How ideology shapes Indian politics

In the 2014 general elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party notched a historic victory, becoming the first party to win an outright majority in the Lok Sabha since 1984 and only the second party ever to achieve that distinction after the Indian National Congress. The BJP’s behaviour in power suggests that scholars have too quickly dismissed the role of ideology in Indian politics and that, on the contrary, the careful study of political ideology can inform understandings of the political landscape in India. Drawing on this foundational work and more recent political developments, our study identifies three main issue areas around which contemporary Indian political ideology revolves: the role of the State in driving economic and social policy; the role of the State in addressing historical inequalities; and Hindu nationalism. For example, on the issue of the State’s role in poverty alleviation, the survey presented respondents with the following statement: “The government should have special schemes to uplift the poor and disadvantaged.” Similarly, regarding the state’s role in addressing historical inequalities across caste groups, the survey elicited reactions to the statement: “There should be reservations for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in schools and universities.” Taking the aggregate set of responses to several such issue statements, we employed ideal point estimation to consider whether individuals’ issue preferences could be explained by an underlying, latent structure, or “ideology,” and, if so, around which issues ideology was organised and how much explanatory power it possessed. Additional analyses suggest that the relationships between ideology and political behaviour detailed above hold even when accounting for variables capturing traditional explanations of politics in India: namely, individuals’ caste and religion and views on patronage politics.