CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2025
| Author | Mukasheva, Moldir |
|---|---|
| Title | Hindutva and the Muslim'Other': Modi's Politics of Fear and Populist Discourse of Division |
| Summary | Since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, came to power in 2014, India has witnessed the rise of cultural majoritarianism and religious nationalism known as Hindutva. Hindutva is an ideology that envisions India as a Hindu Rashtra (Hindu nation). A key feature of Hindutva is its exclusivist nature, which frames religious minorities, particularly Muslims, as outsiders and foreigners in India. This thesis contributes to the literature by systematic quantitative and qualitative content analysis of Modi’s discursive strategies of ‘religious othering’. Particularly, this thesis examines how ‘religious othering’ contributes to constructing India as a Hindu Rashtra by focusing on how Modi’s discourse has changed over the course of his electoral campaigns in 2014, 2019 and 2024. The ‘religious othering’ is examined in conjunction with other elements of right-wing populism recurring in Modi’s speeches to establish how it evolves and intensifies. The findings reveal not only a quantitative increase in religious othering over time but also the emergence of new rhetorical strategies in each electoral cycle that contribute to radicalizing the discourse and constructing Muslims as the main ‘threat’ and ‘outsiders’ in India. |
| Supervisor | Robert Sata |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2025/mukasheva_moldir.pdf |
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