The Hindutva–Corporate Nexus and the Restructuring of Indian Politics

 

The Hindutva–Corporate Nexus and the Restructuring of Indian Politics

-          SR Darapuri, National President, All India Peoples Front

This paper examines the emergence and consolidation of the Hindutva–corporate nexus in contemporary India and its implications for democratic politics, governance, and political economy. It argues that the alliance between majoritarian cultural nationalism and concentrated corporate capital (Global Finance Capital) has produced a new political configuration marked by policy capture, erosion of democratic institutions, and the displacement of class-based politics by identity-based mobilization. Drawing on political economy and democratic theory, the paper situates this nexus within global trends of authoritarian neoliberalism while highlighting its distinct caste–religious civilizational framing in the Indian context.

1. Introduction

Over the past decade, Indian politics has undergone a significant transformation characterized by the convergence of Hindutva ideology and large corporate capital. While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its affiliated organizations have mobilized society through cultural nationalism and religious majoritarianism, major corporate actors have benefited from a political environment marked by deregulation, privatization, and preferential state support. This paper conceptualizes this convergence as a Hindutva–corporate nexus and examines its impact on India’s democratic institutions, governance structures, and socio-economic relations.

The central argument advanced here is that Hindutva functions as an ideological instrument to manage the social contradictions produced by neoliberal capitalism, while corporate capital provides the material and financial base for the consolidation of majoritarian political power.

2. Conceptualizing the Hindutva–Corporate Nexus

The Hindutva–corporate nexus should be understood as a structural alliance rather than a contingent political arrangement. Its foundations lie in India’s post-1991 neoliberal transition, which weakened redistributive politics and increased economic inequality. As scholars of authoritarian neoliberalism have noted, market-oriented reforms often require non-economic forms of consent generation, including nationalism, cultural identity, and internal enemies.

In the Indian case, Hindutva provides: A civilizational narrative that legitimizes hierarchy and obedience and a mechanism to depoliticize economic distress through cultural polarization.

Corporate capital, in turn, gains: Policy stability and predictability, access to state resources and regulatory forbearance and political insulation from popular accountability.

3. Electoral Politics and Political Finance

A crucial dimension of this nexus is the transformation of electoral politics through corporate financing. The introduction of opaque political funding mechanisms has dramatically altered the balance of electoral competition. Corporate donations increasingly flow to the ruling party, enabling unprecedented campaign expenditure, media dominance, and organizational expansion.

This has two major consequences: Asymmetry in political competition, marginalizing opposition parties and weakening of democratic accountability as policy decisions become insulated from public scrutiny.

Elections remain formally competitive but are substantively shaped by capital-intensive mobilization and media saturation.

4. Media, Discourse, and Manufacturing Consent

Corporate ownership and influence over mainstream media have played a central role in normalizing the Hindutva–corporate alliance. News coverage increasingly prioritizes: National security and cultural identity, spectacularized leadership and delegitimization of dissent.

Investigative journalism on corporate practices, inequality, and policy capture has sharply declined. This transformation reflects a shift from media as a democratic institution to media as a consent-manufacturing apparatus, aligning economic power with ideological hegemony.

5. Governance, Policy Capture, and the Corporate State

The impact of the Hindutva–corporate nexus is most visible in governance and policy-making. Key trends include: Large-scale privatization of public infrastructure and natural resources, dilution of labour protections and environmental regulations and tax concessions, loan restructuring, and selective regulatory enforcement for large corporations.

Simultaneously, the state’s welfare role is redefined. Social provisioning increasingly takes the form of targeted transfers framed as benevolence rather than enforceable rights. This produces a model that combines minimal welfare with maximal market freedom, sustained politically through cultural nationalism.

6. Displacement of Class Politics through Majoritarianism

One of the most significant political consequences of this nexus is the displacement of class-based political discourse. Structural issues such as unemployment, agrarian distress, and informalization of labour are reframed through communal and cultural narratives. Social conflict is redirected away from capital–labour relations toward religious and cultural antagonisms.

This process undermines the possibility of broad-based redistributive coalitions and fragments subaltern solidarities along religious and caste lines, even as economic inequality deepens.

7. Democratic Institutions and Authoritarian Drift

The Hindutva–corporate nexus has contributed to a gradual erosion of democratic institutions. Parliament, regulatory bodies, universities, and civil society organizations face increasing centralization and executive control. Dissenting voices—particularly those challenging corporate projects or majoritarian policies—are frequently criminalized or delegitimized.

Rather than a breakdown of democracy, this represents a managed democracy in which formal institutions persist but their autonomy and deliberative capacity are significantly reduced.

8. Comparative and Global Context

Globally, India’s trajectory aligns with broader patterns of authoritarian neoliberalism observed in countries such as Turkey, Brazil, and Hungary. However, India’s experience is distinctive due to the centrality of caste and religion in structuring political identity. Hindutva embeds neoliberal governance within a civilizational framework that naturalizes hierarchy and exclusion, giving the nexus deeper social roots.

9. Conclusion

The Hindutva–corporate nexus marks a fundamental reconfiguration of Indian politics. By combining majoritarian ideology with concentrated economic power (Global Finance Capital), it reshapes democratic institutions, weakens redistributive politics, and narrows the scope of citizenship. The long-term consequence is a political order in which economic inequality and social exclusion coexist with electoral legitimacy and nationalist consent.

Understanding this nexus is essential for any serious engagement with the future of democracy, social justice, and constitutionalism in India.

Courtesy: ChatGPT