Hindutva Regime in Assam
Saffron in the Rainbow
- Akhil Ranjan Dutta - Professor in the Department of Political Science, Gauhati University, Assam, India
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.
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.”