The Rise of Hindu Nationalism: A Catalyst for India’s Strategic Pivot towards Israel

Abstract

Hindu nationalism has permanently altered the state of Indian politics, a nation once hailed as the world’s most populous democracy. The alarming erosion of India’s democratic institutions, under the guidance of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and India’s longest-serving prime minister, Narendra Modi, holds far-reaching implications for the future of Indian society. The nation’s egalitarian mission is likely of a bygone era. India’s descent into authoritarianism mirrors similar political developments in the State of Israel, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s religiously fundamentalist and ultranationalist coalition. As the two countries enter a new era in their once-obscure partnership, their history of collaboration deserves further exploration. Though India incorporates the world’s largest Muslim minority population, existing research has not sufficiently confronted whether India’s illiberal domestic policies, framed within the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, conform to the global trend against Islamic extremism or are explicitly Islamophobic in nature. Nor has existing research adequately addressed India’s official stances post-October 7th, as the consequences of the 2023 Israel-Hamas war have reverberated throughout the multiethnic state. This paper will argue that the sudden development of India’s support for Israel is a manifestation of the rise in anti-Islamic Hindu nationalism that has consumed Indian politics and which continues to push the country in a Westward direction.