Dasgupta Koushiki - Electoral Politics and Hindu Nationalism in India

This book analyzes the rise and growth of the Hindu nationalist party, Bharatiya Jana Sangh, in post-independent India, tracking the electoral journey of the party from 1951 to 1971.

Offering a comprehensive analysis of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh party its origin, ideas and electoral performances in the first two decades of its journey the book provides an overview of the state-wide electoral record of the party mobilizing Hindu support and managing factional disputes. It surveys the issues of conflicts between the intraparty factions dominated by the recruits from the Rastriya Swayamseyak Sangh and the others. The author also presents a critique of the Hindutva politics of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh on account of its somewhat imperfect appeal among the masses and its problems in raising real issues of socio-economic concern. With a special emphasis on the states situated outside the Hindi language belt of Northern India, the electoral outcome of the Jana Sangh during each national and state legislative election is analyzed. Based on the dialectics of ideology and exigency, this book makes a thorough investigation of the leadership-succession crises in the party, patterns of vote sharing at the regional level and trends of coalition with the non-Congress parties in the states.

Providing a nuanced understanding of the process leading to the strengthening of right-wing political parties in India, the book will be of interest to academics working in the fields of nationalism, party politics and South Asian politics.

Koushiki Dasgupta is Vidyasagar Chair Professor in the Department of History at Vidyasagar University, India.

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First published 2020
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2020 Koushiki Dasgupta

The right of Koushiki Dasgupta to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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ISBN: 978-0-367-44131-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-00386-1 (ebk)

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To Ma and Baba

This book was written as part of a research project funded by the Indian Council of Historical Research, New Delhi, from 20162017. I was nudged into investigating the extensive terrain of Hindu nationalist politics when I found that the ideology of Hindu nationalism had appeared to be an intellectual challenge to the left-liberal ideology that had occupied an important place in the political landscape of post-independent India. The rise of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh presented one of the most glaring examples of translating that ideology into practise by making all Hindus a homogeneous whole. The coming of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh in 1951 was much more than an average political phenomenon based on some petty number games; rather it brought to the front a unique brand of nationhood which kept on receiving inspirations from different sources. With the expansion of its influence over the electoral domain, the party attracted various caste groups and caste parties which had so far remained tangential in the mainstream political agenda. Despite having a visible presence in the electoral arenas, the party was confronted with the Nehruvian visions of a secular-socialist accord over the political discourse in India. Jana Sanghs close association with the RSS often charged the party with engaging in communal politics in the name of Hindu nationalism. Apart from struggling with the hostilities of the Congress elite and a section of the English language media, the party registered some amount of success in bringing a host of non-Congress parties close to the boundaries of a majoritarian politics in later years. In its attempts to get away with the fault lines of political untouchability, the Jana Sangh developed its own brand of intellectual assets and institutional networks by carving out a small but powerful niche for itself. Despite being stigmatised for their supposed propagation of Hindutva, chanting Hindi chauvinist mantras and promoting urban-upper caste values, the Jana Sangh leaders came out with an alternative vision of parliamentary politics in independent India.

My interest on the subject grew mostly out of the curiosity of what attracts people to the ideology of Hindu nationalism and to its subsequent political expressions. The Modi waves in the recent years also fetched me enough scopes and possibilities to closely scrutinize the ideology and its political character. I also found it quite misleading to tag the so-called Hindu rightist parties loosely with the vexed connotations of Hindutva, especially when a plethora of popular perceptions were invested in invoking different degrees of alternative readings. I owe an immense debt of gratitude to all of the staff at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in New Delhi for providing me access to their archival resources, especially to the private paper collections. I thank the staff at the National Library, Kolkata; the National Archives, New Delhi, the Asian and African section of the British Library, London; and the office workers of the RSS, Hindu Mahasabha and the Bharatiya Janata Party in New Delhi. I am extremely grateful to Swmi Mokshananda, Swami Ganeshananda, and Swami Barunananda of the Bharat Sevashram Sangha for their kindness and blessings. I wish to express my heartiest thanks to the political leaders and journalists, those who have helped me by providing valuable information and materials essential for my research. I want to thank all of my ex-colleagues and students at the University of Gour Banga, Malda, at the Diamond Harbour Womens University, South 24 Parganas and the Honourable Vice Chancellor of Vidyasagar University, Midnapore. I am also thankful to Dr. Subodh Sarkar, Dr. Sudhir Singh, and my beloved brother Virendra Singh for extending unconditional support and encouragement over the years.