The greatest characteristic of Indian politics has been that ideological struggles here have always been multi-layered. Since the freedom movement, different conceptions of nationalism, secularism, socialism, cultural identity, and democracy have competed with one another. Yet for a long time, an ideological consensus prevailed that Indian democracy could be protected only by keeping Hindu nationalist politics outside the mainstream. In later decades, this very issue became one of the greatest controversies in Indian politics. Journalist Ravish Kumar once stayed at the home of Amit Shah while reporting in 2007.

In 2019, he replayed that interview and remarked that the lives of political leaders are very interesting: no one knows when someone becomes a book and when merely a footnote in a book. In 2007, Amit Shah was contesting elections in Gujarat under the leadership of Narendra Modi, and at that time his home carried a deeply religious atmosphere. Amid images of Hindu deities hung a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi. At the Centre, Manmohan Singh was serving his first term as Prime Minister. Very few people at that time could have imagined that this experiment in Gujarat politics would later alter the direction of national politics.

In Indian politics, regional developments have often later become the basis of national discourse. Gujarat was one such phase. There, an attempt was made to combine administration, Hindu identity, development, and organization into a single framework, and gradually this evolved into an alternative political model. Until then, Delhi’s political establishment largely believed that only those parties that operated within the Nehruvian consensus could remain permanently influential at the national level. The rise of the BJP challenged that consensus. Between 2007 and 2019, the political landscape of India changed dramatically.

The BJP became firmly established at the Centre and was expected to win even more seats in subsequent elections. It indeed achieved extraordinary success. If this story is extended to the present day, one could say that the BJP has continued to strengthen itself. Political forces opposing it are now speaking of building a broader united front. This essay attempts to reflect upon some aspects of the politics of these nearly twenty years. An analysis of Indian political history suggests that........

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