The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) success in the 2024 General Elections and state elections in five states in 2026 points to the party’s success in construction of identity politics in favor of it. Its success in identity politics needs to be ascribed to the ways and means by which it has defeated the politics of recognition of the Congress Party and caste politics of several regional parties and depoliticized and naturalized its own version of national identity. Formation of government at the centre by the party for the third consecutive time hinged on identity politics based on a broad narrative that has been astutely crafted by the BJP around India’s civilizational identity and delivers the message of a united, strong and prosperous India rising above family based politics, corruption and vote-bank politics of minority appeasement and pseudo-secularism. Externally, the identity formation sought to combine two elements- India cannot tolerate any threat to its territorial integrity and sovereignty whereas it firmly believes in Vasudheiba Kutumbakam to bolster ties with all friendly powers and it can assume a role of a Spiritual Guru to solve global issues and concerns considering its rich ancient cultural resources. India’s national identity under Modi has been constructed as a composite whole where both internal and external dynamics interact with each other seamlessly. The umbrella tradition of Hinduism has been structured and essentialised by the BJP to politically motivate people around different pre-modern images, ideas and ethos such as Bharat Mata, Ramayan and Sri Ram, Bhagwat Gita, Vedantic Philosophy, Yoga and Ayurveda apart from many others which are suitably reconciled with modern norms such as unity, strength, development and dignity. On the other hand, the idea of respect for pluralism inherent in the Nehruvian idea of secularism lacked strong adhesive elements which later took the form of minority appeasement. Construction of identity has also been facilitated by Modi’s personality that approximated with the civilisational identity of India he fed into the people’s perception.
This book explores how the BJP constructs national identity. Globalization, we were told, would dissolve the nation, the region, the tribe. Its champions echo the old modernists: economic and political progress would melt ethnic and religious loyalties into a single national self. Then globalization would melt nations into one world. Neither prediction has held.  More contact across borders has not dulled the urge to belong to a nation, a language, a faith. Modernity did not erase tradition. Tradition endures because it anchors people in a time of flux. But also because tradition carries its own science, its own reason — the very things modernity claims as its own.  Identity sits at the center of how we reason. It has been rationalized in three ways. First, nationalism itself was made scientific. Enlightenment thought recast it as the natural outcome of objective social and economic forces. Second, sameness was justified as the path to liberty, equality, and justice — not through blood or kin, but through shared moral and constitutional ideals. Third, identity never left the realm of science and reason. Theorists still cannot draw a clean line where modernity ends and tradition begins.  The international order is not a single, rigid mold. Modernity offers states many ways to build political community. They can adapt to global norms for legitimacy and aid, while still drawing on their own cultural past. Transnational networks are supple enough to hold old cultural resources. At times those resources feed modernity. At times, they rise precisely to resist globalization.