Q14 Right Wing Politics

The Conservative Hijack of Indian Civil Society May 6, 2021 by Amna Rana  https://www.democratic-erosion.com/2021/05/06/the-conservative-hijack-of-indian-civil-society/   rise of conservative organizations is supplemented with the Modi government’s crackdown of other NGOs. Specifically, between 2014 and 2019, the Modi government shut down approximately 15,000 foreign NGOs. These organizations are viewed as threats because they highlight “abuses of power, corruption and human rights violations.” These developments have altered the direction of the Indian civil society in favor of conservative organizations, hence providing fertile breeding ground for the advancement of the illiberal Hindu nationalist ideology.   Despite the diffusion of this illiberal ideology through an increasingly conservative civil society, scholars have paid little attention to the role played by a conservative civil society in the rise of the BJP and the RSS. This lack of attention is in line with most scholars’ aversion to any consideration of potential negative aspects of civil society. However, it is important to recognize that civil society, as a third sector, can lean anywhere on the left-right political and/or economic scale (even on its extreme ends), much like the political and the commerce sectors. Studying these trends will also be important for scholars to find ways to prevent civil society from being hijacked by extreme movements.