Bhakt nation: The return of the Hindu diaspora in Modi’s India

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article investigates Modi’s rise to power as strongman leader of the world’s largest secular democracy. Deploying ‘bhakti’ or devotion as an analytical category, it brings an unusual perspective to contemporary Indian politics that looks at it from outside the electoral practices and institutions of the nation-state. Fundamental to understanding Modi’s political authority is Swaminarayan Sanstha, a powerful Hindu ascetic order tracing its origins tonineteenth century Gujarat. Following its nearly two century long transnational trajectory through the diasporic and religious networks of the Gujaratis, I illustrate how the Swaminarayans emerged as a social platform for Modi’s political aspirations and mobiled the Hindu diaspora in a host of capacities to serve as his informal diplomat corps. By transferring their networks and assets to Modi’s political project, the Swaminarayans, I argue, are reconfiguring the Indian state and its constitutional vision for society into a sacral Hindu state for a ‘bhakt nation’