Challenging the rise of nationalist-religious parties in India and Turkey

Abstract

Examinations of how the secular state deals with the threat posed by ‘nationalist-religious' parties (as distinct from ‘religious-nationalist’ parties) has received little attention. Consequently, this paper focuses on the available strategies for dealing with relatively moderate nationalist-religious parties like the Refah Party in Turkey and the Bharatiya Janata Party in India. In particular, it examines two opposed approaches: that which seeks to exclude and isolate such parties, as in the case of Turkey; and that which adopts a policy of engagement, as in India. The paper then assesses the relative merits of these two strategies and concludes that the latter approach provides a more effective means of dealing with nationalist-religious parties, especially in democratic countries.