Diaspora Politics and the International Mainstreaming of National Populism – InDiPop

This project investigates the international mainstreaming of authoritarian national populism. Departing from the “methodological nationalism” of populism studies, InDiPop examines their outward-facing dimensions through diaspora mobilizations and international mainstreaming of Hindutva or “Hinduness” national populist project. The Indian diaspora is the largest diaspora population in the world (nearly 18 million people). The Hindutva project is the globally ascendant version of national populism today and one that has garnered considerable international recognition and acceptance.

Hindutva ideology endorses the idea of India as a Hindu-first nation. In this ethnomajoritarian vision, religious minorities are second-class citizens with unequal status. Since the arrival of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to power in 2014, Hindutva has become the ruling ideology of the Indian state, changing India into an “ethnic democracy”. At the same time, the BJP government has launched a concerted bid for international recognition and status as a global power.

We seek to investigate the role of the Indian diaspora in the international diffusion and mainstreaming of Hindutva. To do so, InDiPop focuses on three principal research questions: 1) How do the India-based Hindu nationalist movement and its overseas affiliates mobilise the Hindu diaspora outside India in civil society, digital, religious and educational spaces?; 2) How does the integration of the Indian diaspora in local and national politics within host societies influence the ways in which India, religious diversity and minority rights are represented within mainstream politics outside India?; 3) How does this international mainstreaming compare to the diaspora mobilisation efforts of other states (Turkey, Israel) and the South Asian communities?

Multiple levels of analysis will be deployed. InDiPop’s research cases spread across four continents to develop a global picture of mobilisation and integration as strategies of international legitimation as well as the countercurrents to Hindutva. The cases represent Indian diasporas with different migration histories located in host societies with varied citizenship and social diversity regimes: Europe (France, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK); North America; Australia; and Asia (Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia).

Three distinctive contributions are envisioned: (1) original theory-building: IndDiPop contributes to new scholarly paradigms that see populism less as an aberrant political movement than one being normalised within the rhythms and cultures of governance and “politics as usual” in democracies around the world. InDiPop will offer unique insights into the drivers and contexts of national populist mainstreaming. By investigating Hindutva’s embedded presence in international contexts that are disconnected from Hindu nationalist ideological agendas, it will yield new theoretical knowledge on the mechanisms of ethnomajoritarian consolidation beyond communities of committed adherents. (2) new data resources: the study will generate original public datasets comprising new empirical data on the transnational civil society and digital networks of Hindu nationalism; political participation of the Indian diaspora in the mainstream politics of “host” countries; transnational student mobilities; curricular and pedagogical approaches to area studies education in different world regions. (3) policy-relevant and public-facing outputs: along with academic audiences, the study will directly address a wide range of public and policy stakeholders. Project outputs will include academic monographs, peer-reviewed journal articles, a documentary film, an interactive website, digital databases and other open-access online resources, popular media articles and policy briefs, and digital resource “toolkits” for civil society organizations, educational institutions, international and national state agencies.