Rise of Saffron Power Reflections on Indian Politics

Introduction  1. 'Yes, but not in the South': The BJP, Congress and regional parties in South India  2. India’s Foreign Policy and Hindutva: The new impact of culture and identity on the formulation and practice of Indian Foreign Policy 2014-2017  3. Allegories of ‘Love Jihad’ and Ghar Wapsi: Interlocking the socio-religious with the political  4. Understanding BJP’s Victory in Uttar Pradesh  5. Election 2014 and the Battle for India’s Soul Harsh Mander  6. Collapse of the Congress Party  7. Explaining the Inconvenient Truths of Indian Political Behaviour: Hindutva, Modi, and Muslim voters in 2014  8. The Dance of Democracy: Election 2014 and the marginalised and minorities  9. Aam Aadmi Party’s electoral performance in Punjab: Implications for an all India political scenario  10. The ‘People’ and the ‘Political’: Aam Aadmi and the changing contours of the anti-corruption movement  11. The 2014 National Elections from the Margins of Modern India  12. Big National Parties in West Bengal: An Exceptional Outcast?  13. National Elections in a Tribal State: The 2014 Lok Sabha elections in Meghalaya  14. Electoral Politics in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and the problem of communal polarization  15. Lok Sabha Elections in (Un) Divided Andhra Pradesh: Issues and implications in Telegana and Seemaandra  16. An Inquiry into the Causes and Consequences of Saffron Whirlwind that swept Uttar Pradesh in the 2017 Assembly Election  Index

Biography

Mujibur Rehman teaches at Jamia Millia Central University, New Delhi, India. He has received graduate research training at the University of Texas, USA, the University of Heidelberg, Germany, and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), New Delhi. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on the Politics of India’s Economic Reform (1991/92–2004). He has edited Communalism in Post-colonial India: Changing Contours (Routledge 2016). The paperback edition of this volume will be released in 2018 with a Foreword by Romila Thapar. Presently he is working simultaneously on a book manuscript on Indian Muslims and on the politics of anti-Christian violence in India.

‘This collection has very useful, very thoughtful essays that cover a wide range of issues surrounding the emergence of Hindutva, both at the level of governance and of culture and the growing relation between the two. It will add measurably to our understanding of an undeniably powerful and alarming development in India since the 1980s, which has now taken on the proportions of an emergency.’ - Akeel Bilgrami, Sidney Morgenbesser Professor of Philosophy and Professor, Committee on Global Thought, Columbia University, USA

 ‘Mujibur Rehman has assembled a fine group of scholars to contribute excellent pieces on the rise of saffron power in the aftermath of the 2014 parliamentary elections in India. This book will leave you better informed and more concerned about the far-reaching implications of the growth of Hindu nationalism.’ - Amrita Basu, Paino Professor of Political Science and Sexuality, Women's and Gender Studies, Amherst College, USA

 ‘Essential reading for anyone working on contemporary Indian politics, Mujibur Rehman and his contributors expertly assess the changes in the Indian electoral landscape reflecting the rise of (and challenges to) "saffron power".’ - Katharine Adeney, Professor and Director of The Institute of Asia and Pacific Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Nottingham, UK