After the mammoth victory in 2014 elections, as Modi geared up for executing his transformation agendas, Rahul initiated a spirited attack from the opposition. Many sworn enemies joined hands to launch concerted attempts at damaging Modi’s image. These efforts eventually made some headway as Modi lost key by-polls and crucial state elections in 2018. However, his X-factor remained intact, further bolstered by the dramatic turn of events closer to 2019 elections, testing him to the hilt. This book takes you through the moves and countermoves that led to Modi’s victory, and also answers the ever-eluding question in politics – How to win the trust of people? It also identifies key leadership traits and does a comparative analysis between Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi, and resultantly, between BJP and Congress. The Crusader is a well-researched and informative account of how Modi won the election battle in 2019, and how he continues to fight the war for the idea of a new India.

This empirically rich volume presents a holistic picture of the electoral process in Indian states and the return of the BJP to power. Drawing on the 2019 elections, it presents ground-level data to understand various aspects of elections: the nature of campaigning, caste, class and identity politics, electoral issues, poll strategies of different parties in the fray, electoral issues, electoral verdicts, the contestants, the leadership factor, the formation of government, among other empirical details. The essays underline the determinants of electoral behaviour by looking into the correlation between the background variables of voters and their voting choices. The essays also compare and contrast the 2019 election verdicts from the earlier elections held in the state under study. A long view of Indian state politics, this book will be essential reference for scholars and researchers of politics, especially political processes, and South Asian studies.

A history of the erosion of democracy across the globe Democracy is being destroyed. This is a crisis that expresses itself in the rising authoritarianism visible in divisive and exclusionary politics, populist political parties and movements, increased distrust in fact-based information and news, and the withering accountability of state institutions. Over the last four decades, democracy has radically shifted to a market democracy in which all aspects of human, non-human and planetary life are commodified, with corporations becoming more powerful than states and their citizens. This is how neoliberal capitalism functions at a systemic level and if left unchecked, is the greatest threat to democracy and a sustainable planet. Volume six of the Democratic Marxism series focuses on how decades of neoliberal capitalism have eroded the global democratic project and how, in the process, authoritarian politics are gaining ground. Scholars and activists from the political left focus on four country cases – India, Brazil, South Africa and the United States of America – in which the COVID-19 pandemic has fuelled and highlighted the pre-existing crisis. They interrogate issues of politics, ecology, state security, media, access to information and political parties, and affirm the need to reclaim and re-build an expansive and inclusive democracy. Destroying Democracy is an invaluable resource for the general public, activists, scholars and students who are interested in understanding the threats to democracy and the rising tide of authoritarianism in the global south and the global north.

Nine of India’s 14 prime ministers have been elected from constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous state and most complex political battleground.The road to Delhi is said to go through Lucknow. Hence, elections in UP are among the most hotly debated and closely watched political contests in the nation. With the UP Legislative Assembly elections scheduled for the first quarter of 2022, UP Elections 2022: More Than a State at Stake raises the all-important question: who will emerge winner in UP in 2022? How will this victory impact the general elections in 2024? In the 2017 Assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) registered a massive win in UP, bagging 312 seats in the 403-seat Assembly. The Samajwadi Party (SP) won 47 seats and its ally, the Congress, only seven.The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ended up with 19 seats, its worst tally ever. In UP Elections 2022: More Than a State at Stake, well-known journalist and political commentator Anil Maheshwari analyses the caste and religious factors that colour electoral outcomes while taking a hard look at the political alliances gearing up to wrest power back from the BJP. Teeming with insightful predictions about the future of UP, and by extension, the nation, this book is a must-read for those who are invested in Indian democracy.

This volume critically analyses Muslim Personal Law (MPL) in India and offers an alternative perspective to look at MPL and the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) debate. Tracing the historical origins of this legal mechanism and its subsequent political manifestations, it highlights the complex nature of MPL as a sociological phenomenon, driven by context-specific social norms and cultural values. With expert contributions, it discusses wide-ranging themes and issues including MPL reforms and human rights; decoding of UCC in India; the contentious Triple Talaq bill and MPL; the Shah Bano case; Sharia (Islamic jurisprudence) in postcolonial India; women’s equality and family laws; and MPL in the media discourse in India. The volume highlights that although MPL is inextricably linked to Sharia, it does not necessarily determine the everyday customs and local practices of Muslim communities in India This topical book will greatly interest scholars and researchers of law and jurisprudence, political studies, Islamic studies, Muslim Personal Law, history, multiculturalism, South Asian studies, sociology of religion, sociology of law and family law. It will also be useful to practitioners, policymakers, law professionals and journalists.

What's the secret of Modi's mass appeal? How does the RSS help at election time? Does communal incitement actually win votes? Why did Amit ShahÕs election maths fail him in Bihar? Prashant Jha answers these questions and more, dissecting the BJPÕs election machine with authority and insight

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).

This book puts together the most important contemporary writings in the debate on secularism. It deals with conceptual, normative and explanatory issues in secularism and addresses urgent questions, including the relevance of secularism to non-Western societies and the question of minority rights.