Hindu Nationalism and the Evolution of Contemporary Indian Security

This book produces the first-ever analysis of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) security policy. It traces the impact of Hindu nationalism upon India's contemporary security practice by investigating BJP policy before, during, and after their leadership of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. Based upon primary sources and extensive interviewing, the volume principally analyses the BJP's tenure in government from 1998 to 2004-a period
of vital importance concerning India's rise in international prominence. Specifically, it confirms the crucial impact of BJP's internal policy sources on India's external security practice, especially regarding nuclear transparency, a tilt towards the US, greater regional pragmatism, and the use of
realpolitik. Carried out in comparison with earlier Indian National Congress (INC) regimes, this investigation highlights the multiple, composite, and competing norms influencing India's foreign policy, and shows how Indian security practice is absorptive, dynamic, and elastic. Most importantly, the author unveils how the BJP-led NDA legacy continues to critically inform the present-day trajectory of Indian security. The book thus yields an overview of foreign policy (and its making)
in modern post-colonial India across different political generations, and the current core policies critical to its international emergence as a great power.