A POLITICAL ANOMALY: THE RESISTANCE OF TAMIL NADU TO RISING TIDES OF HINDUTVA ACROSS INDIA

Abstract

The age-old puzzle of whether right-wing Hindu nationalism can emerge as a significant political force in Tamil Nadu was the fundamental question that set the direction for this research paper. The voters of the state have made their mandate explicit ever since the 1990s, and especially so in the most recent 2019 Lok Sabha Elections by routing the BJP. In this context, this paper seeks to find answers to two research questions: (1) How has the state-level politics of Tamil Nadu resisted the national rise of the BJP and right-wing Hindu nationalism? (2) Are such state-level politics still relevant or useful in resisting the BJP, where the political space of Tamil Nadu has seemingly evolved to be more favourable towards the BJP, and how so? This paper argues that the state-level politics of Tamil Nadu are relevant and useful in resisting the BJP to the extent that they have provided the vocabulary of resistance. The core of the resistance, however, has shifted from the state elites and political players to the masses, and has taken a life on its own especially between 2017-2019. This shift has been led by a grassroots movement that resists the political ascendancy of the BJP not necessarily as a sign of support for state-level politics but rather as an expression of the discontent with the centralizing tendencies of the BJP which has subsequently brought along a decline in the political economy and the development of the state.