumventing intermediaries and neutralising institutions' (Jaffrelot and Tillin 2017). On the contrary, Mahatma Gandhi's 'greatest contribution was the forging of a moral and political theory and practice from the standpoint of the oppressed and the excluded that does not itself bring about or legitimise a new system of oppression' (Pantham 2015).…”

Section: Postcolonialism and Populismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Undermining populism through Gandhi’s intercultural democratic discourse

Gianolla

2020

Journal of Multicultural Discourses

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Populism is receiving increasing attention and the intrinsic dependency of populism from liberal democracy is being scrutinised to find forms able to contain the populist rise, so far with limited success. Little consideration has been given to the implications that populism is a modern political category that could not emerge without liberal democratic regimes. This article analyses the entanglement between postcolonialism, democratic theory and populism in order to fill this research gap. It focuses on the notion of demagogic populism as a threat to democratic regimes that liberal theories are incapable of contrasting. It analyses in some detail the intercultural democratic discourse (IDD) of M. K. Gandhi, in order to understand to what extent it undermines the populist upsurge and contributes to structuring a substantive and intercultural alternative democratisation theory, with respect to liberal democracy. To cope with the extent of Gandhi's thought, after addressing some limits of liberal multiculturalism, the article focuses on four Gandhian categories: 'civilisation', 'duty', 'non-possession individualism' and 'spirituality'. As Gandhi engaged in the anti-colonial struggle and critical strategic dialogues in intra-civilisational contexts (tradition, religion, caste, modes of production, etc.), he advances a solid IDD, elaborating a groundbreaking vocabulary that includes ashram, satyagraha, swaraj and swadeshi.

show abstract

“…19 Moreover, it is difficult to distinguish populism from authoritarianism and nationalism. Thus, it is disputed whether the current Indian government should be qualified as a nationalist or populist government 20 while Russia can be seen as an authoritarian as well as a populist regime. 21 Likewise, very different understandings of populism persist in academic literature.…”

Section: What Constitutes a Populist Government?mentioning

confidence: 99%