The New BJP

Modi and the Making of the World's Largest Political Party

Nalin Mehta

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9781032755441
• eBook ISBN: 9781040127162
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Indian & South Asian History
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This book examines how the BJP became the world's largest political party. It goes beyond the usual narrative of the party's Hindutva politics to explain how, under Narendra Modi, the party reshaped the Indian polity using its own brand of social engineering. According to the findings of this book, this reconstruction was cleverly powered by new caste coalitions, the claim of a new welfare state that focused on marginalised social groups and the making of a women-voter base.

Based on data from three unique indices—the Mehta–Singh Social Index, which studies the caste composition of Indian political parties; the Narad Index, which calculates communication patterns across topics and audiences; and PollNiti, which connects and tallies hundreds of political and economic datasets—The New BJP is full of startling insights into the way both the party and the country function. Previously untapped historical records, exclusive interviews with party leaders and comprehensive reportage from across India provide a fresh understanding of the BJP's growth areas, including the Northeast and south India.

A lucid and objective study of the BJP and India today, this book will be useful to researchers, journalists, students, activists and general public alike.

Print edition not for sale in South Asia (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka).

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction: A ‘Jai Sri Ram Sticker and a Family Argument: The BJP and a Personal Retracing
• Part I The Hindi Heartland: Labharthee Sammelans, Caste Re-Engineering, Hindutva And The Welfare Wheel
• Part II Communication: What The Bjp Focuses On And Where It Speaks
• Part III Ideology, Economic Thinking And Governance
• Part IV The Umbilical Cord
• Part V Beyond the Dominant Narrative: The South, the Northeast and Women
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Appendix 1
• Appendix 2
• Appendix 3
• Appendix 4: Narad Index: A Core Methodology Note
• Appendix 5
• Appendix 6
• Appendix 7
• Appendix 8
• Appendix 9
• Appendix 10
• Appendix 11 The BJP's Nagaland Foray—Nagaland Legislative Assembly: 1982–2018
• Appendix 12 Nagaland Legislative Assembly Vote Shares of Winning Parties: 1982–2018
• Appendix 13 The BJP in Arunachal—Vote Share of Parties in Assembly Polls (1985–2019)
• Appendix 14 The BJP's Manipur Advances
• Appendix 15
• The Bjp A Timeline
• Index
• Acknowledgements