The Actual Gujarat Model: Authoritarianism, Capitalism, Hindu Nationalism and Populism in the Time of Modi

ABSTRACT

Gujarat is Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home State and training ground. His Gujarat Model is projected as growth and development oriented. This article shows the actual Gujarat Model as top-down, favouring big business and undergirded by violent Hindu nationalism. The cult of the strongman leader – directly attuned to his people and above the corruption of politics as usual – rounds off Gujarat’s authoritarian populist playbook. While the antecedents of this playbook are found in recent history, natural and political crises entrenched the Gujarat Model. The leader and his New Gujarat have since been popularised across scale, including nationally. Moving in the opposite direction, the article traces aggressively promoted business and violently repressed dissent in a sub-sub-national district of Gujarat. It then turns to the district’s village hinterland, focusing on those who witness and occasionally participate in the Gujarat Model’s politics and economics. Here the article finds capitalist development built on precarious labour and jobless growth. It also observes the much-feted Hindu nation riven by contradictions of caste, class, region and gender. Despite such cracks, deepening state authoritarianism, and the populist connect with a larger-than-life leader endure – for now – in the absence of substantive alternatives.

KEY WORDS:

• India
• Hindu nationalism
• authoritarianism
• Gujarat Model
• capitalism
• populism

Acknowledgments

Thanks are due to anonymous interviewees in Gujarat for giving generously of their time over many years of field research. Garima Jaju offered excellent field assistance during a critical period of this project. The article benefited from presentations at various seminars, including one on New Nationalisms at the University of Göttingen. Four anonymous reviewers engaged critically and deeply with the argument, thereby greatly improving it. Finally, thanks to the editors of the Journal of Contemporary Asia for encouraging me to present part of this research, and then write it up for submission to the journal.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. State is rendered with a capital S to denote the federal units of the Indian union. The state apparatus is depicted in lower case.

2. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z56qGvLfJK8.

3. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDac2mcduNY; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ur_rL9n8bPg.

4. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN3x9YVz2wk.

5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyJE99wGa5M.

Additional information

Funding

The article has benefited from the research support funds of the Oxford Department of International Development, and Wolfson College. Thanks are also due to the Oxford University Vice Chancellor’s Returning Carers’ Fund, which facilitated research assistance.