The New Experts
Populist Elites and Technocratic Promises in Modi's India

Analyses the power of intellectuals and experts in justifying extremist politics, with a specific focus on India's intellectual elite.

Anuradha Sajjanhar (Author)

9781009349727, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 May 2024

198 pages
23.5 x 15.9 x 1.6 cm, 0.43 kg

'… an excellent book which gives much substance to our understanding of the Hindu nationalist movement in India and the reasons for their relative success in the past decade.' T. V. Paul, Perspectives on Politics

If right-populists have had enough of establishment experts, how do they replace them, with whom, and to what effect? Presenting the first in-depth analysis of India's new intellectual elite in the wake of a Hindu supremacist government, The New Experts investigates the power of appointed experts in normalising ideologies of governance, beyond party rhetoric. The New Experts presents an accessible narrative of how and why particular ideas gain prominence in elite policy and political discourse. Drawing on in-depth interviews and ethnographic research with national and international policy makers, politicians, bureaucrats, consultants, and journalists, this book analyses how political leaders in India strategically use modes of populist spectacle and established technocratic institutions to produce shared visions of glorified technological and hyper-nationalist futures. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available open access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.

1. Introduction: Building Blocks
2. The BJP's Ideological Heterodoxy
3. Replacing the Custodians of Discourse
4. Outsourcing Democracy through Professional Consulting
5. The Double-Sidedness of Hindutva: Inside the BJP's Think-Tanks
Conclusion: Reading Indian Apolitics.

Subject Areas: Constitution: government & the state [JPHC]