Mythologizing the Indian Historical Record: The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Project of Ethnonationalism

Narendra Modi, the current Prime Minister of India, has blurred the lines between history and myth in order to push a particular ethnonationalistic agenda of Hindutva. The development dates back to his premiership in the Indian state of Gujarat. To this end, the Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People’s Party) has re-written both regional and national histories, deliberately omitted other histories and advocated a particular radical Hindu view of specific events in the Indian past. The paper points up parallel with the arrival of the National Socialist government in 1933 in Germany; the NS party propagated a specific view of German history based on Aryanism. Like the National Socialists, the BJP aims this history at its electoral base in order to secure a firm grip over the minds and votes of Indians. In this manner, the BJP hopes to maintain power.