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ABSTRACT
This volume focuses on the dynamic, distinctive and diverse aspects of political campaigning in India’s varied information ecosystems during the 2019 Lok Sabha election. This introductory essay reviews important research in the field of political communication and campaigning, and distinctive forms of campaigning in historically important Indian elections, before discussing innovations and technologies in political campaigning in India since the 1950s. Greater access to low-cost smartphones and the internet since 2016 has meant that in most of the states studied in this volume, social media played a larger role in 2019 than previously. This volume brings together empirical evidence in two thematic case studies–one on how parties use massive campaign rallies to impact prime-time news agendas and another on misinformation on social media – along with five case studies on the most distinctive forms of political campaigning in the varied subnational contexts of West Bengal, Assam, Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. The concluding essay compares highlights from these case studies, discusses campaign research methods, and identifies opportunities for future research on political campaigning in India.
Acknowledgments
Dr. Varughese would like to acknowledge support from Carleton University International Research Seed Grant and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Dr. Semetko would like to acknowledge support from Emory University’s Research Council for the India Election Studies project.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. The case studies presented in this volume would not have been possible without the expertise and patience of three anonymous reviewers in a double-blind review process, whose comments helped to refine the research presented herein. We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their time and valuable insights.
2. Mehta, Digital Politics in India”s 2019 General Elections.”
3. Tech Desk, WhatsApp Now has 400 million Active Users in India”; and Goel and Frenkel, “In India Election, False Posts and Hate Speech Flummox Facebook.”
4. Kumar, Changing Electoral Politics in Delhi: From Caste to Class.
5. Kumar, The Making of a Small State.
6. Kreiss and McGregor, “Technology Firms Shape Political Communication.”
7. Swanson and Mancini, Politics, Media and Modern Democracy; Jeffrey and Sen, Media at Work in China and India; Gunther and Mughan, Democracy and the Media; Voltmer, Mass Media and Political Communication in New Democracies.
8. Boczkowski and Mitchelstein, “The Politics of Contextualization in the Contextualization of Political Communication Research”; and Rojas and Valenzuela, “A Call to Contextualize Public Opinion-Based Research in Political Communication.”
9. Esser and Pfetsch, Comparing Political Communication; Strömbäck and Dimitrova, “Political and Media Systems Matter”; Semetko et al., The Formation of Campaign Agendas; Pfetsch and Esser, “Comparing Political Communication”; Gibson, Nixon & Ward, Political Parties and the Internet; Strömbäck and Kaid, Handbook of Election News Coverage Around the World; Willnat and Aw, “Elections in India: One Billion People and Democracy”; and Lilleker and Jackson, Political Campaigning, Elections and the Internet.
10. Holtz-Bacha and Johansson, Election Posters Around the Globe; Willnat et al., “Symbols, Slogans and Charisma”; Wyatt and Manikandan, The AIADMK”s Re-election.
11. Kluver et al., The Internet and National Elections.
12. Lilliker and Lees-Marshment, “Political Marketing: A Comparative Perspective”; Lees-Marshment and Lilliker, “Knowledge Sharing and Lesson Learning”; and Lilliker et al., “Social Media Campaigning in Europe.”
13. Kaid and Holtz-Bacha, The SAGE Handbook of Political Advertising.
14. Plasser, “Parties” Diminishing Relevance for Campaign Professionals.” See also Plasser and Plasser, Global Political Campaigning.
15. Journals with special issues discussing the election and the vote in 2014 and 2019 included Economic & Political Weekly, Contemporary South Asia, and Studies in Indian Politics. India Review also published a special issue on the consequences of the election in 2019. For information on Lokniti, see https://www.csds.in/lokniti.
16. Chhibber and Ostermann, “The BJP”s Fragile Mandate”; Chhibber and Verma, “The BJP”s 2014 “Modi Wave”: An Ideological Consolidation of the Right.” See also Chhibber and Verma, Ideology and Identity; Chhibber and Verma, “The Rise of the Second Dominant Party System in India.”
17. Palshikar, Kumar, and Lodha, Electoral Politics in India. See also Palshikar, Suri, and Yadav, Party Competition in Indian States; and Palshikar, “Modi, Media and the Middle Class.”
18. Tillin, “Indian Elections 2014: Explaining the Landslide.”
19. Jaffrelot, and Verniers, “A New Party System or a New Political System?”; Jaffrelot and Verniers, “The BJP”s 2019 Election Campaign.”
20. Chakraborty and Hazra, Winning the Mandate, 159–160.
21. Palshikar, Kumar, and Lodha, Electoral Politics in India.
22. Ahmad and Kanungo, The Algebra of Warfare-Welfare.
23. Bhalla, Citizen Raj.
24. Khan, The Game of Votes.
25. Jethwaney and Kapur, When India Votes.
26. Roy and Sopariwala, The Verdict: Decoding India”s Elections.
27. Ibid., 108.
28. Bhatnagar, The Lotus Years, 174.
29. Palshikar, “Modi, Media and the Middle Class.”
30. See note above 28.
31. Grant, “A Comment on Labour”s Campaign.”
32. Riedel, “Margaret Thatcher”s Real Soul Mate was Indira Gandhi.”
33. Fallon, “Saatchi & Saatchi”; Messner, “The Tuesday Team.”
34. Badhwar, “In the Space of One Crowded Week.”
35. See note above 28.
36. Ibid.
37. Time, “Indira Gandhi Cover.”
38. Bhatnagar, The Lotus Years, 180.
39. Ibid., 175.
40. Manor, “Rajiv Gandhi and Post-election India.”
41. Bhatnagar, The Lotus Years, 176.
42. Khullar and Haridasani. “Politicians Slug it out in India”s First Social Media Election.”
43. Kanungo, “India”s Digital Poll Battle.”
44. Chadwick, The Hybrid Media System.
45. TOI, “44% of Voters in India’s Top Metropolises Say they will Vote AAP for Lok Sabha: TOI Poll.”
46. Semetko”s interview with BJP”s Mission 272+leaders, 12 May 2014. Election results were announced 16 May 2014.
47. Semetko”s interview with the Bengaluru South campaign team for INC candidate Nandan Nilekani, 13 May 2014.
48. For a case study of how the BJP used WhatsApp to create a successful “word-of-mouth” campaign in the Maharashtra Assembly elections in October 2014, see Shah and Kumar, “Marketing Transformation Using Social Network.”
49. Centre for Media Studies, “CMS Media Lab Analysis.”
50. Price, “The Modi Effect.”
51. Neyazi, Kumar, and Semetko, “Campaigns, Digital Media and Mobilization in India.”
52. Election Commission of India. https://eci.gov.in/files/category/97-general-election-2014/
53. Pathak, “WhatsApp is Now 10Years Old.”
54. Yasir and Abi-Habib, “Kashmir Suffers from the Worst Attack There in 30Years.”
55. Inamdar, “Six Charts Explain How Balakot Strikes Helped Boost Modi’s Popularity.”
56. Ibid.
57. Murgia et al., “India: The WhatsApp Election”; and Tech Desk, “WhatsApp Now has 400 million Active Users in India.”
58. Krishnan, “Social Media in India Fans Fake News”; and Uttam, “For PM Modi’s 2019 Campaign, BJP Readies its WhatsApp Plan.”
59. Narayanan et al., “News and Information over Facebook and WhatsApp during the Indian Election Campaign”; and Goel and Frenkel, “In India Election, False Posts and Hate Speech Flummox Facebook.”
60. We want to thank Anup Kumar, one of the authors in this special issue, for this diagram.
61. Jain and Ganesh, “Understanding the Magic of Credibility for Political Leaders.”
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Anil M. Varughese
Anil M. Varughese is Associate Professor in the School of Public Policy and Administration at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. His research interests are in comparative politics of South Asia, political communication and political behaviour, and global social policy. He has done fieldwork in various Indian states, including during the 2019 national election. His research is supported by grants from Carleton University and Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Holli A. Semetko
Holli A. Semetko, MSc PhD (The London School of Economics & Political Science) MBA (Emory), is Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Media and International Affairs and Professor of Political Science at Emory University in Atlanta, where she served as Vice Provost for International Affairs and directed The Claus M. Halle Institute for Global Learning for nearly a decade. She was a 2013-14 Fulbright Nehru Scholar and Honorary Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT-Bombay), and previously served as professor of audience and public opinion research at the University of Amsterdam and founding board chair of the Amsterdam School for Communications Research, where she remains an honorary professor. With over 100 publications, her research on political communication, campaigning and influence in international contexts extends from the US, UK and European Union (EU) countries to India and East Asia.