IN the sweltering heat of July 2026, as baton-wielding police clash with determined students at Jantar Mantar, India confronts a reckoning. What began as righteous fury over NEET paper leaks and examination scandals has swelled into a thunderous chorus of discontent. These young voices are not merely protesting administrative failures—they are dismantling the glittering facade of India’s dominant political-economic order: Seductive yet strained marriage of neoliberal ambition and Hindutva nationalism.

This “neoliberal Hindutva” project, meticulously crafted under Narendra Modi, once seemed invincible. It fused market liberalization—GST reforms, infrastructure megaprojects and the relentless pursuit of “ease of doing business”—with a potent cultural narrative of Hindu resurgence and national pride. Growth statistics soared. Aspirational slogans echoed. A broad coalition of middle classes and........

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