India Under Modi: Threats to Pluralism

Issue Date January 2019
Volume 30
Issue 1
Page Numbers 83-90
file Print
arrow-down-thin Download from Project MUSE
external View Citation

Political liberalism in India is now under assault. The current right-of-center government, dominated by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), appears intent on transforming India’s pluralistic, open, and secular state into an ethnic and illiberal democracy. To that end it has sought to place ideologues in key governmental institutions, attempted to curtail academic freedoms at a leading university, and made efforts to curb an otherwise feisty mass media. A weak political opposition, which had in any case failed to demonstrate much mettle when in government prior to the BJP’s 2014 electoral victory, now appears utterly incapable of stemming this illiberal tide. As a consequence, India’s future as a liberal democracy appears to be at some risk.

About the Author

Šumit Ganguly is Distinguished Professor of Political Science and holds the Rabindranath Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations at Indiana University, Bloomington, and is a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He is the author (with William Thompson) of Ascending India and Its State Capacity (2017).

View all work by Šumit Ganguly