Hindutva Regime in Assam: Saffron in the Rainbow(SAGE Studies on India's North East)

Hindutva Regime in Assam: Saffron in the Rainbow analyses the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) strategy of appropriating cultural resources in Assam while pursuing the Hindutva agenda. In Assam, where numerous ethnic and regional political outfits have registered their electoral presence, the ‘Rainbow Alliance’ emerged as the dominant strategic tool for BJP in its electoral battles. The book studies how BJP has capitalized on people’s attachment to their ethno-regional cultures and has successfully co-opted and ‘saffronized’ the ‘Rainbow’ by bringing together diverse ethnic groups into its fold. Scrutinizing electoral strategies, BJP’s victories in 2014, 2016 and 2019, and the efforts towards dismantling consensus around the National Register of Citizens (NRC) by enacting the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the book provides a holistic view of this steady ‘saffronization’. It also critically investigates BJP’s populist development agenda. From the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) grassroots work to the government’s policy initiatives, the book analyses the regime’s performance and ideological pursuits in depth. It highlights how BJP’s strategies in Assam are unique in some ways and how similar strategies can be seen elsewhere in India.

Table of Contents:
Foreword by Manoranjan Mohanty Acknowledgements Introduction From the ‘Rainbow’ to ‘Saffron’: BJP’s Changing Electoral Strategies Unmaking the Consensus: The NRC Debacle Hindutva at the Core: CAB-turned-CAA and Assam’s Political Destiny Dream Seller’s Economy: Promises and Populism Conservation, People’s Entitlements and National Security Pandemic and Politics: BJP’s Electoral Prospects Epilogue Select Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Akhil Ranjan Dutta, Professor and presently Head in the Department of Political Science at Gauhati University, Assam, India, is one of those social scientists of India’s north-east whose research has been motivated by political and cultural aspirations of people at the grassroots. A familiar face in Assam’s intellectual circle, Professor Dutta is known for his endeavours to build an organic link between academia and the larger society—a passion born of his academic trajectory. His political, cultural and ideological orientations have been moulded by his early encounters with the common citizen’s struggles in the rural setting of his childhood in a remote village of Assam’s Lakhimpur district; his subsequent exposure to the diverse, secular and inclusive academic and cultural atmosphere of Cotton College, Guwahati; and the rich and progressive intellectual setting of the University of Delhi. A bilingual author (in Assamese and English) and a political commentator, Professor Dutta is closely connected with the social and cultural movements in Northeast India and is a popular columnist in several leading Assamese dailies. He is a regular commentator and contributor on Assam’s politics in leading national and international journals, including the Economic & Political Weekly, and serves as the Executive Editor of Natun Padatik, a sociocultural magazine published from Guwahati. A passionate advocate of interdisciplinary social science scholarship, Professor Dutta presently serves as the honorary Chairperson of Brahmaputra Institute of Research and Development (BIRD), Guwahati, and is the President of the Social Science Research Community (SSRC), India—Transcending Boundaries for Sustainable Alternatives. In his two decades of teaching at Gauhati University, he has also served the Gauhati University Teachers’ Association (GUTA) as its general secretary for three tenures, its vice-president for two tenures and its president in the year 2019–2020. A Rotary World Peace Fellow (2009) at the Rotary International Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand, Professor Dutta led the Indian think tank delegation to China in June 2017 on the invitation of the Chinese Embassy in India and the Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi. He also received visiting fellowships at the Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, in March 2017 and in the Department of Political Science, University of Delhi, in March 2020. He is also the recipient of the Second Bhabananda Dutta Memorial Social Science Research Award 2020. Apart from his research publications in reputed international journals like Social Change, Studies in Indian Politics and Advances in Applied Sociology, Professor Dutta has authored and edited several books in both Assamese and English. Some of his significant edited volumes include Human Security in North-East India: Issues and Policies (Ed., 2009); Political Theory: Issues, Concepts and Debates (Ed., 2011); Culture, Ideology, Politics (Ed., 2012); Indian Politics: Issues, Institutions and Processes (Ed., 2013); The Conscientious Statesman: Gaurisankar Bhattacharyya in Assam Legislative Assembly (Ed., 2015); and Asomor Jatiya Jivanat Lakshminath Bezbaruah Aru Anyanya Prabandha (Assamese, 2015).

Review :
As I read Akhil Ranjan Dutta’s Hindutva Regime in Assam: Saffron in the Rainbow, I am reminded of the glorious tradition of writing buranjis or current histories in Assam. The book effectively infuses politics with history—long lost especially in political writings. Dutta views history not in a historicist way but as a practice that also contributes to the making of history. The beauty of the book lies in its quiet elegance, in informing the text with theory without loudly foregrounding it. By 2014, the BJP had already made headway in Assam. Its victory in 2016 marked a major shift in the state’s politics, challenging the consensus that sustained plurality of the state. Akhil Ranjan Dutta’s competent work provides detailed assessment of the BJP’s politics as the ruling party of Assam. Hindutva Regime in Assam: Saffron in the Rainbow is an important contribution because it meticulously shows how the BJP ruptured the consensus on key issues. The book is also important for the assessment of governance that predominantly operates in the dual universe of Hindutva and neoliberalism. Akhil Ranjan Dutta’s Hindutva Regime in Assam: Saffron in the Rainbow is a meticulously researched book on politics in contemporary Assam. With the help of logical and intelligently crafted arguments, Dutta takes the reader along the different routes through which the BJP amassed power in Assam, riding on a populist strategy of appealing to an Assamese pride which overwhelmed the promised ‘rainbow’ with saffron nationalism. By examining the BJP’s strategies of negotiations and alliances in the electoral domain, the ‘resolution’ of contests over citizenship through the NRC and CAA, and the homogenization of plural imaginaries of the Assamese identity, the book explains both the rise of the BJP to power and the challenges it may face in the coming years. Lucid and accessible, this book is an important contribution to the study of politics in India in general and of Assam in particular.   "I very much enjoyed reading the book both because of its clarity and because it addresses core political science concepts. Once started, I could not put it down. I learned a lot about Assam and appreciate the insights the author provided."