2022 Podcasts

Is India becoming an Ethnic Democracy?

Kattan, Emmanuel; Hunter-Hart, Monica Beatrice; Ali, Abdibasid

Since being elected Prime Minister in 2014, Narendra Modi and the BJP party he leads have implemented legislation and policies that call into question India’s commitment to democracy. Today, legitimate dissent in India is compromised. The BJP has used the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act to designate individuals as terrorists without providing corroborating evidence, and provisions in the penal code have been invoked to silence journalists. Three years ago, the Indian Parliament passed a law providing a pathway to citizenship for persecuted minorities from neighboring countries explicitly excluding individuals of Muslim faith. Is India’s democracy in decline? Will the BJP’s majoritarian rule erode India’s tradition of pluralism, secularism, and religious tolerance? Do authoritarian features of the current government point towards India becoming an ethnic, illiberal democracy? In this episode of "Vis A Vis," Sciences Po Professor Christophe Jaffrelot and Manan Ahmed, Professor at Columbia University, shed light on these questions.