Indian Politicians Research Articles

Embarking on Friendship: Exploring Early Soviet-Indian Relations

By the onset of the Second World War, the USSR had virtually no experience or established traditions of interaction with South Asian countries. Initially, Soviet-Indian relations could be characterized as tepid, largely due to a lack of accurate information about each other. During the wartime, the USSR underestimated the advantages of forging close ties with Indian left-wing centrists, favoring instead communists who provided the Kremlin with falsified data on the national liberation movement in the country.The article examines how bilateral relations evolved and strengthened as mutual knowledge grew. The second stage of Soviet-Indian relations (1955-1971) can be termed as a period of "birth of friendship," as the image of partnership is consolidated in the eyes of Soviet and Indian politicians and the public. Soviet diplomacy played a pivotal role in shaping policy changes: diplomats sought to gather crucial information about events in the country, transmit it to the USSR, and promote bilateral rapprochement, sometimes even acting in violation of instructions.The article pays particular attention to the activities of Subhas Chandra Bose, the leader of the left wing of the Indian National Congress, who according to Indian sociological surveys on the most prominent politicians of the 20th century, ranks second only to Mahatma Gandhi. During the Second World War, he was an uncompromising fighter against British colonialists. The Soviet Union did not pay sufficient attention to S.C. Bose, although he potentially could have been a valuable partner for Moscow.At present, the problem of mutual lack of awareness has resurfaced, hindering the development of closer political, economic, and cultural-humanitarian ties between Russia and India.

The many swords of Shivaji: Searching for a weapon, finding a nation

Abstract Since at least the nineteenth century, the Maratha warrior-king Shivaji (r. 1674–80) has served as a central symbol in Indian politics. This article interrogates his legacy through the lens of his famous sword, the Bhavani Talvar. At least three swords have been identified as this weapon since the nineteenth century; by analysing each of these claims in turn, I consider how the discourse around Shivaji’s sword(s) traces the evolving legacy of Shivaji himself. Interested less in the historical merits of these claims than in the socio-political work they perform, I seek to uncover why the last of these three, now in London, has become essentially synonymous with the Bhavani Talvar in the popular sphere. Ultimately, I attribute this preference to the object’s political resonance: supposedly given to the Prince of Wales by a descendant of Shivaji in 1875, the object has been a rallying cry for Indian politicians of diverse ideological persuasions, who, in demanding its return, have sought to position themselves as the heirs to Shivaji and the healers of a nation still ailing from colonial wounds.

The Impact of IoT on the Performance of Vaccine Supply Chain Distribution in the COVID-19 Context

The Government of India has started the distribution of the Covishield and Covaxin vaccines across all the comprising states. In developing states like Bihar, the vaccine supply chain (VSC) is likely to face many challenges due to poor health infrastructure, multidimensional poverty, and poor literacy. Supply chain practitioners are experimenting with available technologies to deal with supply, demand, and behavioral challenges. The present research work seeks to inspect the potential impact of Internet of Things (IoT) on the performance of the VSC. This study draws literature on the impact of IoT on product management, demand management, supply management, social behavior, and government rules and regulations to develop and test the conceptual model in Bihar. Consequently, the study administrated a survey and used structural equation modeling to investigate the proposed hypothesis. The analysis illustrates the positive influence of IoT adoption on the performance of the VSC in distributing the COVID vaccine. The finding also shows the positive relationship between product, supply, demand, and social behavior in IoT adoption. Analysis displays that Indian politicians can substantially impact vaccine distribution because they have influence and awareness of their local districts. This research work has a significant theoretical and managerial contribution for government and practitioners, supporting regulatory officials and policymakers in improving vaccine distribution.

Islamophobic Discourses in India During COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case of Tablighi Jamaat

ABSTRACT Islamophobia is a hot issue in the world nowadays. This study aimed to analyse the discourses which were produced against Muslims and Islam during the novel coronavirus outbreak in India, where the Muslim minority group Tablighi Jamaat was targeted and held responsible for spreading the virus. The study employed Critical Discourse Analysis to analyse selected tweets from Indian politicians, government dignitaries, and common Indian users to find out Islamophobic themes and ideological structures in their discourses. The researcher hypothesizes that Islamophobia is an integral feature of Indian political communication which is also obvious in their discursive and rhetorical devices. The researcher purposively selected 50 of the most controversial tweets by Indian politicians, government officials, and common Indian Twitter users against Muslims and Islam and carried out a critical discourse analysis through political discourse strategies by Wodak’s (2014). The findings of the study reveal that Indians use discriminatory language against Muslims and Islam to create a difference of “us versus them” and by using anti-Islamic strategies and Islamophobic remarks against the Muslims of India and propagating a common belief in Indians that Muslims and Islam are the main culprit of the COVID-19 outbreak in India.

«БРЕМЯ НЕБЕЛОГО ЧЕЛОВЕКА»: КОЛОНИАЛЬНОЕ ПРОШЛОЕ И ПОИСК НАЦИОНАЛЬНОЙ ИДЕНТИЧНОСТИ В МНОГОПОЛЯРНОМ МИРЕ

The colonial past continues to play a significant role in the national consciousness of Indian politicians as well as leaders of Western countries who seek to maintain the status quo in bilateral relations with India. By critically reflecting on the remnants of the period of colonialism the Indian political elite develops its own sense of national identity rather than fall for the one ‘invented’ by the Europeans. Instead of ‘mimicking’ Western categories of democracy and freedom, the Modi government defends its vision of the spiritual and cultural development of society in the subcontinent based on traditions and values from the pre-colonial past. It is for these reasons that US attempts to return India to its orbit through global “summits of democracies” and calls for joint defense of the ideals of freedom and human rights were unsuccessful, since they are perceived as alien in the subcontinent

Investigating political polarization in India through the lens of Twitter.

Social media plays a pivotal role in shaping communication among political entities. Substantial research has been carried out for examining the impact of politicians’ social media usage and interactions on political polarization. Analysing political polarization is particularly significant for fragmented political systems like India where collaboration between parties is essential for winning support in parliament. Different topics of discussion between political entities may induce different levels of polarization. This study aims to examine the presence of polarization on Twitter social media platform with respect to different topics of political discussions among Indian politicians. The investigation is based upon two conflicting notions about social media in influencing political polarization. The first notion regards social media as a medium for interaction between different ideological users. The second opinion on the other hand focuses on prevalence of selective exposure in social media leading to polarization. The study will investigate the use of Twitter for forming communication ties in and between parties and the extent of divergence of opinions during political discourse. The investigation performs social network analysis and content analysis of the tweets posted by Indian politicians during some major events in India from 2019 to 2021. For an unbiased topic-specific analysis of polarization, some important topics related to Indian government policies, national security and natural disaster events have been considered. The findings of the study suggest that Twitter not only opens up communication spaces to Indian political users but also makes online political discussions among them polarized. Moreover, the extent of polarization varies with respect to topics of political discussions. Polarization is more for controversial and debatable topics than non-controversial ones.

Divided We Rule: Influencer Polarization on Twitter during Political Crises in India

Influencers are key to the nature and networks of information propagation on social media. Influencers are particularly important in political discourse through their engagement with issues, and may derive their legitimacy either solely or in large part through online operation, or have an offline sphere of expertise such as entertainers, journalists etc. To quantify influencers' political engagement and polarity, we use Google's Universal Sentence Encoder (USE) to encode the tweets of 6k influencers and 26k Indian politicians during political crises in India. We then obtain aggregate vector representations of the influencers based on their tweet embeddings, which alongside retweet graphs help compute their stance and polarity with respect to these political issues. We find that influencers engage with the topics in a partisan manner, with polarized influencers being rewarded with increased retweeting and following. Moreover, we observe that specific groups of influencers are consistently polarized across all events. We conclude by discussing how our study provides insights into the political schisms of present-day India, but also offers a means to study the role of influencers in exacerbating political polarization in other contexts.

Caste Capital on Twitter: A Formal Network Analysis of Caste Relations among Indian Politicians

Twitter is increasingly important for political outreach and networking around the world. While electoral politics and social relations in India are heavily organized by caste, a broader rhetoric of castelessness among upper-caste politicians has led to the eschewing of caste publicly to appear strategically secular. This has rendered caste dynamics more implicit than explicit. Social media, often cited as a tool for inclusion, offers a unique look into the networks of covert exclusion. Our study analyzes three structural properties of the Twitter network of Members of Parliament in India - influence, bridging capital, and mutual connectivity, to understand how caste manifests as social capital in the information economy. Our results show that those higher in the caste hierarchy are structurally poised for higher social capital through higher influence, incoming bridging capital, and higher propensity for mutual connections with other MPs in the network. Our study offers a methodological window into these invisible relations to show how structural advantages of Brahmanical supremacy are being co-produced and stabilized on social media at the highest level of politics.

Oil, Money and Decolonization in South Asia

Abstract Why did oil become a privileged object for debating economic sovereignty during the Cold War? Recent scholarship has attempted to answer this question by drawing attention to decolonizing struggles for oil nationalization across Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. At the core of these inquiries is the presumption that a global proliferation of oil production after 1945 — now referred to as ‘the great acceleration’ — reflected a growth in global demand for fossil fuels, and that oil’s economic significance thus motivated new political claims over national oil reserves. This article takes a different position by turning to one of the earliest projects to build a post-colonial national oil programme, India’s Oil and Natural Gas Commission, under the socialist politician K. D. Malaviya. Using Malaviya’s project to trace the international politicization of oil in the 1950s and 1960s, it demonstrates how sovereignty over oil was used to contest the structures of unequal currency valuation and foreign debt enforced by the Bretton Woods institutions and the Western bloc. Rather than a source of fuel, Indian politicians understood the struggle over oil as a struggle about money, and the power of global financial interdependence in demarcating the political horizons of post-colonial sovereignty.

Skin conditions among 20th century politicians and world leaders.

The health of world leaders is a legitimate source of concern for the global population, and for historians. Cognitive disorders may impact their mandate decisions, particularly when occurring early in office [1]. Cancer and cardio-vascular diseases may lead to disability with impossibility to carry out expected duties or unexpected death with power vacuum [2]. World history has repeatedly showed that politicians tended to keep their illnesses hidden from the public long before they became obvious [2].

American Politicians Diverge Systematically, Indian Politicians do so Chaotically: Text Embeddings as a Window into Party Polarization

Conversations on polarization are increasingly central to discussions of politics and society, but the schisms between parties and states can be hard to identify systematically in what politicians say. In this paper, we demonstrate the use of representation learning as a window into political dialogue on social media through the tweets authored by politicians on Twitter. We propose to embed politicians in a space such that their output embedding vectors represent the content similarity between the two politicians based on their tweets. We further propose a short-text based embedding technique to overcome some of the shortcomings of the previous methods. The learnt embeddings for politicians of India and the United States show two trends. First, that in the US case, we find a clear distinction between Democrats and Republicans, which is also reflected in the coalescing of the states that lean towards each party placing likewise in a graphical space. However, in the Indian case, the federal structure, multiparty system, and linguistic differences clearly manifest in the coalescing political discourse in the largely monolingual north and the scattered regional states. Our work shows ways in which machine learning methods can offer a window into thinking about how polarized political discourses manifest in what politicians say online.

Birds of a Caste - How Caste Hierarchies Manifest in Retweet Behavior of Indian Politicians

The Hindu caste system plays an important role in the socio-political landscape of India. In recent years, Indian politicians have moved a lot of direct communication online. Social media is now an important space for the articulation and performance of their political positions. In this paper, we study ways in which the political performance of caste relations can be captured from the online connections and messaging of parliamentarians in India. We run tests of odds ratios among the members of LokSabha (lower house) of India to find the extent to which their engagement is insular to their own caste group versus other groups. We observe that in the LokSabha network, Members of Parliament (MPs) have higher odds of getting retweeted by others whose caste is the same or closer to their own in the caste hierarchy. The findings of this research shed light on an understudied, yet critical, social relation of caste in the study of political behavior on social media.

Expounding on the concerns of indian politicians regarding fluorosis: A qualitative analysis of parliamentary questions on fluorosis over two decades.

Fluorosis is a major public health problem in India affecting nearly 20 states. Despite more than three decades of fluorosis prevention efforts, fluorosis continues to be a widely prevalent disease in India. The debilitating effects of skeletal fluorosis are well documented and pose a serious health risk to people who consume excess fluoride. In order to understand whether fluorosis was being given importance as a public health problem by elected politicians, we analyzed parliamentary questions posed in both the houses of the Indian parliament during the question hour. Thematic analysis revealed three major themes, namely health hazards, fluorosis control, and magnitude of fluorosis. The analysis revealed that politicians have posed questions regarding all the aspects that are necessary for fluorosis control in India. However, we have identified the certain key issues which have to be improved and certain obligations that the Government of India has to fulfill for successful fluorosis mitigation in India.

Structural equation modelling of political marketing strategies adopted by political parties

Political Marketing is a recent phenomenon, gaining importance quickly around the world. Politicians and their political parties are using a large number of strategies to attract and retain the voters. The present study has made an attempt to understand the perception of voters toward various political marketing strategies adopted by various politicians in India. The study has empirical research design with non-probability sampling techniques. A survey of registered voters was made; their perceptions were recorded and analyzed with various statistical tools like Garrett ranking, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modelling and path diagram. The study has derived three major factors viz. direct political marketing, relationship political marketing and transactional political marketing influencing the perception of voters toward various strategies adopted by Indian Politicians. The study has been able to frame a hypothetical model for these strategies. At the last, the study has also felt the need of further studies in this direction. Keywords: Political marketing, Strategy, Perception, Voters, India.

Worldview formation and I. Gandhi development as a politician

The article is devoted to the study of the process of I. Gandhi personally development as a politician, characteristics and features of her worldview formation. Indira Nehru’s entourage had a decisive role in becoming her as a politician and a leader of the nation continuing her father’s “Nehru course”. The cornerstone of I. Gandhi foreign policy concept and activity was the doctrine of “Great India” which took shape in the conditions of the 20th century world shocks which radically changed the political map of the world. Colonialism contributed to the emergence of a heightened sense of national dignity among many Indian politicians and intellectuals including I. Gandhi. J. Nehru views played an important educational role in I. Gandhi worldview formation. His scientific, philosophical and political views became the foundation that would subsequently develop and strengthen in her mind and form the future politician with certain beliefs and ideas about “Great India.” For her people she was not just a female politician, but a symbol, because even after the resignation from the post of prime minister, I. Gandhi presence in the government was seen as maintaining fidelity to the commandments of the largest national leader by the people. The spiritual appearance formed in her childhood helped her overcome all the difficulties that she would encounter on her political path. She would endure all the ups and downs with dignity and even the awareness of the impending assassination attempt did not make her hide but meet her opponents.

Ears to the ground: how politicians in India learned what voters wanted, 1967-1971

ABSTRACT How do politicians learn what their voters want? This article explores how Indian politicians leverage different types of interlocutors in order to develop coherent perspectives of voter wants to support policy and strategy development. It then uses innovative archival data to demonstrate how access to different types of interlocutors made key political developments possible.

Geopolitics of the Sea: the Idea of Ocean Control in the Political Discourse of Independent India

The article is devoted to the history of the idea of control over the Indian Ocean in the context of the development of India’s political discourse. This issue relates to the history of the development of the maritime security component of India in colonial and postcolonial times. The author seeks to analyze the genesis of the idea of India’s control over the sea, the main stages of its formation and its specific features. The relevance of the issue is emphasized by the attention paid in present-day India to the problem of effective control over the Indian Ocean, its perception as zone of Indian dominance in the context of the formation of the Indo-Pacific region. The article proves that the concept of ocean control, which is now popular among Indian politicians and experts, was formed as a result of the consistent evolution of discourse, to which theorists, military and politicians contributed. As a result of this evolution, India developed its own concept of control over sea spaces, implying the role of India as the main supplier of security in the region and the leader of the regional community of countries, which includes the states controlling the key points of the Indian Ocean. This evolution can be divided into three stages. During the first one (1947-1965) the doctrine of ‘possession of the sea’ was formulated, and this was done by K.M. Panikkar and K.B. Vaidya. Those plans, however, were not realized due to lack of resources. During the second stage (1965-1991) the idea was removed from the Indian external and internal political discourse. At the same time Navy’s size and equipment were constantly growing, allowing India to defeat Pakistan at sea in 1971 and successfully solve tactical tasks, supporting profitable status quo in the Indian Ocean region. Finally, during the third stage (1991-2019) the idea of control over the ocean was revived. As a result of this evolution, India developed its own concept of control over ocean spaces, implying the role of the country as the main supplier of security in the region and the leader of the regional community of countries, which includes the states controlling the key points of the Indian Ocean.

A Discourse Analysis of Speeches Delivered by the Prominent Indian Politicians on Important Official Forums

The present research paper studies the discourse of the selected speeches from the prominent Indian statesmen. It includes Mr. Manmohan Singh’s address to Indian Elected Assembly (Lok Sabah) as Prime Minister of India, S.M. Krishna’s (Foreign Minister of India) speech to the UN, General Assembly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the UN General Assembly and the speech of Mrs. Sushma Swaraj (the present foreign minister) to the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly. This work is a discourse of the speeches delivered by these politicians representing Indian government on different occasions. There emerge a few common patterns in the speeches of these politicians who in fact, represent different political parties in India. These four speeches fall within the years 2009 to 2018 but they represent a few consistent structures. Ruth Wodak’s model is used to explain how Indian politicians create an image of positive self and negative others. There has been a dominant discourse of eying Pakistan with suspicion and a terror sponsoring country. On the other hand, India is projected in the light of a developing, responsible, democratic and progressive country that believes in human rights and social welfare. The discourse finds a conscious effort on the part of the four speakers to appreciate India as a positively contributing welfare state in the committee of nations. However, the presence of a terror sponsoring neighbor: Pakistan; is a constant challenge for their stability and the peace. These speeches try to build a discourse which projects Pakistan a threat for the world in general and for India in particular.

India 2020: The deepening crisis of democracy

During 2020, India’s foreign policy was unaffected by the COVID-19 and dominated by two key developments, on whose analysis this article is focussed. One was the turning for the worse of the India-China relation, of which the heating up of the Himalayan border, which saw clashes between the militaries of the two countries, was at the same time cause and effect. The other key foreign policy development in the year under review was the tightening of the India-US connection, which, in 2020, increasingly looked as a de facto anti-China military alliance. The India-China confrontation is tackled by dwelling on three points. The first is the history of the incidents and clashes along the Himalayan border, whose seriousness is proven by the fact that, for the first time in 45 years, there were losses of human life. Then, a main objective cause of turbulence along the China-India border, namely the undefined nature of the de facto border (the so-called LAC, Line of Actual Control) is examined. Finally, the two mirror-like explanations of the border crisis are scrutinised. Then, the focus of the analysis moves on, zeroing on the India-US connection. It highlights the bizarre situation which, during the year under review, saw the worsening of the economic connection between the two nations – a direct result of US President Trump «America First» policy – coupled, however, by their growing military closeness. The fact that this apparently contradictory process resulted in something akin to a de facto military alliance, and the institutional developments that fleshed it out are examined. Finally, the fact is underlined that, even if largely unrecognised by Indian politicians and public opinion, the tightening of the US-India military alliance resulted in India’s loss, or at least drastic diminution of its vaunted «strategic autonomy». As a proof of this, the unravelling of the India-Iran strategic ties is examined.

Voters Perception towards Branding among Indian Politicians

This paper focuses on the perception of voters toward branding of Indian Politicians and their parties. An attempt has been made to understand how voters’ behavior and perception is psychologically influenced when a politician or a political party becomes a brand. This paper has mainly stressed upon studying various aspects which makes a political actor as a national or international brand. Once these brands are established in the minds of political consumers, are able to create a distinguished approach during electoral competition. The public image along with their national and international recognition of a political leader and his party, when attached to branding helps a lot in creating voters loyalty. In a country like India, numerous strategies have been adopted in the political system to woo voters through local and social media in the recent past. The present study has randomly selected the most accepted Indian political brands like Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi, Arvind Kejriwal and other left parties. A survey of 300 voters has been done who casted their valuable vote in Lok Sabha Election 2014. Chi Square test of Independence, ANOVA and Garrett Ranking has been used to analyze the results. This study has concluded the public image of Mr. Narendra Modi has helped him in becoming the most favorite brand in India. This paper has also felt the need of further research to determine the role of branding and political marketing in changing the perception of the electorates