The hubris of the Hindutva government led by the BJP under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is entering its final phase. The youth and student movements emerging across the country, together with the mass support they have mobilised in their struggles against the Modi government, point to a deeper material crisis affecting broad sections of the Indian population. If current political trends continue, the Modi government could face a decisive electoral reckoning in the next general election, scheduled for 2029.
Yet the fall of the Modi government would not necessarily mean the end of Hindutva politics. Nor would a change of government automatically bring an end to the everyday hardships faced by working people, women, students, young people, rural communities, the urban poor, and minorities.
Will India take a different direction in foreign policy and assert itself as a genuinely sovereign country? Will it stand firmly for international peace and diplomacy? Will it repair the damage done to the country’s social, secular, and democratic fabric? Will crony capitalism give way to an economic order that empowers people politically as well as economically? Will the politics of religious hatred finally recede?
These questions are central to imagining India after Modi and the particular brand of Hindutva politics promoted by the RSS and the BJP.
The Economic Costs of Hindutva Politics
Hindutva politics, as an ideological project of the RSS and its political front, the BJP, has profoundly altered India’s domestic political economy and affected its standing abroad. India’s public debt has risen substantially, while households continue to face significant economic pressures. The economic policies of the Modi government, combined with what critics describe as crony capitalism and rent-seeking, have contributed to a concentration of wealth and economic power among the country’s richest corporations and individuals.
The extraordinary expansion of major corporate groups such as Ambani and Adani has become emblematic of this model. Their growing economic and political influence raises fundamental questions about the relationship between the state and big business under the Modi-led BJP government. The result, critics argue, is an economic model that combines elements of contemporary corporate capitalism with older structures of privilege, while millions of ordinary people continue to struggle with unemployment, insecure livelihoods, inflation, indebtedness, and inadequate public services.
India needs an economic alternative that places human welfare, employment, public investment, and economic equality at the centre of development.
Defending India’s Plural Social Fabric
On the social and cultural front, Hindutva politics represents a profound challenge to India’s traditions of pluralism, secularism, scientific thought, and cultural diversity. India has historically been home to communities of different faiths, languages, cultures, and social traditions. Persecuted and displaced communities have found refuge in India, and successive generations have contributed to the country’s remarkably diverse cultural landscape.
India’s strength has never been its uniformity. It lies in its capacity to accommodate difference and allow multiple identities to coexist.
The RSS’s ideological project of constructing India around the idea of a predominantly Hindu national identity, often expressed through the formulation of “Hindu, Hindi, and Hindutva,” offers a narrower conception of the country. Such a project risks diminishing the multiple identities through which Indians understand themselves and eroding the composite culture that has developed over centuries.
The political challenge after Modi, therefore, cannot simply be electoral. It must also involve rebuilding social trust and defending the constitutional principles of equality, secularism, fraternity, and individual dignity.
Reclaiming an Independent Foreign Policy
India’s foreign policy under the Modi government has also generated serious questions about the country’s international independence and diplomatic traditions. India once sought to position itself as a voice for peace, anti-colonial solidarity, and the interests of developing countries. The Non-Aligned Movement represented an important expression of that independent outlook.
Under Modi, however, India has moved closer to the United States and its strategic partners while simultaneously deepening relations with Israel and major European powers. Critics argue that this has weakened India’s ability to pursue an autonomous foreign policy and diminished its credibility among countries of the Global South.
A post-Modi India should not replace one form of dependency with another. It should restore strategic autonomy and revive an independent diplomatic tradition rooted in peace, sovereignty, international cooperation, and solidarity with countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
India’s historical experience of colonialism should make it especially sensitive to the dangers of great-power domination. Strategic independence should therefore remain a central principle of Indian foreign policy.
Beyond Modi: Defeating Hindutva Politically and Socially
The Hindutva regime represents a deeply consequential period in India’s political, social, cultural, and economic history. Its political strength cannot be underestimated. The RSS and BJP possess extensive organisational networks, substantial financial resources, and a committed electoral base.
At the same time, millions of Indians continue to oppose Hindutva politics and defend the constitutional vision of India. This provides the basis for a broader democratic project centred on citizenship rights, individual dignity, social equality, and constitutional democracy.
This is the context in which Indians must begin to reimagine the country after Modi. There are no shortcuts. But there are alternatives.
On the economic front, India needs to rebuild a strong welfare state and pursue redistributive policies that protect working people. Such policies would also strengthen domestic demand and provide a foundation for sustainable economic growth. Greater investment in manufacturing, small and medium-sized enterprises, large-scale industry, infrastructure, and public services can create employment and reduce poverty.
Investment in research and development, education, and healthcare is equally essential. A country aspiring to become a major economic power cannot underinvest in its people. Scientific research, technological innovation, quality public education, and universal healthcare should be treated as investments in India’s future rather than merely as expenditures.
India should also strengthen the cooperative sector in banking, insurance, agriculture, and commerce. A diversified financial system with strong public and cooperative institutions can help improve economic stability and expand access to credit.
Progressive taxation should form another pillar of this programme. Higher taxes on corporate profits and accumulated wealth, combined with stronger tax enforcement, could generate resources for universal welfare programmes addressing poverty, unemployment, homelessness, old age, and ill health.
Social Reform and Secular Democracy
Economic transformation alone will not be enough. India also needs a sustained programme of social reform.
Social harmony requires confronting caste discrimination, gender inequality, and religious fundamentalism. The entrenched hierarchies associated with the Brahminical caste order must be challenged alongside patriarchal structures that continue to constrain women and marginalised communities.
A democratic India must defend scientific temper, secularism, equality, and social justice. Religious fundamentalism of any variety should not be allowed to determine the rights of citizens or the character of the state. Indeed, religious polarisation can create the social conditions in which majoritarian politics flourishes.
The struggle against Hindutva therefore cannot be reduced to opposing one political party. It must also involve rebuilding a democratic and egalitarian social order.
Building a Democratic Political Alternative
Politically, secular, democratic, progressive, and egalitarian forces need to develop a broad coalition capable of presenting an alternative to Hindutva. Such a coalition should be built around a common maximum programme rather than narrow partisan interests.
Its purpose should extend beyond winning elections. It should seek to transform the political, economic, and cultural conditions that allow majoritarian politics to thrive.
This requires confronting the ideological foundations of the RSS and critically examining its historical and political record. At the same time, opposition to Hindutva must be rooted in a positive vision of India rather than simply in hostility towards the BJP.
The alternative must tell Indians what kind of country they can build together: democratic rather than authoritarian, secular rather than sectarian, egalitarian rather than hierarchical, and economically just rather than dominated by concentrated corporate power.
Restoring Strategic Autonomy
In foreign policy, India should reclaim the principles of strategic autonomy associated with the Non-Aligned Movement. This does not mean withdrawing from the world or refusing partnerships. It means ensuring that India’s relationships with the United States, Europe, Israel, Russia, China, and other powers are determined by India’s own national interests rather than by the strategic priorities of any external power.
India should deepen cooperation with Asian, African, and Latin American countries and strengthen solidarity among nations of the Global South. Its foreign policy should prioritise peace, diplomacy, development, sovereignty, and opposition to colonialism and imperial domination in all their contemporary forms.
India’s place in the world should be defined not by dependence on great powers but by its ability to act independently and contribute to a more peaceful and equitable international order.
The India That Can Emerge
These common maximum programmes are not utopian fantasies. They are practical starting points for a broader transformation of Indian society, economy, and political life.
India possesses enormous natural, intellectual, and human resources. It cannot fulfil its potential while large sections of its population remain poor, unemployed, insecure, or excluded from the benefits of economic growth.
The way forward is therefore not merely a change of government. It is a transformation in the relationship between the state, economy, and society—one that places equality, liberty, and fraternity at the centre of national development, as envisioned in the Constitution of India.
Reimagining India after Modi means imagining an India in which citizenship is not determined by religion, prosperity is not reserved for the few, democracy is not reduced to periodic elections, and foreign policy is not subordinated to great-power interests.
The challenge is immense. But so is the possibility.
India’s future depends on defeating majoritarianism and building a democratic, secular, egalitarian, and socially just republic.
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*Academic based in UK
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