ABSTRACT

This volume looks at the impact of the landmark 2014 elections and the consequent Assembly elections which have transformed the ideological discourse of India. It discusses a variety of topical issues in contemporary Indian politics, including the Modi wave, Aam Aadmi Party and the challenges it is confronting today, Hindutva and minorities, the decline of the Congress party, changes in foreign policy, as well as phenomenona like ‘love jihad’ and ghar wapsi. It also draws together political trends from across the country, especially key states like Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Seemandhra, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir, and Meghalaya.

The volume will be of great importance to scholars and researchers of Indian politics, public policy, sociology, and social policy.

chapter |43 pages

Introduction

chapter 1|18 pages

‘Yes, but not in the South’

The BJP, Congress, and regional parties in South India 1

chapter 2|22 pages

India’s foreign policy and Hindutva

The new impact of culture and identity on the formulation and practice of Indian foreign policy 2014–2017

chapter 3|27 pages

Allegories of ‘love jihad’ and ghar wapsi 1

Interlocking the socio-religious with the political

chapter 6|14 pages

Collapse of the Congress party

chapter 7|23 pages

Explaining the inconvenient truths of Indian political behaviour

Hindutva, Modi, and Muslim voters in 2014

chapter 8|24 pages

The dance of democracy 1

Election 2014 and the marginalised and minorities

chapter 9|22 pages

Aam Aadmi Party’s electoral performance in Punjab

Implications for an all India political scenario

chapter 10|26 pages

The ‘people’ and the ‘political’

Aam Aadmi and the changing contours of the anti-corruption movement

chapter 12|18 pages

Big national parties in West Bengal

An exceptional outcast?

chapter 13|20 pages

National elections in a tribal state

The 2014 Lok Sabha elections in Meghalaya

chapter 15|21 pages

Lok Sabha elections in (un)divided Andhra Pradesh

Issues and implications in Telangana and Seemandhra