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India's Watershed Vote: Hindu Nationalism in Power?
- Journal of Democracy
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 25, Number 4, October 2014
- pp. 34-45
- 10.1353/jod.2014.0071
- Article
- Additional Information
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Abstract:
How will the BJP’s relationship with India’s Muslims evolve? This is among the most significant questions that the BJP’s stunning election victory poses. Though ideologically the BJP is suspicious of Muslims, the BJP’s rule is unlikely to be a mechanical extension of the party’s core ideology. As before, two constraints will matter: constitutional and political. India’s constitution is not committed to Hindu nationalism. And if the BJP wants its election victories to be repeated, India’s political realities will require alliance building across the nation’s diversities. Hindu-Muslim tensions should be expected, but not a return to the era of big riots.